EEUU implanta nuevas medidas que facilitan los viajes a Cuba

NBC News.com

Decades of U.S. trade and travel restrictions on Cuba will come to an end on Friday, the government announced in the first tangible step towards restoring diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana.

New rules will allow Americans to travel to the country without a license - as long as they go for approved reasons - and use their U.S. credit or debit cards, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Treasury said in a statement.

Cubans living in the U.S. will also have their quarterly remittances increased from $500 to $2,000 per quarter, allowing them to send home more money.

Officials said approved reasons for travel include business or family visits, and that tourism from the U.S. to Cuba was still prohibited by Congress.

Travel agents and airlines will be authorized to provide services without needing a specific permit under the new rules. That means U.S. airlines could soon be free to launch normal scheduled flights to Cuba.

"Today's announcement takes us one step closer to replacing out of date policies that were not working and puts in place a policy that helps promote political and economic freedom for the Cuban people," Treasury secretary Jacob Lew said in a news release.

"Cuba has real potential for economic growth and by increasing travel, commerce, communications, and private business development between the United States and Cuba, the United States can help the Cuban people determine their own future."

However, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) called the new rules "a windfall for the Castro regime" and said the recent deal "is enriching a tyrant and his regime at the expense of U.S. national interests and the Cuban people."

Grandes Ligas: Yoan López firma con los Diamondbacks de Arizona

Café Fuerte

El lanzador pinero Yoan López

Por Eric Reynoso

El lanzador pinero Yoan López acaba de firmar un contrato con los Diamondbacks de Arizona por una cifra récord para un jugador internacional con menos de cinco temporadas jugadas en la pelota de su país: $8.27 millones.

La bonificación de López, de 21 años, fue confirmada por el gerente general de la franquicia, Dave Stewart, quien dijo que el contrato solo espera por un examen físico al atleta. Es el mayor acuerdo financiero con un pelotero cubano bajo las nuevas directrices para contratación de figuras internacionales.

Los Diamondbacks ganaron en la porfía entre otros cuatro equipos que buscaban los servicios de López, una de las gemas en bruto de la pelota cubana. Los Yankees, los Dodgers, los Padres y los Rojos entraron en la carrera final por el lanzador cubano, que escapó rumbo a Haití y se radicó en República Dominicana el pasado año. Una ruta ya más que conocida por sus compatriotas del béisbol y las fugas.

El Convenio Colectivo de Trabajo de Grandes Ligas estipula que cada equipo tiene $700,000 dólares y un bono basado en el registro del equipo durante la temporada anterior, que de rebasarlo está sujeto a un  impuesto del 100 por ciento.

Una transición suave

Sin embargo, todo indica que López rechazó un bono de $9 millones con los Yankees, considerando que Arizona sería un mejor lugar para hacer su transición más sosegada, con menos presiones y exigencias.

Al parecer fueron decisivas las gestiones de Stewart y de Tony La Russa, jefe de los asesores técnicos del equipo de Arizona. Los D-balcks han contratado al entrenador y ex lanzador cubano Ariel Prieto para ayudar en la preparación y los ajustes de López, que estará en el entramiento de primavera con la opción de ganarse un puesto en la nómina.

Para los D-backs se trataba de asegurar el  negocio, pues están urgidos a toda costa de lanzadores para la venidera temporada, considerando que dos de sus astros de la lomita,  Patrick Corbin y el semicubano Bronson Arroyo están en rehabilitación con cirugía del codo desde el pasado verano y sus respectivos regresos al equipo están bajo una incógnita.

Es como tener dos selecciones de primera ronda en el mismo año”, dijo Stewart, en referencia a la anterior inversión cubana de los Diamondbacks, que firmaron al toletero Yasmani Tomás por $68.5 millones a fines del 2014.

López, un espigado pitcher de 6.4 pies, tira una recta cortada y un buen cambio, tiene una curva muy efectiva y domina un slider que debe perfeccionar todavía, pero su mejor recurso es una bola rápida de 95 a 100 millas.

Caldo cubano en ebullición

El caldo cubano en Grandes Ligas sigue en ebullición. La pasada semana los Angelinos de Los Angeles confirmaron la entrega de un bono de $8 millones a Roberto Baldoquín, un prometedor jugador de 20 años que jugó tres temporadas con Las Tunas pero que tiene todavía todo por demostrar en la pelota de altos quilates. Y a finales de diciembre, el jardinero villaclareño Dian Toscano, de 25, recibió un contrato de $6 millones por cuatro años con los Bravos de Atlanta, con la opción de extenderlo a cinco años por $1.5 millones más.

