Cuba cancela licencia a poderosa corporación canadiense [Tokmakjian Group]

Cafefuerte

Por Wilfredo Cancio Isla

El gobierno cubano canceló oficialmente las operaciones del poderoso Grupo Tokmakjian, una de las mayores empresas extranjeras que operó por los últimos 25 años en la isla.

Una resolución del Ministerio del Comercio Exterior y la Inversión Extranjera -publicada en la Gaceta Oficial- indicó que decidió revocar la licencia del conglomerado canadiense por ser presentada extemporáneamente la renovación, el pasado 8 de marzo, y por violaciones incurridas en sus actividades comerciales en territorio cubano.

"En el proceso de análisis de la solicitud formulada por la citada entidad se ha concluido desestimar la misma, al haberse comprobado la realización, en el territorio nacional por la sucursal de esta y sus directivos, de actividades que no se corresponden con las autorizadas por la Licencia que oportunamente le fuera otorgada, las que resultan contrarias a los principios y ética que deben caracterizar la actividad comercial y contravienen el ordenamiento jurídico cubano", indica el decreto ministerial, divulgado el pasado 18 de abril.

El documento es la primera declaración oficial del gobierno cubano sobre el escándalo de corrupción que desembocó en el cierre de las oficinas de la compañía en La Habana, así como en el arresto de su principal ejecutivo, el empresario canadiense Cy Tokmakjian, a finales del 2011.

Enmarañada trama de corrupción

En septiembre del 2011, agentes de la Seguridad del Estado ocuparon y sellaron los locales de la firma en el cuarto piso del edificio Barcelona del Miramar Trade Center de la Habana. Tokmakjian fue detenido y permanece desde entonces bajo cuestodia de las autoridades cubanas mientras se investiga una enmarañada trama de corrupción y actividades ilícitas. 

La medida fue acompañada entonces por una comunicación del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y el Consejo de Estado, enviada a las empresas cubanas, para que detuvieran todas sus operaciones comerciales con el Grupo Tokmakjian.

Pero hasta el momento no se había hecho un anuncio oficial sobre el asunto por parte de las autoridades cubanas. Tokmakjian, de 71 años, permanece aún bajo arresto, sin que se le hayan formulado cargos.

Inicialmente estuvo detenido en una casa de seguridad en La Habana, pero a comienzos del pasado año fue trasladado a la prisión de La Condesa, destinada a extranjeros.

A mediados del pasado año, un alto ejecutivo de la compañía reveló que el gobierno cubano les había permitido reiniciar ciertas operaciones en Cuba. El Grupo Tokmakjian había renovado su licencia ante los registros de la Cámara de Comercio de Cuba en mayo del 2010, un año antes de estallar la investigación gubernamental sobre sus transacciones.

Pero el decreto firmado a comienzos de este mes por Rodrigo Malmierca, ministro del Comercio Exterior y la Inversión Extranjera, marca el portazo final a la presencia de la corporación canadiense en la isla.

Millonarias operaciones

Radicado en Ontario, el Grupo Takmakjian era la segunda empresa extranjera con mayores operaciones comerciales en Cuba después de Sherritt International. Facturaba anualmente unos $80 millones de dólares en ventas de equipamiento para la construcción y la minería.

La compañía era además la distribuidora exclusiva de Hyundai en Cuba y estaba asociada con otras dos empresas para el remplazo de motores de equipos de transporte de la era soviética.

Las autoridades cubanas tienen también bajo arresto a un segundo empresario canadiense, Sarkis Yacoubian, presidente de Tri-Star Caribbean, desde julio del 2011. La firma de Yacoubian era considerada la competencia más fuerte del Grupo Tokmakjian, y realizaba negocios con numerosos organismos y empresas estatales cubanas en los sectores de la construcción, la minería y la salud pública.

Ambos empresarios -de origen armenio- comenzaron juntos sus negocios en Cuba y luego decidieron seperarse. Tokmakjian firmó su primer contrato con el gobierno cubano en 1988.

El Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Canadá señaló que conoce la situación de los dos emporesarios retenidos en Cuba y que sus respectivos casos están siendo monitoreados.

Versiones extraoficiales consideran que la investigación sobre las empresas canadienses es de gran envergadura, pues vinculó a numerosos ministros y funcionarios de alto nivel, así como a un tercer empresario británico de origen libanés, Amado Fakhre, ejecutivo de la firma Coral Capital Group Ltd, todos aparentemente asociados a  transacciones ilegales en la expansión de la industria de níquel y cobalto en el oriente de Cuba.

