Telequinesis coital y Gitmo

la sapiencia popular sentencio aquello que "secretico en reunion es mala educacion", pero esta gentuza se pasa por los overocos la opinion publica ciudadana y la transforman de conciencia critica social en objeto de manipulacion. varias son las clausulas secretas del pacto que se iran develando como el que no quiere la cosa. luego de la telequinesis coital autorizada del gerardito con adrianita o de ella con el, sobre el que levita -entre otros quizas- el ghost del infeliz aquel a cargo de su atencion en cierta epoca y que voluntariamente se reventara la cabeza contra la acera en caida libre desde el piso 14 del edificio de linea y A, porque eso de mariquitas y tarruos es pasatiempo publicitario de la infanta marielita castro, pero defenestrados para los cojonudos guerrileros geriatricos.

y gitmo no puede faltar en la agenda por revelar.

es un viejo sueno compartido por los brothers y el califa. en lo que va del mes de diciembre este ultimo mando a 6 terroristas para uruguay, donde el godfather guerrillero de mujica les brindo proteccion humanitaria con todos los gastos pagados y libre circulacion nacional e internacional y gustoso espera a otros; mientras tanto 4 aterrizaron en kabul. de los 132 restantes, 63 tienen aprobados sus traslados y en el caso de otros 59 se esta evaluando. quedarian 10  con cargos o cumpliendo sentencias que seran levantados o cambiados por asuntos si importancia y definitivamente devueltos a casa o a la capital que mas les plazca.

entonces, con los recortes al presupuesto de defensa andando, para que quiere el imperio una base militar en cuba, si esta no representa ningun peligro militar ni geoestrategico -putin por donde va y su complejo de tipo duro en cualquier momento se pone a vender hielo siberiano derretido como agua potable-, maxime ahora que somos pangas?: cambiarsela a raulito por 11.2 millones de vasitos de leche.
la operacion patty candela 2 esta en marcha, asi que en mayami que vayan levantando el protestodromo. estan avisados.

Sarah Palin: Light a Candle for Cuban Freedom Fighters

The Sarah Palin Channel

Breitbart

By Tony Lee

On Monday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin urged Americans to light a candle and put it in their windows this Christmas eve to show solidarity with Cubans who are still fighting for their freedom and human rights.
Palin accused under President Barack Obama of emboldening the oppressive Castro regime with his announcement last week that the two countries will begin to ease its relations.
“I am so ashamed with what the Obama administration has done to Cuban people. I do not support it,” Palin, speaking in front of a lit candle, says in a video that will be seen on The Sarah Palin Channel. “This Christmas eve, I intend to light a candle and put it in my window to show my solidarity with every brave Cuban fighting for freedom and every political dissident languishing in Castro’s prisons.
“I encourage you to do the same. Let’s join together in this. Let’s show them that the light of freedom shall never be extinguished.”
Palin is taking a page out of President Ronald Reagan’s playbook. In 1981, Reagan addressed Americans and asked them to light a candle to support Polish freedom fighters against the oppressive Soviet Union.
After the Soviet Union declared martial law in Poland in 1981, former Polish Ambassador Romuald Spasowski defected and was granted asylum in the United States. In a meeting with Reagan, Spasowski asked if Reagan would light a candle and put it in his window for the people of Poland.
Reagan, Palin says, “did him one better” with a televised address in which Reagan urged every American to light a candle for the people of Poland so the millions of candles can give notice that the light of freedom won’t be extinguished.
“Once, earlier in this century, an evil influence threatened that the lights were going out all over the world. Let the light of millions of candles in American homes give notice that the light of freedom is not going to be extinguished,” Reagan told Americans then. “We are blessed with a freedom and abundance denied to so many. Let those candles remind us that these blessings bring with them a solid obligation, an obligation to the God who guides us, an obligation to the heritage of liberty and dignity handed down to us by our forefathers and an obligation to the children of the world, whose future will be shaped by the way we live our lives today.
“Christmas means so much because of one special child. But Christmas also reminds us that all children are special, that they are gifts from God, gifts beyond price that mean more than any presents money can buy. In their love and laughter, in our hopes for their future lies the true meaning of Christmas.”
Palin said Obama’s actions on Cuba reminded her of how Ronald Reagan dealt with communists. She referenced Stephen K. Bannon’s In The Face of Evil documentary, which Palin said was one of her “favorite documentaries about President Reagan.” It is clear that Obama has probably neither seen it nor learned its lessons.
Reagan, Palin says, rejected the notion that the Soviet Union was here to stay and Americans “had to get used to it” and pretend there was some type of moral equivalency.
Palin contrasted Reagan’s “moral clarity” during the Cold War against the Soviet Union with Obama’s recent appeasement on Cuba. She mentioned that Reagan knew that the Soviet Union’s economic model was “a total failure” but did not collapse only because the Soviets were able to manipulate Americans into propping it up with grain deals and technology exchanges. She blamed “naive diplomats” and “Wall Street greed” for combining to “prop up the most repressive regime in human history” that “would have crumbled so much sooner under the weight of its own incompetence if it were not for” the policies of appeasement.
Reagan, Palin notes, had the “moral clarity” to call the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and declare that his strategy for the Cold War was simply, “we win, they lose.”
When Reagan supported Lech Walesa and the shipyard workers in Poland who were demanding basic human rights and freedom, it was a pebble that would start an avalanche, Palin says. Reagan’s gestures were not “empty” and “symbolic” because he “gave assistance behind the scenes to the freedom fighters,” and that is how Reagan won the Cold War.
Palin urged viewers to contrast Reagan’s moral clarity with Obama’s decision to “spit in the face of every human rights activist in Cuba.” She said Obama’s decision to reverse U.S. policy toward Cuba “enriched their oppressors and sanctioned their abuse.” She said that “greedy crony capitalists are propping up a failing Communist regime” in Cuba, and Obama just gave the “Castro regime the hard currency and the economic boost to remain in power forever.”
Palin said it is “ludicrous” to think that Cubans will enjoy democracy and human rights because corporations can sell products there.
“Ask human rights activists in China how that’s working for them,” Palin said, noting that the Cuban government will pocket 92% of wages of their workers to empower the apparatus that controls them.
She ultimately accused Obama of giving “away all of our leverage to fight for human rights” and betraying “the people who are courageously putting their lives on the line fighting for freedom.” She even said Obama was “spitting in the face of every human rights activist on the globe” before asking Americans to light candles to support the Cuban freedom fighters that the Obama administration betrayed.