Son buenas noticias para sus coterráneos de Isla de la Juventud, el segunda base Andy Ibánez, de 21 años, y el lanzador Jorge Despaigne, de 23, que aguardan aún por firmar con un equipo después de ser declarados agentes libres. También para el cienfueguero Yoan Moncada, de 19, tal vez el prospecto más codiciado entre todos en el mercado.

Lo cierto es que los cazatalentos están urgando a fondo en la pelota cubana, pero centrados no tanto en las figuras establecidas de la selección nacional como en los novísimos que puedan representar jugadores de éxito a mediano y largo plazos.

Unos 70 jugadores cubanos aguardan aún con el permiso de la Oficina de Control de Bienes Extranjeros (OFAC) del Departamentov del Tesoro, o esperan por su otorgamiento para entrar al ruedo de las Grandes Ligas.

Ya vienen llegando

A estos habrá que sumar pronto al lanzador Yunieski García Viera, de 23 años, quien escapó recientemente de la isla, dejando colgada su participación con Artemisa en la actual 54 Serie Nacional.  Y los también ex miembros de la preselección nacional, el lanzador Julio Alfredo Martínez, de 23, y el catcher Lorenzo Quintana, de 25, quienes fueron sancionados por pedir la baja del equipo Pinar del Río en medio de la contienda por el campeonato.

Martínez y Quintana están sujetos a restricciones migratorias, pero se cae de la mata que abandonarán la isla en la primera oportunidad, igual que el matancero Guillermo Heredia, a quien la Comisión Nacional de Béisbol lo ha suspendido por cuatro años. Heredia, de 23, es uno de los 15 mejores prospectos residentes en Cuba que han fichado los cazatalentos estadounidenses y su aparición en la pelota estadounidense parece ser solo una cuestión de tomar el camino recorrido por los demás.

La pasada semana, el flamante Comisionado de Béisbol, Heriberto Suárez acaba de afirmar en efectivamente el “fenómeno migratorio” ha golpeado a la pelota cubana, pero que los campeonatos nacionales no dejarán de tener brillo. La tarea, señor Suárez, será cuesta arriba y no creo que haya mucho que hacer para componer una batea que hace agua hace rato.

Hoy 14 de enero, hace 53 años, se estaban inaugurando las series nacionales, con Fidel Castro bate en mano, prometiendo el fin del profesionalismo y tejiendo un sueño que se ha convertido en pesadilla para la dirigencia deportiva y pasado imperfecto para las jóvenes generaciones de jugadores.

Son las leyes del mercado y del sentido común. Si no, pregúntele a Yoan López.

Crimenes y desapariciones cometidos por guardafronteras cubanos en Guantanamo

PalenqueVision

Cuba paraiso de delincuentes: Cubanos roban en EEUU y escapan a la isla

AmericaTeVeCanal41

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

Ver tambien: 

http://cubaindependiente.blogspot.ca/2015/01/the-cuban-criminal-pipeline-part-i_10.html

http://cubaindependiente.blogspot.ca/2015/01/the-cuban-criminal-pipeline-part-ii.html

Llegan ocho balseros cubanos a Virginia Key

AmericaTeVeCanal41

Expelled Spy Likely To Led Migration, Normalization Talks With US

cubaconfidential

Josefina Vidal thrown out of the US in May 2003 for espionage

By Chris Simmons

The next round of US-Cuban discussions will be held on January 21 and 22 in Havana. Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Lee is expected to lead the U.S. delegation at the migration talks on the 21st, while Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson will lead at the normalization talks on Jan. 22nd.

The Cuban delegation is expected to be led by Josefina Vidal, director of the North American Affairs Division within Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vidal led the previous round of migration talks last July in Washington, D.C. A member of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Central Committee, Vidal was thrown out of the US in May 2003 as part of a mass expulsion of Havana’s spy-diplomats. For five years, her office also played a central role in the negotiations regarding the return of USAID contractor Alan Gross

Despite Detente, Search for Art Looted in Cuba Could Take Years

voanews

Recovered paintings are pictured during a news conference at FBI Headquarters in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 19, 2014.