Canada & US Anglican financed Cuban Church controlled by the government

what is doing a bolivian-born priest in cuba? she is married to who?
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episcopaldigitalnetwork

Episcopal Diocese of Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio and a community worker with prized tomato from a community garden in Itabo, one of the diocese’s projects that promote self-sufficiency. Photo: Ali Symons/General Synod Communications

[Anglican Journal] A proposal to fund an office of integrated development for the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba will be submitted for approval this April to a program review committee of Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF).

The office will launch a three-year “capacity-building” project to train 25 community leaders annually, at the end of which they are expected to create a project proposal for their locality, said Adele Finney, executive director of PWRDF, the Anglican Church of Canada’s relief and development agency. Fourteen projects will eventually be chosen for funding by the diocese.

The U.S.-based Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) agency is expected to also fund the office over a three-year period, said Archdeacon Michael Thompson, the Anglican Church of Canada’s general secretary. “What a wonderful rich network of Anglicans working together to make a new thing happen,” Thompson said in his report to the spring meeting of CoGS March 14-17.

“One of the exciting things about this is that the PWRDF’s strategic plan has a lot about dynamic partnerships” and this is one of them, said Finney in an interview. “There are all sorts of connections that can hopefully not only breathe new life and new work in Cuba, but also connect us in new ways.”

These connections involve the primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, who chairs both the Metropolitan Council of Cuba and the PWRDF board. But other parts of the Canadian church, among them the Diocese of Niagara, also enjoy a long-standing companion relationship with the Cuban diocese, Finney noted. Most recently, the Diocese of Niagara — through PWRDF — sent about $30,000 for Hurricane Sandy relief to Cuba.

Last year, Diocese of Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado Del Carpio attended the Sacred Circle, the triennial meeting of indigenous Anglicans in Canada. Delgado, herself an indigenous person from Bolivia, “was profoundly moved by the circle, as were the people by her ministry,” Finney noted.

Jose Zarate, PWRDF Latin America/Caribbean coordinator, was actively involved in helping the diocese establish its proposal for the office of integrated development, said Finney. He is expected to sit at its advisory council — along with his Episcopal Relief & Development counterpart — if PWRDF participation is approved.

Thompson said the relationship between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Cuban diocese is an example of “faithful partnership in a global communion.” The relationship began when former primate Archbishop Ted Scott “took an interest in how the Cuban church, separated from its province [the U.S.-based Episcopal Church] by the economic blockade and travel restrictions, could sustain a sense of participation in the wider Anglican Communion,” he said.

This relationship involves Canadian leadership in the Metropolitan Council of Cuba, “which offers support and counsel to the bishop and people of the Cuban church,” explained Thompson. Aside from Hiltz, council members also include Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop John Holder, primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. Thompson acts as secretary of the Metropolitan Council, which typically meets a day before the Cuba diocese’s annual synod.

The Diocese of Cuba’s music festival, which some Canadian Anglicans have supported through “Gifts for Mission,” the Anglican Church of Canada’s gift guide to support ministries in Canada and overseas, is having a positive impact, Thompson also reported. Held for a week each summer in the Anglican cathedral in Havana, the festival “has had a dramatic impact on the song of the church, a song that we encountered and that lifted our spirits at the diocesan synod,” he said.

Cuba's regimen allowed a Canadian sex offender travel to Cuba 31 times

capitolhillcubans

Toronto man James McTurk, 78/ Read on Toronto Star

Part Two of the joint investigative report by The Toronto Star and The Miami Herald:

Foreign tourists, especially Canadians and Spaniards, are travelling to Cuba in surprising numbers for sex — and not just with adult prostitutes. They are finding underage girls and boys, a joint investigation by The Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald has found.

Havana’s conspicuous scenes of street-level prostitution are the outward face of a hidden prostitution trade in minors, some as young as four, some with families complicit in their exploitation, the newspapers found.

Cuba holds unique allure for Western sex tourists. It is closer and cheaper than other sex destinations, such as Thailand. And HIV rates are lower than in other Caribbean sex tourism hot-spots, such as the Dominican Republic or Haiti.

While the size of the island’s underage sex market remains a mystery — the communist government denies it is a problem and fosters the image of an island free of the social ills that plague other nations — it clearly goes on.