How Investors Can Cash In on Cuba

DailyFinance

Rick Aristotle Munarriz

After President Barack Obama last week proposed to relax trading restrictions with Cuba, the subject has been stirring plenty of debate on both sides of the political decision -- but investors know that they simply have to follow the money for a shot at success. There will be plenty of opportunities to make money if the decades-long embargo is effectively lifted, easing trade and travel between the U.S. and the island nation.

The knee-jerk reaction was for investors to bid up shares of The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund (CUBA), a closed-end fund that was created two decades ago to benefit from either a free Cuba or at least one where restrictions are relaxed. The problem there is that the lightly traded fund is now worth a lot more than the value of its underlying assets.

Herzfeld's fund closed last week at $11.67, even though the total value of its stocks clocked in with a net asset value of just $8.21 as of Thursday's close. That's an insane premium. Do the right thing, and avoid chasing that fund higher. It has these spikes whenever there's a whiff of change in Cuba, and ultimately it trades back down below its net asset value. Besides, as an investor you can buy into the same stocks the fund owns at market price and without the fund's management fees. Let's go over a few of the stocks that are well positioned to make the most of the loosening of restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba.

Bon Voyage

It probably isn't a surprise that the biggest industry concentration for The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund is the cruise line sector. Carnival (CCL), Royal Caribbean (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH), and cruise ship spa operator Steiner Leisure (STNR) combine to make up nearly 15 percent of the fund's portfolio.

It's easy to see the appeal of the leading cruise lines. Cuba will make a no-brainer port-of-call for Caribbean-based sailings, and all three lines rely heavily on sailings that originate in Florida. Cuba's hotels, restaurants and customer service aren't exactly up to snuff with American standards, making cruise ships a more logical way to experience the island until it builds out its infrastructure and retrains its workforce.

It's not the only way to cash in on sea travel to the country, however. After all, for an island, imports and exports typically travel by water. Seaboard (SEB) and Copa Holdings (CPA) are two of the fund's three biggest holdings, and it's easy to see why. Copa Holdings is a leading provider of passenger and cargo services through Latin America. Seaboard has a strong ocean transportation business, but it also stands to benefit from other operations, including commodity merchandising, grain processing, sugar production, pork processing and electric power generation.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Getting tourists and goods in and out of the island will be huge, but let's not forget about the investments in infrastructure. Cuba is, in many ways, an island lost in time. Buildings and amenities need to be modernized. Roads need to be repaved.

Mexican cement producer Cemex (CX), South Florida homebuilder Lennar (LEN), and underground utility contractor MasTec (MTZ) are among the fund's largest holdings. It should be pointed out that MasTec gets its name from the now deceased Jorge Mas Canosa, the founder of the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation and the person that many Cuban exiles figured would usher in the era of a democratic Cuba after Fidel Castro's passing. MasTec is run by his three sons.

There will also be plenty of leisure and banking plays as Cuba's impoverished state improves with the flow of trade and tourism, but that will take time to play out. Sticking to cruise lines and the nearby infrastructure providers as the initial beneficiaries is what investors wanting to cash in on the movement should do with their money for now.

WSJ: Who Would Benefit if the Cuban Embargo is Lifted?

capitolhillcubans

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady in The Wall Street Journal:

Who Benefits if the Embargo Is Lifted?

The Castros already welcome foreign trade and investment. Fat lot of good it’s done for Cubans.

On a trip to Havana in the late 1990s, I toured the restoration of a 17th century convent with a Cuban architect. He told me the project was having trouble getting replacement floor tiles because of the U.S. embargo. I smiled and told him there was no blockade of the island and that the tiles could be sourced in Mexico. He grinned back at me.

“Well, OK,” he said. “The real problem is that we don’t have any money to buy them.”

Cubans are programmed from an early age to complain to anyone who will listen that “el bloqueo” is the cause of the island’s dire poverty. They know it’s a lie. But obediently repeating it is a survival skill. It raises the odds that the demented dictator won’t suspect you of having counterrevolutionary thoughts, boot you from your job, kick your children out of school and haul you off to jail.

President Obama appeared to be trying to prove his own revolutionary bona fides when he announced on Wednesday new diplomatic relations with the military dictatorship and plans to make it easier for Americans to travel to the island and engage in commerce with Cubans. He repeatedly linked the isolation of the Cuban people to U.S. policy, as the regime teaches Cuban children to do. He complained that the embargo strives to keep “Cuba closed off from an interconnected world.” In a reference to the limited access that Cubans have to telecommunications, he said “our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe.”

Even the humblest Cuban peasant would split his sides laughing if he heard those statements, which none did because they do not have access to anything other than Cuban state television—speaking of isolation. Cubans know that the island is not isolated from foreigners. According to Cuban statistics in 2013 there were 2.85 million visitors to the island of 11 million inhabitants. These included European, Chinese, Latin American, Canadian and American tourists and investors. In the first six months of this year, according to The Havana Consulting Group, there were 327,000 visitors to Cuba from the U.S.

The isolation (news flash Rand Paul) is caused by the police state, which controls and surveils foreigners’ movements, herding most visitors into resort enclaves. Foreign journalists who vocally oppose the Communist Party line are not allowed into the country.

More visitors won’t do anything to reduce Cuban poverty. The regime pockets the hard currency that they leave behind and pays workers in worthless pesos. Foreigners who decide to reward good workers without state approval can face prison.

It’s true that the Cuban people lack access to technology, but Mr. Obama’s suggestion that it is because of the embargo is a howler. Carlos Slim , the Mexican telecom monopolist and global player; Telefónica , the Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider; Vietnam’s Natcom; Ireland’s Digicel and countless other companies can do business on the island. But they can’t provide Internet access in homes because the state prohibits it.

U.S. telecom companies are lobbying Washington to be able to do business with the dictator. So to peddle the idea to the rest of us, Mr. Obama claims that this small, backward Caribbean country is a huge untapped export market. Question: How come the likes of Mexico and Spain haven’t flooded the virgin paradise for capitalists and turbocharged the Cuban middle class? Maybe because a couple of hoodlums have rigged the game. They decide who and what enters the country, treat Cubans like slaves, and arbitrarily jail foreign entrepreneurs and take property when it suits them.