MIAMI—When Gil Marmol and his family fled Cuba in 1961 the revolutionary government seized 17 paintings that they left behind, including two watercolors by Mexico's Diego Rivera.

Years later, he discovered that one of the works was smuggled abroad and then sold at auction in New York in 1995 to an unknown buyer. That was the only real trace of the Marmols' collection, just some of the artwork confiscated in the early years of the revolution that will prove difficult to recover even as the island normalizes relations with the United States.

Cuban Americans like Marmol could be fighting for decades more to win back paintings and other artwork lost in Cuba due to protracted legal struggles and because many of the items have disappeared.

“I encourage people to seek their property ... but finding movable items like paintings or jewelry is particularly difficult,” said Tania Mastrapa, a consultant on property rights in former Communist countries.

For example, descendants of White Russians who lost property in the Russian Revolution a century ago are still trying to recover paintings to this day, she said.

In the early 1960s, specialized Cuban government teams sealed the homes of wealthy exiles and took away paintings, antiques and jewelry. Some of the goods, such as one of the world's largest collections of Napoleonic memorabilia that was amassed by sugar baron Julio Lobo, were housed in Cuban museums where they remain. The Cuban government says it now owns works like that because they were abandoned.

Other confiscated pieces were auctioned off to the public or smuggled overseas, mostly to Europe, either by corrupt Cuban officials or by the government itself when it needed hard currency, art experts say.

While political change in Cuba will take years despite improved relations with the United States, Cuban Americans hope that Havana will eventually return confiscated homes, businesses and artwork or compensate them.

The art seized ranges from family portraits of little financial value to Cuban and European paintings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mastrapa said. One wealthy family, the Fanjuls, lost an art collection valued at up to $60 million. It included more than a dozen works by Spanish impressionist Joaquin Sorolla and a Michelangelo pencil drawing.

Hundreds of claims

There could be hundreds of claims for works of art as Cuba and the United States restore relations, said Mari-Claudia Jimenez, a New York lawyer who specializes in trying to recover confiscated art from Cuba.

But the government and courts in the United States are limited in what they can do to win reimbursement for artwork, businesses and property owned by individual Cuban Americans as most of them were not U.S. citizens when they fled Cuba.

Cuban exiles might have to wait until Cuba opens up and then go to court there to seek restitution.

“We get calls once every few months from someone who is looking to recover their artwork and certainly I think there has been an increase in those calls lately,” said Jimenez, of law firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP. “People are starting to ready themselves to try to think of 'How am I going to deal with going back to Cuba? Am I going to get anything back?”'

She says she tells potential clients that it is too early to know how Cuban politics will play out but that now is a good time to start assembling documents proving ownership.

In a few cases over the years, auctioneers have mediated between the original owners of valuable items seized in Cuba and later buyers of the confiscated works to resolve claims.

No one has a definitive dollar figure for the artwork, antiques and other valuable assets seized in Cuba.

Fruitless search

Before making any claims, Cuban Americans first have to find their art.

Exile Marmol, 61, tried to track down his family's paintings after his father died in 2009 but it was a frustrating search.

The Dallas-based businessman located only one piece: the painting “Hombre Cargando Alcatraces” by Rivera. He discovered through searching the Internet and speaking to a friend in the auction world that the painting had been sold by Sotheby's in New York for $145,500 in 1995.

He said Sotheby's refused to tell him who bought the painting because of client confidentiality but they wrote to the buyer to point out his claim of ownership.

“The purchaser responded that he did not recognize the painting, that he had no record of purchasing it and he maintained this position,” said Marmol.

Sotheby's in New York confirmed Marmol's version of events but declined to comment further.

Crucero de Royal Caribbean encuentran balseros cubanos en alta mar

AmericaTeVeCanal41

EEUU preocupado por aumento de balseros

Café Fuerte

Por Wilfredo Cancio Isla

En un intento por desalentar el preocupante incremento de viajes ilegales desde Cuba, las autoridades estadounidenses reiteraron este lunes que la política de inmigración y las operaciones de los guardacostas se mantienen sin cambios en el Estrecho de la Florida, e insistieron que solo el Congreso puede alterar las leyes vigentes respecto a los refugiados cubanos.