• A confidential Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) report in 2011 showed Cuba was one of the main destinations in the Americas for Canadian sex predators, along with the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Brazil and Mexico. More than one million Canadian tourists visited Cuba last year.

• Cuba’s government “made no known efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex,” noted the 2012 version of the U.S. State Department’s annual report on global Trafficking in Persons (TIP).

• The 2003 version noted that some officials of Cuban state enterprises such as restaurants and hotels “turn a blind eye to this [child] exploitation because such activity helps to win hard currency.”

• A dispatch by U.S. diplomats in Havana in 2009 noted that “some Cuban children are reportedly pushed into prostitution by their families, exchanging sex for money, food or gifts,” but gave no overall numbers.

Pimps, cabbies and tourist hotel staffers can procure discreet meetings with underage prostitutes, according to the RCMP report.

“That’s prohibited here in the hotel,” a security chief at a Havana hotel told a journalist posing as a tourist in search of underage girls. But, he added helpfully, they can be found “in houses waiting for the call from pimps.”

Clients can take them to private homes, known as “casas particulares,” the security man noted, where tourists can rent rooms for $10 a night and do “whatever you want. Orgies, anything.”

The Castro Regime and Child-Sex Tourism

capitolhillcubans

Riddle me this:

The Castro regime can track down a flash-drive or a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) from the most remote home of a pro-democracy activist.

The Castro regime can track down an older American man who travels to Cuba to help ordinary citizens connect to the Internet and exercise their fundamental right to receive and impart information.

Yet, the Castro regime cannot track down older Canadian and European men that travel to Cuba to sexually prey on young children in "casa particulares," which it closely monitors?

Please.

Fortunately, U.S. travelers are not contributing to this problem, for as The Miami Herald notes this morning:

"Perhaps the key reason for the lack of U.S. sex tourism to Cuba is Washington’s trade embargo on the communist-ruled island, which has limited travel there for more than half a century.

Cuban Americans can visit anytime, but they know 'that the police can throw them in jail anytime' and that U.S. consular officials in Havana 'cannot protect them,' said Cason, now the mayor of Coral Gables.

Non-Cuban Americans are barred from tourist trips and can go only on group “educational” trips that are tightly guided and can cost upwards of $5,000 a week. Only about 67,000 went to Cuba in 2011. In contrast, more than one million Canadians visited the island in 2012, and a week in Varadero beach can cost them as little as $600."

Who do you think the people of a future democratic Cuba are going to recall as their friends -- the Canadians and Europeans that took advantage of their suffering or the Americans that stood up for their freedom?

Canadian dies in Varadero, Cuba

680news

VARADERO, Cuba – A Canadian died in Varadero, Cuba, Foreign Affairs confirmed to 680News.

Foreign Affairs would only confirm the death of a Canadian citizen but did not release a cause of death.

The identity of the tourist and province of origin have not been released. However, there are reports the victim is from Montreal.

680News learned of a death after Kirk Nesbitt, the vice-president of engineering at Rogers Radio, witnessed a drowning at a beach.

“There were quite a few people on the beach sunbathing but only one person in the water,” he said.

“Very shortly after we had arrived there, the fellow in the water started waving his arms and we could hear him yelling.”

“Three [lifeguards] went running into the water to go after him and the waves were quite high.”

“You could see him floating face down. The lifeguard had to give up and let go of him to get in safely himself. The other two lifeguards were never able to make it anywhere close to him,” he said.

According to Nesbitt, a Good Samaritan also went to the victim’s aid. The man, believed to be from Cuba, drowned.

Canadian consular officials in Varadero are working with Cuban authorities, according to reporter Cormac MacSweeney.

La sociedad civil cubana para Canada [Ministro de Exteriores se reune con agentes]

La Embajada de Canada en Cuba publica una breve nota de la reunion sostenida por el ministro de relaciones exteriores de ese pais con la "sociedad civil" cubana. no  relacionan los nombres de los que el honorable ministro considera representantes de la sociedad civil en cuba, pero no es dificil identificar en las fotos a rafael hernandez, agente de la contrainteligencia cubana desde los tiempos del cea [centro de estudios america del comite central del partido] y director de la revista temas; y a omar everleny perez villanueva del centro de estudios de la economia cubana [universidad de la habana], explicador "akademico" oficial de la actualizacion del modelo economico neocastrista en cuanta universidad norteamericana tenga la oportunidad y por ello -al menos-, agente de influencias en el exterior. 

no leen la prensa en la oficina del honorable -como es obligatorio referirse en canada a estas personalidades- ministro de relaciones exteriores canuck, o cierran los ojos y van a lo que les conviene.