Some delusional pro-market pundits think the anti-market Mr. Obama is suddenly pushing their ideas in Cuba. Mr. Obama wants us to believe that when Americans do business in Cuba, Cubans will be empowered. Funny that he didn’t feel that way about helping democratic Colombia when its U.S. free-trade agreement was up for ratification. Back then the White House was fretting about Colombian workers’ rights. Now, well, never mind.

The Castros are in full-blown panic mode because Venezuela, which has been their financial lifeline for 15 years, is broke. The last time things were this bad, when Soviet subsidies dried up in the early 1990s and the regime ran out of money, Castro introduced the “special period.”

Cubans were permitted to run restaurants in their homes, operate taxis and provide other services to foreigners and locals. As entrepreneurship blossomed, the state began to lose the absolute control it had relied on since 1959. Fidel clamped down as soon as Cuba stabilized.

Now the gangsters are again on the ropes. If they can up the number of U.S. travelers to the island and later wrangle multilateral funding now blocked by the U.S., they might squeeze by. But if not, the dictatorship is likely to come unglued, which raises the question of just who Mr. Obama is trying to help by stepping in now.

Obama’s Faulty Logic on Cuba

capitolhillcubans

By Jackson Diehl in The Washington Post:

Obama’s faulty logic on Cuba

The most revealing sentence in President Obama’s explanation of his radical revision of U.S. Cuba policy last week was his admonition to Americans, and Cubans, that they should not seek the “collapse” of the Castro regime. “Even if that worked,” the president asserted, “we know from hard-earned experience that countries are more likely to enjoy lasting transformation if their people are not subjected to chaos.”

Embedded in that short remark is the essential logic behind Obama’s decision to lift — or seek to lift — all U.S. sanctions on Cuba without requiring the “significant steps towards democracy” he once said would be needed for such a normalization. It is also the organizing principle of much of his foreign policy. If regime collapse is not a desirable outcome in Cuba — or, for that matter, in Syria, Iran and other dictatorships — it follows that the correct policy is U.S. “engagement” or “direct diplomacy” with such regimes, aimed not at overturning them but at gradually nudging them toward more civilized behavior.

The no-chaos rule explains why Obama would have declined to support the 2009 Green Movement in Iran while dispatching letters to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offering detente. It lies behind his refusal to provide decisive support to Syrian rebels, instead seeking a negotiated solution with the regime of Bashar al-Assad. And it answers those who wonder why he would provide what amounts to a bailout to the Castros just as they were facing the twin threats of losing Venezuelan oil subsidies and mounting popular pressure for basic freedoms.

Obama cited “hard-earned experience” for his nostrum, and he’s certainly had some he can point to: Libya, Iraq or Egypt, where the overthrow of regimes led to counterrevolution or civil war. The president, however, articulated his ideology before he took office — and the failures on his watch stem in part from his own reluctance to vigorously support democratic transitions.

They also don’t negate two historical facts: A large number of successful democracies have grown out of regime collapse; and U.S. “engagement” with Stalinist-style totalitarian regimes, such as Cuba, has never produced such a transition.

Obama’s chaos theory won’t make much sense to former citizens of East Germany, who last month celebrated the 25th anniversary of the sudden collapse of their regime — and the Berlin Wall. Nor to Romanians, who a month later lived through bloody anarchy in the streets of Bucharest and Timisoara as the Stalinist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu imploded — and for the past two decades have built a peaceful and increasingly prosperous democracy.

As a visiting journalist I witnessed the havoc wreaked on Jakarta in 1998 when the Suharto dictatorship abruptly collapsed and mobs looted the capital. Indonesia shortly thereafter became the world’s largest majority Muslim democracy, and it remains so nearly 17 years later.

It’s easy to go on: the Philippines in 1987; Serbia in 2000; Georgia in 2003. People took to the streets; regimes quickly collapsed; “chaos” ensued for a time; and the result was an enduring transition to democracy. U.S. “engagement” with dictatorships, on the other hand, has a much thinner record of results — and none in the former Soviet Bloc.

Authoritarian leaders themselves, from the Castros to Egypt’s generals to China’s first secretaries, routinely offer a version of Obama’s argument — that the alternative to them is chaos — as reason for dodging the liberalizing steps Washington urges. Governments such those in China and Vietnam have proved far more adept than U.S. policymakers anticipated in pocketing the profits of U.S. investment and trade while preventing political liberalization.

Cooperating with such regimes yields other goods, of course. The opening to China has helped produce the largest reduction of poverty in history. Dictatorships in the Middle East offer bases for the U.S. military, not to mention oil supplies. While Cuba has little value in strategic terms, detente with Havana will remove an irritant from U.S. relations with more important countries, like Brazil. And though Obama didn’t say so, a Castro collapse could have unpleasant short-term consequences for the United States, such as a massive flow of refugees.

It’s possible, in short, to articulate a rationale for engaging with regimes like Cuba’s. Contrary to Obama’s rhetoric, however, it is a policy that reduces the possibility of near-term democratization in favor of economic benefits and geopolitical stability. China is a country where the gains from such a strategy outweigh the costs, particularly as U.S. leverage to bring about political change is limited. In Cuba the calculus is different: The economic benefits of engagement are minor, while the possibility that continued sanctions could be used to engineer regime change — or at least meaningful political concessions — is far greater.

Obama, of course, can make the case for appeasing the Castros. But his claim that Cubans should not hope for their collapse as a route to freedom is not only patronizing; it’s wrong.

Inversiones norteamericanas en Cuba: Pasta dentrifica e indigencia akademica concreta

elrincondelacienciaytecnologia.blogspot.com

la akademia experta que nunca prevee ni pronostica, sino que actua reactiva y tardiamente, mete la pata por ansia protagonista, cuando lo prudente y sensato seria informarse previamente de lo que no sabe. entonces surge un panel que dictamina como una bula papal que:  «No habrá inversión masiva de empresas norteamericanas en Cuba»

mauricio, en cuba operan numerosas sucursales de bancos extranjeros de 1er y 2do nivel. por otra parte un mercado potencial de 11.2 millones con necesidades acumuladas por decadas aunque ciertamente de bajo poder adquisitivo [pero con demanda creciente for fuentes externas e internas], le segrega los jugos gastricos hasta a don slim. los problemas son otros.

azel, en la mayoria de los paises y en todos los desarrollados, los gobiernos centrales promueven el comercio internacional mediante fondos de estimulos central e incluso territorialmente establecidos, que permiten asegurar contra riesgos las inversiones y exportaciones de empresarios nativos con esos recursos gubernamentales. cuando se ha afirmado que al armenio-canadiense cy tokmakjian le tumbaron $100 millones en cuba, realmente se los esquilmaron a los contribuyentes canadienses a traves del "acercamiento constructivo" ya clasico de los gobiernos centrales del pais nordico. si la kraft foods no puede descontar la carta de credito del banco central de la rinconada, su ceo, la mrs blecker, se vira contra el U.S Trade Development Agency Grants   http://www.export.gov/finance/eg_main_018099.asp, u otro creado oportuna y especificamente para cuba por encargo del mr. president a cuenta del taxpayers money y asunto resuelto. 

en estos asunto ocurre como la pasta dentrifica. cuando empieza a salir no hay manera de devolverla a dentro del tubo. 