La advertencia gubernamental trascendió en un comunicado emitido por el Servicio Guardacostas, luego de producirse un inusitado crecimiento en el flujo de operacionjes ilegales desde Cuba durante la segunda mitad de diciembre y los primeros días de enero, coincidiendo con el anuncio del presidente Barack Obama para normalizar las relaciones con La Habana.

Un total de 890 cubanos han sido interceptados en el Estrecho de la Florida y en la zona del Caribe,  o han logrado llegar a las costas estadounidenses desde que comenzó el año fiscal 2015, el pasado 1 de octubre. De ellos, 577 lo han hecho durante diciembre y los primeros días de enero en una escalada que ha disparados las alarmas en Washington y la comunidad de Miami.

Oleaje después del 17 de diciembre

Después del anuncio de Obama, los cubanos capturados en el mar suman 421.

“El anuncio reciente de la Administración respecto a Cuba [el 17 de diciembre] no afecta las políticas de inmigración, que incluyen la orden de pies secos /pie secos mojados y la Ley de Ajuste Cubano [CAA], que solo puede cambiar el Congreso de Estados Unidos”, dijo el comunicado obtenido por CaféFuerte.

La exhortación alertó que las operaciones del Servicio Guardacostas en el Estrecho de la Florida y el Golfo de México siguen en efecto, y alertó que sus efectivos mantienen una agresiva presencia  en la región paradesalentar las travesías peligrosas y mortales desde la isla.

“Las personas deben tener un visado u otro permiso para viajar a Estados  Unidos y cualquiera que sea localizado en el mar será devuelto a Cuba, de acuerdo con las leyes de inmigración”, agregó el comunicado.

Es la segunda nota de alerta que envía el Servicio Guardacostas desde que el presidente Obama anunció el cambio de política a la isla, lo cual generó expectativas y rumores dentro de la isla sobre el fin de los beneficios migratorios que gozan los ciudadanos cubanos mediante la CAA, establecida de 1966.

Advertencia repetida

El pasado 18 de diciembre, apenas 24 horas después del discurso de Obama, el Servicio Guardacostas se vio obligado a emitir un primer comunicado aclarando que sus operaciones se mantenían sin cambios y desalentando fuertemente los intentos de inmigrantes cubanos para llegar a territorio estadoundense por vía martítima.

El incremento de la inmigración ilegal desde Cuba parece impulsado por versiones infundadas de que la entrada en funciones del nuevo Congreso de Estados Unidos, con mayoría republicana en ambas cámaras a partir de este 5 de enero, echaría abajo la CAA y otros decretos administrativos que favorecen a los refugiados cubanos.

Las cifras de diciembre resultan altamente significativas: 481 cubanos se han lanzado al mar en 37 operaciones marítimas desde la isla, un alza del 117 por ciento con respecto al mismo período del 2013. Y en solo cinco días de enero, 96 cubanos han sido ya interceptados en el Estrecho de la Florida.

La estampida marítima de cubanos ya vivió la primera tragedia en la arrancada del nuevo año. Un cubano llamado Manuel Marino, de 50 años, se ahogó este sábado cuando la embarcación donde viajaba se volcó, con otros tres inmigrantes, frente a las costas de Islas Cayman.

Sobrevivientes de la tragedia

Los sobrevivientes fuero identificados como Dailer Pérez Arresoitia, de 27 años, Diosul Alarcón Barrero, de 37, y Lety Sánchez Fonseca, de 33, todos de Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey. Lograron salvar la vida aferrados a dos tubos internos, con la ayuda de surfistas locales.

Los tres cubanos quedaron arrestados por las autoridadesde Islas Cayman y pudieran ser devueltos a Cuba.

Durante el 2014, la cifra de capturados en el Estrecho de la Florida  se elevó a 2,059, la mayor desde el 2008. En el recién concluido período fiscal las aventuras marítimas en embarcaciones rústicas y operaciones de contrabando involucraron a 3,722 cubanos en intentos de llegar a las costas de la Florida, incluyendo a aquellos vinculados en operaciones marítimas hacia Bahamas, Islas Cayman, Islas Vírgenes y otros destinos en  el mar Caribe y el Océano Atlántico.

Un éxodo masivo y silencioso de cubanos acontece paralelamente a través de los puntos fronterizos de México y Canadá. Solo por la frontera mexicana llegaron a territorio estadounidense 16,247 cubanos durante el 2014.