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everleny y rafael [1ro y 2do de izq. a der.]

 

baird con everleny

con adela dworin, la presidente del jewish community centre que testifico contra alan gross

la nota de la embajada:

February 15, 2013 - Havana - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird participates in a round-table discussion with members of Cuban civil society. The exchange gave the Minister an opportunity to discuss Cuba’s economic liberalization process and prospects of this leading to greater political freedom on the island, which remains under authoritarian control.

Although there have been some advances with respect to human rights in recent years, much remains to be done.

The Minister conveyed Canada’s view that all Cubans should have a role in building for their country a better, brighter and more prosperous future. This meeting was a chance for the Minister to hear what is being done by civil society groups and to get their assessment of the current human rights situation in Cuba. He pledged Canada’s support for efforts to secure freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the only remaining Communist country in the Western hemisphere.

Canada Gave Cuban Dissidents Silent Treatment

Capitolhillcubans

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird talked a big-game before heading to Cuba last week.

Prior to leaving, Baird's spokesman said "he [would] use this opportunity to press the need for economic liberalization and respect for human rights."

One columnist in Canada appropriately asked, "human rights organizations in Cuba and abroad have reported an increase in the number of arbitrary detentions for political reasons over the past year (up to more than a thousand a month). Shouldn't our government condemn that publicly, and depart from a long bipartisan policy of silence on Cuba?"

Well, John Baird went to Cuba, and did exactly that.

He met with Castro regime officials to discuss tourism, natural resources and mining investments -- then quietly got on the plane and left. 

Baird didn't have the decency to meet with a single pro-democracy activist, not The Ladies in White, not independent journalists, not bloggers.  Nada.

It's not that he didn't have time to meet with anyone.  After all, the Venezuelan government cancelled his visit there, which was scheduled after the Havana stop.

He didn't do it because he didn't want to risk Canada's business deals with the Castro regime.

(Let's be clear: Canada does not have a single business partnership in Cuba with any entity that is not owned and operated by the Castro regime.  Cubans are prohibited from engaging in foreign commerce -- it's an exclusive monopoly of the dictatorship.)

John Baird gave Cuban dissidents the same treatment Canadian tourists and businessmen have been giving the Cuban people for two decades -- a shameful snub.

Sadly, this is what many advocates of normalizing relations with Cuba would like to see the U.S. do as well.

So what "influence" has doing business and sucking up to the Castro regime "bought" the Canadians?

None.

To the contrary, it has allowed the Castro regime to blackmail Canada into a collusive silence

Canada Foreign Minister on Cuba

The Canadian Press 

In Cuba, Baird said he had frank discussions with his counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, who at 54 is a political spring chicken compared the octogenarian holdovers from the 1959 revolution who still occupy high offices.

Since taking charge, Raul Castro has allowed a series of small, free market reforms, and eased travel restrictions on Cubans.

“I think there’s a long way to go,” said Baird. “They’re beginning to make some significant economic reform, so I think there’s some reason for optimism there.”

He also said Cuba is beginning a transition to new leadership.

“There is beginning to be a change of the guard in the cabinet, and among the senior leadership — just a beginning — I think that gives us some reason for optimism,” he said.

“Obviously, we want to see people in Cuba live in freedom and prosperity.”

Baird said Canada still opposes Cuba’s return to the Organization of American States when it holds its next summit in 2015, saying the country needs to go further on its reforms. Canada and the U.S. oppose the return of Cuba to the 35-country Western Hemisphere club.

But Canada supports Cuba’s calls for the United States to end its five-decade long economic embargo.

“Obviously, we don’t share views with our closest friend and ally on that issue,” said Baird, who noted that the Obama administration has eased some of the provisions of the embargo in recent years.

Despite the embargo, Baird said he was surprised by the U.S. presence in Havana.

The American Interest Office, he said, which houses U.S. diplomats, “is the biggest foreign office in the country. There were Americans everywhere I went — in the elevator at the hotel.”

Canadian shame: Canada legitimiza el Neocastrismo de Castro

capitulo ignominioso para la politica exterior canadiense cuando pasa por alto los mas de 54 anos de crimenes y violaciones de los derechos humanos de los castros, por sentarse al convite de las inversiones a que lo convoca el dictador raul castro.