Los padres de Sarraff, el supuesto topo de EE.UU. en Cuba, fueron agentes de la inteligencia cubana

y esta fotico no es del parqueo de coppelia, estarian de visita en espana o jayalia? pobres viejitos.

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

ABC.es

Carmen Muñoz

facebook katia sarraff

Odesa Trujillo y Rolando Sarraff Elías, los padres del preso político en paradero desconocido

Los padres de Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, el supuesto agente doble que Estados Unidos intercambió la semana pasada por tres espías cubanos, fueron agentes de la Dirección de Inteligencia del Ministerio del Interior de Cuba hasta que se jubilaron. Tanto Odesa Trujillo como el teniente coronel Rolando Sarraff Elías estudiaron en una escuela selecta del KGB para agentes especiales cubanos, según ha podido saber ABC de varias fuentes de la inteligencia cubana que desertaron en EE.UU. Uno de estos portavoces se formó en el mismo centro de Moscú.

Los familiares del teniente Sarraff, detenido en 1995 y condenado a 25 años por espionaje, han asegurado desconocer el paradero de su hijo desde que lo visitaron hace justo una semana en Villa Marista, el cuartel general de la Seguridad del Estado en La Habana. «Ha sido trasladado, y no para mal», fue la única explicación que recibieron de sus carceleros, según un portavoz de la disidencia interna.

«Es un hombre extraordinario con quien se han violado todos los derechos humanos»

Varios medios estadounidenses identificaron a Rolando Sarraff como el supuesto espía cubano descrito por Barack Obama como «uno de los activos de inteligencia más importantes que EE.UU. haya tenido jamás en Cuba». Sarraff, de 51 años, habría proporcionado a la CIA información clave para detener en 1998 a la llamada Red Avispa, de la que formaban parte «Los Cinco», así como a la agente Ana Belén Montes. Antes de su detención, en noviembre de 1995, Rolando estaba destinado en el departamento de criptografía de la Dirección de Inteligencia y era experto en los códigos utilizados por los espías cubanos en Estados Unidos para comunicarse con el régimen de La Habana. En ese momento estaba casado, tenía 32 años y un hijo pequeño.

Mientras todos los indicios apuntan a que ya se encuentra en territorio estadounidense -se afirma incluso que viajó en el mismo avión que el contratista preso durante cinco años Alan Gross- el hecho de que el supuesto agente doble no haya salido a la luz pública es «normal». «Además de los exámenes médicos, en estos casos existe un tiempo de entrevistas ("debriefing") para conocer muchos detalles que solo él conoce, como quien lo delató, así como otras informaciones que él sabía, que nunca pudo entregar y que posiblemente aún serían útiles», agregó uno de los exagentes cubanos.

«No es tan importante»

Sin embargo, Sarraff también podría no tener la importancia que le atribuyen: «Lo utilizaron como moneda de cambio para poder excarcelar a los tres últimos espías de la Red Avispa; no era de recibo cambiarlos solo por Alan Gross», destacaron las fuentes consultadas.

Tanto su familia como los activistas de derechos humanos han asegurado desconocer el supuesto pasado de agente doble de Rolando Sarraff, quien ha permanecido aislado la mayor parte de los diecinueve años de reclusión y siempre ha mantenido su inocencia. La Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional lo había incluido en su lista de presos políticos. El Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos había planteado su caso ante Naciones Unidas.

En España desde hace años

Su hermana Vilma Sarraff, que reside en Tarancón (Cuenca), explicó este domingo a ABC que las informaciones sobre su doble vida «son fantasía, la única persona que puede decir si es cierto o no es el propio Roli». Para esta bióloga, casada con un español y que se dedica al turismo, su hermano siempre ha sido «un hombre extraordinario, de gran formación y cultura, que no quiere protagonismos y con quien se han violado todos los derechos humanos».

Tanto Vilma como la pequeña de esta familia de abuelos libaneses, Katia, han sido muy activas para lograr la liberación de Rolando. Viven en España desde hace 20 y 16 años, respectivamente. Katia Sarraff es médico y se ha establecido en Palma de Mallorca. Los cinco miembros de la familia estudiaron en la Universidad de La Habana. Sus padres y Rolando hicieron Periodismo. Sarraff Elías llegó a ser corresponsal de Prensa Latina. Mientras espera inquieta sus noticias, Vilma Sarraff afirma que «me da lo mismo lo que sea Rolando, siempre será el hombre de mirada limpia de ojos azules que yo quiero y que se merece estar libre».

"You are so beautiful" - Fallecio Joe Cocker

Ricardo Ruiz

Leer en EL MUNDO >>

Reformas economicas en Cuba: El "Bruto" Valor Agregado de Marino Murillo

Marino Murillo con su tropa en el salto del Hanabanilla/ Mas fotos en cubaaldescubierto.com

leo que el cebado marino murillo jorge que hace de miembro del buro politico, vicepresidente del consejo de ministros, miembro del consejo de estado, ministro de economia y planificacion y jefe de la comisión permanente para la implementación y desarrollo "...comentó que para la retribución salarial asociada a los sistemas de rendimiento en el sector empresarial, el indicador fundamental será el gasto del salario por peso de Valor Agregado Bruto (VAB)". 

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2014-12-19/presupuesto-del-estado-con-los-pies-en-la-tierra

la resena del granma no aclara -cosa rara- si sera solo un indicador analitico o si ademas se calculara el salario por el valor agregado bruto.