Balseros cubanos llegan a cayos Marquesas [Video]

AmericaTeVeCanal41

WaPo: As a Cuban exile, I Feel Betrayed by President Obama

capitolhillcubans

By professor Carlos Eire in The Washington Post:

Talking with Castro

As a Cuban exile, I feel betrayed by President Obama

I am furious, in pain, and deeply offended by those who laud this betrayal of the Cuban people as a great moment in history.

My family and native land were destroyed by the brutal Castro regime. In 1959, as an 8-year-old, I listened to mobs shout “paredon!” (to the firing squad!). I watched televised executions, and was terrified by the incessant pressure to agree with a bearded dictator’s ideals.

As the months passed, relatives, friends, and neighbors began to disappear. Some of them emerged from prison with detailed accounts of the tortures they endured, but many never reappeared, their lives cut short by firing squads.

I also witnessed the government’s seizure of all private property – down to the ring on one’s finger – and the collapse of my country’s economy. I began to feel as if some monstrous force was trying to steal my mind and soul through incessant indoctrination.

By the age of 10, I was desperate to leave.

The next year, my parents sent me to the United States.  I am one of the lucky 14,000 unaccompanied children rescued by Operation Pedro Pan. Our plan to reunite within a few months was derailed by the policies of  the Castro regime, which intentionally prevented people like my parents from leaving Cuba. Although my mother did manage to escape three years later, my father remained stuck for the rest of his life. When he died, 14 years after my departure, the Castro regime prevented me from attending his funeral.

I am now a professor of history and religion at Yale University.

And I long for justice. Instead of seeing Raúl Castro shaking President Obama’s hand, I would like to see him, his brother, and all their henchmen in a court room, being tried for crimes against humanity. I also long for genuine freedom in Cuba. Instead of seeing his corrupt and abusive regime rewarded with favors from the United States, I long for the day when that regime is replaced by a genuine democracy with a free market economy.

The fact that I am a historian makes me see things differently, too. I earn my living by analyzing texts and documents, sifting evidence, and separating facts from lies and myths. I have been trained to read between the lines, and to discern the hidden meaning in all rhetoric.

While much attention has been paid to President Obama’s Cuba policy speech, hardly any has been paid to dictator Raúl Castro’s shorter speech, broadcast in Cuba at exactly the same time.

In his spiteful address, the unelected ruler of Cuba said that he would accept President Obama’s gesture of good will “without renouncing a single one of our principles.”

What, exactly, are those principles?

Like his brother Fidel, whose name he invoked, and like King Louis XIV of France, whose name he dared not mention, Raúl speaks of himself as the embodiment of the state he rules, as evidenced by his mention of “our principles,” which assumes that all Cubans share his mindset. Raúl claims that he is defending his nation’s “self-determination,” “sovereignty,” and “independence,” and also dares to boast that his total control of the Cuban economy should be admired as “social justice.”

In reality, he is defending is his role as absolute monarch.

Cubans have no freedom of speech or assembly. The press is tightly controlled, and there is no freedom to establish political parties or labor unions. Travel is strictly controlled, as is access to the Internet. There is no economic freedom and no elections. According to the Associated Press, at least 8,410 dissidents were detained in 2014.

These are the principles that Raúl Castro is unwilling to renounce, which have driven nearly 20 percent of Cuba’s population into exile.

Unfortunately, these are also the very principles that President Obama ratified as acceptable, which will govern Cuba for years to come.

Although President Obama did acknowledge the lack of “freedom and openness” in Cuba, and also hinted that Raúl Castro should  loosen his grip on the Cuban people, his rhetoric was as hollow as Raúl’s. He didn’t make any demands for immediate, genuine reforms in Cuba. Equally hollow was his reference to Cuba’s “civil society.” He made no mention of the constant abuse heaped on Cuba’s non-violent dissidents, or of the fact that the vast majority of them have pleaded with him to tighten rather than ease existing sanctions on the Castro regime.

But it was not just what was left unsaid that made his rhetoric hollow. Some of the “facts” cited in support of his policy changes were deliberate distortions of history that lay most of the blame for Cuba’s problems on the United States.

Among the most glaring of these falsehoods was the claim that “our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe.” The real culprit is not the embargo, but the Castro regime itself, which actively prevents Cubans from accessing the Internet. Cuba has been purchasing all sorts of cutting-edge technology from other countries for use by its government, its military, its spies, and its tourist industry.