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La Habana, 16 feb (EFE).- El ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Canadá, John Baird, y su homólogo cubano, Bruno Rodríguez, se pronunciaron hoy en La Habana por "mantener e impulsar" los vínculos bilaterales en áreas como el comercio, la inversión y el turismo, informaron medios locales.

Baird y Rodríguez sostuvieron hoy conversaciones oficiales en la sede de la Cancillería en La Habana, donde también trataron temas de la agenda regional y multilateral, indicó la agencia estatal Prensa Latina.

Según la fuente, el ministro canadiense se refirió a "las potencialidades existentes para diversificar las actuales relaciones económico-comerciales y de cooperación" bilateral.

Por su parte, el canciller cubano destacó el lugar de Canadá como principal emisor de turistas hacia la isla, que en 2012 recibió a más de un millón de visitantes de ese país.

Canadá ocupa además el tercer puesto en cuanto a la cantidad de inversiones en diversos sectores estratégicos de Cuba, como minería, agricultura, turismo y producción de alimentos.

Durante el encuentro de cancilleres, Cuba también agradeció al país norteamericano por su apoyo contra el bloqueo económico y comercial que Estados Unidos aplica a la isla desde 1962.

Baird llegó a La Habana ayer para una visita de trabajo que comenzó ese mismo día con una reunión con el vicepresidente y coordinador de las reformas del modelo económico cubano, Marino Murillo.

Cuba es la segunda escala de la gira latinoamericana que el ministro canadiense inició en México, y que después continuará por Perú, Panamá, Venezuela y la República Dominicana.

Se disparan las acciones de Castro en el mercado inversionista mundial

las acciones en los mercados inversionistas internacionales de subcastro el administrador de la finca biranica han subido a niveles jamas sonados por el magno paciente de su hermano, luego de su proclamacion como presidente pro temporare de la celac.

el canuquito biranico en medio del mar caribe se multiplica cientos de veces en el feudo por demas expandible servido en bandeja bolivariana con la anuencia complice de los sebastian pineras de letrinoamerica.

el premier canadiense tomo la delantera y mando a la'bana a su ministro de exteriores algo que no ocurria desde el ano 1998, mientras putin envia a su partner Dmitri Medvédev la semana próxima >>

Derechos Humanos y Negocios: Canada, Cuba y la Celac [Update]

confirmando la opinion inicial de los propositos de Canada, Cuba y la Celac en la gira latinoamericana del canciller canadiense john baird, el anfitrion del mismo es el [sub]zar de las reformas economicas de kubichelandia, marino murillo.

el  granma  da cuenta de ello en los siguientes terminos:  "Durante el encuentro, ambas partes dialogaron sobre el favorable desarrollo y las perspectivas de las relaciones bilaterales, en el ámbito comercial, la inversión y el turismo".

una nota del gobierno de canada habia senalado que  "En Cuba y Venezuela, Baird se centrará especialmente en la democracia, los derechos humanos y la liberalización económica"; igualmente el ministro señaló que "como parte de nuestra política exterior, también vamos a entregar mensajes fuertes sobre las reformas económicas y un mayor respeto por los derechos humanos y la democracia, según corresponda".
el comunicado canuck tambien afirma que ademas de reuniones con bruno rodriquez y otros funcionarios, el ministro baird "se reunirá con organizaciones de la sociedad civil y miembros de la comunidad de negocios canadienses".

baird que es canadiense pero no idiota, tiene una clara comprension que la sociedad civil castrista nada tiene que ver con la existente en canada y es el conjunto de las "correas de transmision" conformadas por los cdr, la fmc, la uneac and so on. 

el gobierno conservador de canada tiene la oportunidad de sentar un precedente de politica exterior pragmatica pero responsable que, sin perder oportunidades para el desarrollo de las relaciones comerciales, se atenga a los principios basicos de la democracia y los derechos humanos en sus negociaciones frente a un regimen totalitario que se renueva para no desaparecer.

canada tiene la oportunidad de fortalecer su prestigio internacional pero tambien asume el riesgo de engrosar la larga lista de ignominias si acepta acriticamente la farsa que le tienen preparada.
solo recordar que en el pasado mes abril en la cumbre de las americas el primer ministro canadiense Stephen Harper expreso: “We do believe that the Summit of the Americas should be restricted to democratic countries and that Cuba should be encouraged to come as a democratic country in the future”. estamos en las visperas de conocer cuan firmes son las convicciones del honorable prime minister of canada.

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)