18 anos antes del aporte murillon [1996], se implanto en una empresa nacional de transporte de cargas con el pretexto de ser la primera entidad civil en realizar el perfeccionamiento empresarial y contando con el respaldo conspirativo de un burocrata entendido en los asuntos, un sistema de pago por rendimientos basado en el valor agregado NETO, que abarco a choferes, mecanicos, despachadores y hasta los comerciales y que brindo excelentes resultados en una empresa que iba a ser desintegrada por ineficiencia, incluso en aquella epoca cuando todo el mundo estaba safe y que paso a convertirse en apenas un ano, en una de las 3 empresas mas eficientes del pais. cierto que todos los "factores" ministeriales y politicos que debian aprobar el proyecto estaban en contra y solo la intervencion de un viceministro academicamente eminente, quien comentara que habia que darle un voto de confianza porque ese era el sistema que empleaba la toyota en sus plantas en japon.
pero donde el murillon que oye truenos y escucha campanadas se troca, es que el valor agregado bruto contiene la depreciacion contaminando con ello el nuevo valor creado, por lo que hay que deducirla para el calculo y arribar al valor agregado NETO. no fuera tan grave si en cuba hubiese una reposicion del capital fijo normal, sino que me atreveria a afirmar que arriba del 80% del capital fijo tiene muy poco valor residual [fisico y tecnologico, sin contar los errores contables y las reevaluaciones de activos que se hacen a ojo de buen cubero y no por el monto de la reparacion o renovacion que restituye la vida util del bien], mientras las restantes son inversiones menores a 10 anos o sin madurar como es el caso de la billonaria realizada en la zona especial de desarrollo de puerto mariel. entonces esto introduce ademas una distorsion en la determinacion de los coeficientes a aplicar por puesto de trabajo, que no se corresponde realmente con el nuevo valor creado por la fuerza laboral empleada.
el esfuerzo organizativo y la calidad de los registros de los hechos primarios no puede ser menos que impecable [ya sabemos por boca de la propia contralora general que el 89% de las empresas cubanas tienen una contabilidad evaluada de regular o deficiente], pues cualquier dedito mal metido o papelito de mas o extraviado, provoca aberraciones dificilmente subsanables en el moropo de la gente que piensa por el bolsillo. en las condiciones cubanas habria que tener un puesto de mando independiente que permanentemente revisara papelito por papelito y luego de tirada la prenomina y revisarla y revisarla nombre a nombre contra reportes de viajes, tarifas, consumos de combustible y partes y piezas, disponibilidad tecnica por vehiculo que da el taller y un larguisimo etc. no por gusto solo la toyota japonesa con la disciplina samurai y la entrega kamikaze, continua siendo hasta lo que se conoce, la unica empresa mundial que aplica este sistema. entonces va el murillon y le explica a raul que eso si garantiza el respaldo productivo del salario y, el aspirante eterno a locutor que no tiene o no quiere escuchar otra cosa que no sea el telefonito directo de la white house y sabiendo que si no funciona pone al cabeza de puerco de primero en el matadero, aunque de hecho ya este tocando la puerta. entonces ve y explicaselo al economico de la constructora integral de las tunas o al del complejo arrocero de los palacios y cuando te pregunten como le paga a los "negros" cuando el partido o tropas moviliza a la gente pa' dar palos o pa' una movilizacion, o no arriben de acuerdo al flujo tecnologico-productivo las materias primas y materiales, o se produzca un apagon, o  falte el tornillo de rosca zurda varado en el puerto de halifax por una carta de credito sin fondos, dile a cajas destempladas que es un kuadro y, que resuelva!

Acuerdos Castro-Obama y los actores encubiertos

Foto: Alberto Borrego-Granma

si a ricardo alarcon a.k.a. "cabeza de bombillo", lo tronaron de presidente de la asamblea nacional el 24 de febrero de 2013 supuesto por el asunto de asesor y la mujer de este, que HACE en 1ra plana del granma junto a los 5 espias en el 1er balcon de la asamblea nacional???

su historia de estar en el pasado a cargo de la causa de los 5 desaparece ante el truene. luego, paso a formar parte del equipo negociador despues de su salida de la presidencia o incluso podia haberlo encabezado.

todo el mundo desde agencias de prensa y medios, hasta expertos y anticastristas emborronan paginas con los protagonistas del pacto obama-castro. que si el papa francisco 1ro y sus taimados lugartenientes, que si el catracho-yuma zúñiga, que la complice hospitalidad del conservador primer ministro de canada mr. harper; pero nadie menciona ni a los negociadores del regimen de la habana ni a la iglesia catolica cubana que encabeza al cardenal jaime ortega y alamino, quien envio una numerosa delegacion al vaticano con motivo de la colocacion de una imagen de la virgen de la caridad del cobre en los jardines vaticanos.

entre los mas 80 "invitados", la mayoria de ellos haciendo "bulto", se encontraban el Cardenal Tarcisio Bertone quien presidio la ceremonia por parte del vaticano y los cubanos  Mons. Dionisio García Ibáñez, Arzobispo de Santiago de Cuba y Presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Cuba, Mons. Arturo González Amador, Obispo de Santa Clara, y Mons. Juan de Dios Hernández s.j., Obispo Auxiliar de la Habana, estos últimos Vicepresidente y Secretario General de la Conferencia Episcopal respectivamente, Mons. Emilio Aranguren Echeverría, Obispo de Holguín, Mons Wilfredo Pino Estévez, Obispo de Guantánamo – Baracoa y Mons. Héctor Peña Gómez, Obispo Emérito de Holguín.
tambien estuvieron presentes los cardenales Antonio Cañizares, prefecto de la Congregación para el Culto Divino y Giuseppe Bertello, presidente del Gobernación del Estado de la Ciudad del Vaticano, así como Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, secretario general del Gobierno de la Ciudad del Vaticano. no podia faltar en la ocasion, el embajador del regimen cubano ante la Santa Sede y su distinguidisima esposa. 

esto ocurre el  28 de agosto de 2014, cuando ya estan definidos los borradores de los acuerdos y el convite con el pretexto de la virgen esta servido con la carne de los carneros y la sangre de los muertos.

Argentina: Diputado Omar de Marchi: "Dejen de ser soldados de la Sra.y transformense en soldados de los ciudadanos"

debieran pasarselo hasta que se les incruste en el hipotalamo a los diputados de la asamblea nacional de focas amaestradas del neocastrismo vergonzante. 

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

La Gazeta Federal

Constructoras de Estados Unidos se mueven con cautela en frontera inmobiliaria de Cuba

Gestion.pe

(Bloomberg).- 

La decisión de Barack Obama de poner fin a medio siglo de enemistad con Cuba alienta la perspectiva de que operadores hoteleros y desarrolladores estadounidenses puedan ingresar al mercado turístico de la isla. 