If studied carefully, what President Obama’s artful speech reveals is a fixation on the failures of American foreign policy, and on his role as a righteous reformer. Moreover, the speech is riddled with false assumptions and wishful thinking.

Does President Obama really believe that somehow, magically, an influx of American diplomats, tourists, and dollars is going to force Raúl Castro and his military junta to give up their beloved repressive “principles”?

Dream on. President Obama knows all too well that the Castro regime has had diplomatic and economic relations with the rest of the world and hosted millions of tourists from democratic nations for many years. Such engagement has brought no freedom or prosperity to the Cuban people. He also knows that tourism has only served to create an apartheid state in which foreigners enjoy privileges that are denied to the natives.

President Obama’s disingenuous formulation of a new Cuba policy has been praised by many around the world, but will be challenged by the legislative branch of the government of these United States.

Thank God and the Constitution for that.

The American people and the Cuban people deserve a much better future and a much better interpretation of history than those offered to them in President Obama’s shameful speech.

Cuban Boxing Star Mike Perez On He Got Out Of Cuba Getting Caught

ESNEWS

Intervencion de la poetisa Maria Elena Cruz Varela en el Panel «El intercambio cultural y el papel del creador exiliado»

Wenceslao Cruz

Exodo tragico: Las multiples rutas de los que escapan de Cuba

Martí Noticias

1er Resultado de los Acuerdos Obama-Castro: Guardacostas cubano hunde embarcacion de balseros

es solo el primero. el gobierno norteamericano no se ha pronunciado al respecto y posiblemente sea una de las clausulas secretas que cuba impida la emigracion ilegal por cualquier medio incluyendo el de la fuerza bruta. duras jornadas aguardan a los disidentes y opositores de la isla, pues la represion del regimen cuenta con carta blanca.

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AmericaTeVeCanal41

Cuban Coast Guard rammed vessel of Cubans tried to flee the island - A Man Missing

there is a new issue that we have to look at.

----------------------- 

CBS Miami

Lauren Pastrana

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – On the eve of the landmark announcement signaling a policy shift between the U.S. and Cuba, a group of Cubans tried to flee the communist island.

That group never made it to America.

In fact, one man may be lost at sea.

“Still nothing,” a relative of Diosbel Diaz Beoto says on the phone from Cuba. She says she hasn’t heard anything about whether the 32-year-old man is dead or alive.

According to Ramon Saul Sanchez with the Democracy Movement, Diaz Beoto was among more than two dozen people on the speedboat Tuesday when it started sinking.

“The vessel was broken into two and (Diosbel) disappeared,” Sanchez said at a press conference Friday. “They don’t know where he is. They don’t know if he drowned or if he’s floating in the ocean.

Sanchez claims the Cuban government may have played a role in the sinking.

“Cuban Coast Guard rammed the vessel from the back,” Sanchez said.

The U.S. Coast Guard told CBS4 News “There is no evidence to support the claim that is being made by the Democracy Movement and Mr. Sanchez.”

The agency says it received a request to assist at the scene of a sinking boat in Cuban territorial waters, but was then told Cuban authorities responded.

Sanchez said whether the boat was in Cuban waters remains unclear.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said the agency “was told that all reported people on the vessel were safely recovered by the Cuban Boarder Guard… (and) that the master of the vessel was being held in Cuba on accusations that he was trying to smuggle people from Cuba to the U.S.”

“At a moment like this, one wonders what really has changed in Cuba,” Sanchez said.

In his final press conference of the year, President Obama emphasized change would not happen overnight.

“I share the concern of dissidents there and human rights activists. This is still a regime that represses its people,” Mr. Obama said. “But what I know deep in my bones is that if you’ve done the same thing for 50 years and nothing’s changed, you should try something different.

President Obama also touched on the embargo, saying he cannot “unilaterally” end it.

He says he hopes Congress will re-examine it and make changes.

Comienzan a desmoronarse beneficios a cubanos que intentan llegar a Estados Unidos

Maria Elvira Salazar

Uno de los hombres que sacó a Puig de Cuba se declaró culpable

agencias

Acusado Gilberto Suarez/
cafefuerte.com

Un empresario del sur de Florida se declararó culpable por las acusaciones de ayudar a financiar el contrabando del estelar pelotero de los Dodgers de Los Ángeles, Yasiel Puig, fuera de Cuba.