Poco después del anuncio de la normalización de las relaciones entre los Estados Unidos y Cuba, el jefe de adquisiciones de Fortune International Realty, que tiene sede en Miami, le envió un correo electrónico al máximo responsable ejecutivo, Edgardo Defortuna, con planes de investigar todo cambio sobre propiedad de bienes raíces en la isla.

“Aún falta mucho para que compañías estadounidenses puedan hacer desarrollo inmobiliario”, dijo en una entrevista Defortuna, cuya compañía construye condominios y hoteles en el sur de Florida.

“Sin embargo, la belleza natural de la zona, el excelente clima, el sabor latino y el hecho de que no ha habido ningún desarrollo inmobiliario de importancia durante más de 50 años justifican que se analicen las posibilidades”.

La decisión del presidente estadounidense Barack Obama de poner fin a medio siglo de enemistad con Cuba alienta la perspectiva de que operadores hoteleros y desarrolladores estadounidenses, entre ellos Marriott International Inc. y Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., puedan ingresar al mercado turístico que está a apenas 145 kilómetros (90 millas) de la costa de Florida.

Para hacerlo, deberán abordar un largo camino de reconocimiento de un zona con leyes de propiedad poco claras y control gubernamental, lo que indica que se moverán con cautela.

Leyes transparentes
Hace falta una mayor transparencia en cuanto a leyes sobre bienes raíces, así como infraestructura bancaria y un sistema de seguros de títulos antes de que los inversores estadounidenses se sientan atraídos por Cuba, dijo Gregory Rumpel, un director gerente en Miami del grupo de hoteles de Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Por otro lado, el hecho de que la isla esté tan cerca de los Estados Unidos, uno de los mayores mercados de consumo del mundo, será un imán, dijo.

“Cuando se levanten las restricciones a los viajes, el flujo será enorme”, dijo Rumpel. “Es un país que tiene una gran historia colonial, pero también tiene montañas, ríos, infraestructura”.

El ingreso de turistas a Cuba creció casi 12% interanual en octubre, a 187.311 visitantes, según la Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas de Cuba. Alrededor de 2.9 millones de turistas visitaron la isla en 2013, según la oficina. Casi la tercera parte procedió de Canadá.

Cuba, el Segundo país caribeño más visitado después de República Dominicana, según un análisis de mediados de año de la región, tiene en la actualidad unos 200 hoteles con un total de entre 35,000 y 38,000 habitaciones, dijo Rumpel.

Canadienses y europeos dominan la inversión extranjera, agregó, y entre los principales operadores se cuentan los españoles Meliá Hotels International SA, Barceló Hotels Resorts y Novotel Hotels.

Los operadores hoteleros de los Estados Unidos están en mejor situación para ingresar al mercado que los desarrolladores que buscan construir, dijo Eddy Arriola, presidente de Apollo Bank, una entidad crediticia para proyectos inmobiliarios que tiene sede en Miami.

“Las compañías que ya están ahí son los operadores de hoteles”, dijo. “A los desarrolladores estadounidenses les resultará mucho más difícil porque el principal propietario de la tierra es el gobierno cubano”.

CDC: Take Medical Precautions When Traveling to Cuba

hngn

By Donna Balancia 

As enthusiasm swells to visit the island nation of Cuba, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control urges visitors to take precautions to prevent contagious disease.

Cuba is rated an "intermediate" health risk, by the CDC, but officials warn travelers to be up to date on vaccines for every trip. 

As infrastructure in Cuba grows to accommodate U.S. leisure and business travelers, officials say health risks are present, particularly in the water system, according to reports.

Here are the main health threats when traveling to Cuba:

Cholera

The Pan American Health Organization and Cuban health authorities have reported more than 700 cases of cholera in Cuba, including three deaths, since July 2012. The outbreak is ongoing.

The CDC recommends that visitors to Cuba drink and use bottled water, be sure water is safe to drink and wash hands often with soap and safe water. There is no vaccine available in the U.S. for Cholera.

Typhoid

Get a typhoid vaccine. Typhoid can be contracted through contaminated food or water in Cuba, the CDC reports.

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A, is an infectious disease that affects the liver, and many cases have no symptoms. It can be contracted through contaminated food and water. Get a vaccine.

Rabies

Rabies is found in dogs, bats and other mammals in Cuba.  Particularly for those travelers involved in outdoor activities, working with animals or children, it is important to get a vaccine.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B can be contracted through sexual contact, contaminated needles and blood products. It is recommended to get this vaccine if a traveler may decide to get piercings, have sexual relations or medical procedures or a get a tattoo in while in Cuba.

The CDC recommends that travelers make sure they are up to date on their routine vaccines including measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, polio vaccine and a yearly flu shot.

Miami Protesters: 'It's not the time' for more Cuba ties

WSVN-TV - 7NEWS Miami Ft. Lauderdale News, Weather, Deco

Read at WSVN-TV >>

Vietnam: As Cuba-U.S. relations thaw, Vietnam may offer lessons

The State

By Scott Duke Harris

HANOI, Vietnam — Americans often cite the importance of Florida politics to explain why relations between the United States and Cuba have been frozen for more than a half century.

But nearly 20 years after the U.S and Vietnam buried a bloody hatchet, an American venture capitalist based in Hanoi has an another theory about the length of time it took for the Western Hemisphere enemies to begin normalizing relations.

“I’m wondering if it took so long because there was never a war,” said Phuc Tran, who was born in Vietnam, left as a young refugee in 1975 and returned in 2000 as a representative for Intel.

The American War, as it’s known here, left a great wound that demanded healing, Tran said, while the U.S. and Cuba nurtured enmity for political reasons. “For guys like John McCain and John Kerry, Vietnam was personal. With Cuba, you don’t have a McCain and Kerry to drive change.” The Republican U.S. senator from Arizona and the secretary of state served in the military during the Vietnam War, and McCain was held prisoner and tortured by the North Vietnamese.

Whatever the reasons, Tran and other observers say the normalization of U.S.-Vietnam relations since 1995 should encourage Cubans and Americans to follow through on President Barack Obama’s bid for a new relationship.

Better ties, they say, figure to have palpable economic and social benefits for Cubans and Americans. Commerce with the United States has helped millions of Vietnamese enjoy a higher standard of living, and travel between the countries has soared.

But the Vietnam experience also shows that improved relations with the U.S. may have less of an impact on the ruling regime’s authoritarian ways.

In a recent report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research center in Washington, senior fellow Murray Hiebert and his co-authors noted that despite 17 bilateral discussions on human rights over the years, the State Department estimated that there were about 120 political detainees in Vietnam at the end of 2013.

Even so, Vietnam’s engagements with the U.S. and other democratic countries “have had a significant impact on improving the human rights situation in Vietnam, including getting more space for journalists, bloggers and the religious community,” Hiebert wrote. “There are still problems, but the human rights situation in Vietnam is much better today than it was in 1995.”

Vietnam’s reconciliation with the U.S. is regarded as a turning point that complemented market-oriented reforms tailored to global trade, paving the way for a series of trade and investment agreements and the nation’s 2006 admission into the World Trade Organization.

Trade keeps growing at a rapid clip. During the first 10 months this year, this nation of 90 million people exported $25.1 billion in goods to the U.S.

That surpassed the $24.6 billion total for all of 2013 and is up from $20.7 billion in 2012 – all roughly five times the value of imports, according to data supplied by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Trade is expected to grow more between the two nations, along with eight others that are deep into negotiations for a new pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The vitality of U.S.-Vietnam relations is reflected in the remarkable influx of young Vietnamese as students at American colleges and secondary schools, a number that’s approaching 17,000, according to the U.S. Embassy office here. “Education has emerged as a crucial link between the two peoples,” Hiebert and co-authors observed.

Vietnam’s history is reflected in its emphasis on bilingualism. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the emphasis shifted to English from Russian, which had supplanted French. The owner of the Bookworm, a popular English-language bookstore in Hanoi, keeps paperback copies of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in stock because of demand from students eager to study abroad.

It bears little resemblance to the dark time after the fall of Saigon and the unification of the nation in 1975. While thousands of southern loyalists were placed in re-education camps and thousands more risked their lives as refugees in crowded boats, the Vietnamese military went to war against its communist brethren in Cambodia and later against a Chinese border incursion. Dysfunctional Soviet-style central planning added to the misery: This nation of rice paddies was once so hungry it had to import rice to feed its people. So-called “doi moi” reforms were announced in 1986 but not implemented until after the demise of Vietnam’s Soviet patrons.

Vietnam has since reversed course, becoming among the world’s leading exporters of rice, coffee and fish products. In addition to garments, textiles and footwear, its workers make electronics for Intel, Samsung and Nokia. With an economy growing nearly as fast as China’s – and spawning its own form of crony capitalism –Vietnam managed in early 2011 to edge into lower “middle income” status among nations, as measured by the World Bank.

Today, the growing middle class of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City shops at new malls that were built by the nation’s first billionaire. Wealthy Vietnamese are moving into new gated communities and buying Bentleys, Mercedes-Benzes and the occasional Rolls-Royce. Not far from the historic Metropole Hotel, the hammer-and-sickle incongruously flies outside posh Trang Tien Plaza, which showcases designer labels such as Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Burberry. Elsewhere, iconic global brands entice curious consumers. McDonald’s and Starbucks are recent arrivals in Vietnam, but Baskin-Robbins, Pizza Hut and KFC have been here for years.

Tran, who’s based in Ho Chi Minh City and now scouts tech opportunities for the Silicon Valley venture firm DFJ, suggested that Cuba’s proximity to the United States might make for a swifter economic impact, especially in tourism. The Cubans and foreign investors, he suggested, should carefully plan the anticipated hotels, resorts and transportation infrastructure in order not to spoil Cuba’s environment.

Nearly 40 years after the fall of Saigon, after all, Vietnam is seeking more help from the U.S. to address the toxic legacy of the military herbicide Agent Orange and eradicate the unexploded ordnance in old battlegrounds that turns up after every heavy rain, occasionally with lethal results.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/12/19/3883346_as-cuba-us-relations-thaw-vietnam.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Raúl Castro: "Con un pueblo como este se puede llegar al año 570 de la Revolución"

Cuba Hoy

Line By Line: Every Empty Promise in Obama's Cuba Speech

Breitbart

By Frances Martel

President Obama announced sweeping changes to the United States’ approach to diplomacy with Cuba yesterday, in a statement broadcast simultaneously with a speech by President Raúl Castro in which he declared the changes a step towards “prosperous and sustainable socialism.”