El juez de distrito de Estados Unidos, Robert Scola, fijó el martes una audiencia de declaración de culpabilidad para Gilberto Suárez, de 40 años, quien previamente se había declarado inocente del cargo de contrabando y conspiración. La pena máxima para este delito conlleva una sentencia a 10 años en prisión.

La sentencia se dará a conocer el próximo 6 de marzo.

Los investigadores dicen que Suárez fue uno de los contrabandistas, ubicados en Miami, que en 2012 ayudaron a Puig a salir en una embarcación desde Cuba hacia México. Los contrabandistas iban a recibir una porción del contrato que firmaría más tarde Puig con los Dodgers por siete campañas y $42 millones.

Se trata de la primera vez que la Fiscalía menciona directamente el nombre del pelotero cubano en la demanda junto al de Aledmys Díaz Serrano, campocorto de los Cardinales de St. Louis, quien jugó para las Naranjas de Villa Clara entre 2007 y 2012.

En la audencia se conoció que Suárez recibió $2.5 millones como pago por la operación.

Los fiscales quieren confiscar cualquier dinero que Puig haya pagado a Suárez por la firma de su contrato, además de una casa, un apartamento, un Porsche y un Mercedes Benz.

Cubanos se quejan del pesimo servicio de paqueteria internacional

AmericaTeVeCanal41

Cuban woman's message in a bottle washes up in U.S.

wusa9

Chris Bonanno

Photo: Chris Bonanno / FLORIDA TODAY)

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Melbourne Beach's Shannon Johnson was walking on the beach on the morning of Dec. 3 when she noticed something that stood out.

"It was right before low tide, perfect timing, about 9:30, 10 and just looked down. I was picking up some trash and looked down and there it was."

"It" was a small medicine bottle that contained some rocks and other small particles … and a letter.

"I was afraid to open it at first like some crazy pirate put something toxic in it."

But eventually Johnson did open it and when she did she found a note in several pieces from a woman in Cuba inside of it. The letter, written in Spanish, detailed the woman's desire to come to America and better her and her family's life.

Johnson felt as though this was a story that needed to be shared, so to spread the message, Johnson shared the photo of the bottle and letter with her close friend Brittany Blanc of Melbourne. Blanc posted it to her Facebook profile, which drew interest from her friends.

One of those friends, Jason Schreiber, sent a message over Facebook to "three or four" of the woman's friends along with the woman herself.

"I dug deeper than anybody else," Schreiber said.

Eventually he made contact with the woman who sent the bottle.

"I sent her a picture of her bottle and I sent her a picture of her letter and I said, 'Is this you?' and she said, 'Oh my god, yes, yes that's me.'"

Shannon Johnson of Melbourne Beach found this bottle with a letter inside from a Cuban woman.(Photo: Chris Bonanno)

Schreiber discovered that she sent the bottle more than two months ago. He also found that she was a well-educated woman who wasn't poor, but simply wanted a better opportunity for herself and her family and seemed frustrated that she couldn't come to the United States.

The woman also wished not to be identified in any published story.

"I actually thought it was just a beautiful letter, and I don't think she even meant for anyone to find it," said Blanc, after reading the translated version of the letter.

The distance the bottle traveled differs depending upon how you calculate the distance from the northern coast of Cuba to the Space Coast, but the bottle traveled at least 300 miles before it washed ashore.

Schreiber shared the sentiment that Johnson and Blanc had of wanting to meet the woman in the United States, but he was unsure of what he could realistically do.

"I mean if there's any way I can get her over here to better her life or anything that'd be awesome."

The woman's frustration is likely due to the steep odds she faces in coming to this country.

According to David Stoller, certified immigration attorney, a Cuban citizen's path to coming to the United States rests with either having family here or winning one of two lotteries: the United States' Diversity Visa Lottery, or a second lottery offered in Cuba, only to Cubans. He said a Cuban national cannot be deported if they step foot in the U.S., which leads to some coming over in rafts and through other means.

"That's the way it works for everyone around the world. Your chances are slim and none unless you fit into some category in our system of either family, employment base, or a special program for people of certain countries like we have for the diversity visa process or a special set-up for Cubans," said Stoller.