Many on both sides of the aisle are expecting President Obama’s policies to bring about significant improvements in the lives of average Cubans– and, were President Obama’s promises to ring true, this might well be the case. However, the President is promising the Cuban people something that, without the Castro government yielding to any demands, is simply impossible. Below, a line-by-line analysis of every inaccurate statement and unfulfillable promise in President Obama’s speech yesterday that he does not have the power to fulfill, and for which there is no evidence that the Castro regime will help.
“Proudly, the United States has supported democracy and human rights in Cuba through these five decades. We have done so primarily through policies that aimed to isolate the island, preventing the most basic travel and commerce that Americans can enjoy anyplace else. And though this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions… it has had little effect beyond providing the Cuban government with a rationale for restrictions on its people.”
The idea that the embargo has not had any effect on the Cuban government’s ability to function is a hugely flawed one, based almost entirely on the fact that it has failed to dethrone the Castro brothers. It ignores the ambitions for international influence that led Cuba to send soldiers to fight in far-off wars in Africa– most prominently in Angola, where an estimated 10,000 Cubans died fighting for communism– and advisors to Venezuela. Thanks in large part to Cuba’s influence, Venezuela’s socialist government has turned an OPEC nation into a place where products such as oil, eggs, and even water are either rationed or bought on the black market. Had the Castros enjoyed an influx of millions from the American tourism industry, it is feasible that dangerous ties to even more distant nations like Iran and China could have been strengthened, threatening American interests.
While the embargo failed to create regime change, it certainly has not “had little effect” on the Castros.
“As a start, we lifted restrictions for Cuban Americans to travel and send remittances to their families in Cuba. These changes, once controversial, now seem obvious. Cuban Americans have been reunited with their families, and are the best possible ambassadors for our values.”
It is true that the United States has eased its restrictions on travel to Cuba. It is not true that restrictions no longer exist. In September, the Cuban government applied more restrictions on travel by family into Cuba, possibly in response to the US government easing its own restrictions, which significantly limit the amount of necessary goods that enter the country. It does not limit tourism or how much a foreigner without family on the island can bring to the country, but those with known relatives in Cuba will have their goods confiscated if they bring too much underwear or shampoo for their families in their luggage.
This is not so much a lie on the President’s part as it is misdirection. It blames the American government solely for any distance between Cuban Americans and their families, when the Castro regime made very clear this year that it will work diligently to keep those family ties broken. And as this current deal demanded nothing of the Castro regime but the release of Alan Gross and an unnamed U.S. agent, there is no guarantee that any of these reforms will have an effect.
“Where we can advance shared interests, we will -– on issues like health, migration, counterterrorism, drug trafficking and disaster response.”
America has no shared interests in any of these fields. For America, health is a humanitarian mission, one into which the government pours billions of dollars internationally. For Cuba, health is an $8 million a year slave trade (doctors are paid only a “living stipend” when they are forced to leave the country for medical work, which hardly pays for food and shelter). Similarly, migrating out of Cuba is a near impossibility. Restrictions have grown so much in 2014 that Florida is seeing the highest influx of exiles braving the 90 miles on rafts since the 1994 balsero exile. While America leads the international war on terror, Cuba provides safe harbor for the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the biggest non-jihadist terrorist group in the world– which is also one of the largest drug trafficking operations on earth. And so on.
“I’ve instructed Secretary Kerry to review Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism… at a time when we are focused on threats from al Qaeda to ISIL, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces the use of terrorism should not face this sanction.”
It is complete misdirection to imply that, because Cuba does not have openly known ties to jihadist groups, it is not supporting terrorism internationally. As mentioned above, the Castro regime has been indispensable to the FARC.
“So we will facilitate authorized transactions between the United States and Cuba. U.S. financial institutions will be allowed to open accounts at Cuban financial institutions. And it will be easier for U.S. exporters to sell goods in Cuba.”
There is no way for President Obama to guarantee that “it will be easier for U.S. exporters to sell goods in Cuba” without the cooperation of the Cuban government. There is no indication that President Obama demanded and received the cooperation of the Cuban government. While it is true that, now, U.S. exporters may attempt to do business in Cuba without having to worry about American sanctions, there is no guarantee that the Cuban government will not punish them, or expropriate their inventories on the island as they did in 1959.
“Unfortunately, our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe. So I’ve authorized increased telecommunications connections between the United States and Cuba. Businesses will be able to sell goods that enable Cubans to communicate with the United States and other countries.”
Without Raúl Castro’s approval, businesses will not be able to sell anything on the island. Yes, this new policy means businesses will not face legal action in the United States for trying to sell these items, but there is no guarantee they will not face retribution from the communist government.
José Martí once said, “Liberty is the right of every man to be honest.”
José Martí actually said: “Libertad es el derecho que todo hombre tiene a ser honrado, y a pensar y a hablar sin hipocresía”– “Liberty is the right that all men have to be honest, and to think and speak without hypocrisy.” Wonder why President Obama left that out?
Much of the rest of President Obama’s rhetoric that does not directly address the reforms– his homage to Miami as “a profoundly American city,” his call to “leave behind the legacy of both colonization and communism, the tyranny of drug cartels, dictators and sham elections”– rings disingenuous given how little the Castro regime has had to sacrifice in order to attract the piggy bank that is American tourism, if he chooses to allow it. But most disturbing are the details that he provided on how America will approach this nearby enemy, and how little it appears the United States will actually do to empower a viable opposition movement in Cuba, or even protect American companies who dare do business on the island from any future expropriation.

Castro to Pocket 92% of Worker Salaries from Foreign Companies

Breitbart

By Frances Martel

Just one day before President Obama announced sweeping changes that would allow potential American investment in Cuba, the Cuban government apparently had begun preparing itself by announcing new measures that would allow Cubans who work for foreign companies to keep only 8% of their salaries.

In an official announcement in state newspaper Granma, government officials announced a system in which employees who work for corporations with foreign capital will be paid two Cuban Pesos for every Convertible Cuban Peso (CUC) the corporation actually pays them. The Convertible Peso (CUP) is almost exclusively for the use of tourists and is of significantly greater value; one CUC is the equivalent of an American dollar and the equivalent of 26.5 CUPs. The other 24 CUPs Cuban workers will not receive amount to 92% of their salaries.
Granma explains:

The payment will now be agreed to with businesses possessing foreign capital taking into consideration the salaries issued to workers in jobs of similar complexity in entities in the same area or sector of our geographic area, the salary scale that is applied in the country (as a reference point) and some additional payments for the corresponding law.

In other words, even if a foreign company has the means to pay more than a Cuban company, the worker will receive the same salary as if he were working for a Cuban company, and the government will pocket the rest.
The Havana Times, an online publication dedicated to issues related to Cuba, notes that Zamira Marín Triana, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, described the new laws as offering a “significant increase” for workers.
In addition to the 92% of salaries being pocketed by the Cuban government, Cuban government employment offices will charge 20% of the salary of each worker they connect to the corporation for the service of finding said corporation employees. Employees will also lose 9.09% of their salaries for “vacation time.”
The new measures, though enacted hours before the release of USAID worker Alan Gross and President Obama’s announcement of new trade measures, should inspire caution in American companies that would like to do work on the island. American companies would be keeping very little of the money they invest and earn in business on the island, while lining the pockets of the communist government. As Raúl Castro noted in his speech, the Cuban government made no concessions in this recent negotiation with the United States, save the freedom of Gross and one other American agent whom President Obama did not name, which leaves it open to sanctioning American companies who dare attempt to do business on the island as they see fit.

Avisos del futuro

microsiervos

Precaución: debido a la escasez de robots, los trabajadores de estas instalaciones son seres humanos y pueden reaccionar de forma impredecible si se abusa de ellos.

– The Meta Picture

A Day in Infamy - Barack Obama’s Cuban Pact

canadafreepress

Anonimo

By Obie Usategui  

For the most part of the Cuban-American community residing in Miami, Florida, the day of Wednesday, December 17th, 2014, will—more likely than not—go down in their history books as a day in infamy, much the same as did December 7th, 1941, for all Americans. The former, when Barack Obama announced the U.S. restoring full relations with Cuba, including the opening of an embassy in the island—a bold move aimed at ending over 50 years of hostility between the two countries—the latter when the Royal Empire of Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

While, for the average American, it would seem almost impossible to establish any kind relevancy whatsoever between these two dates, for the average Cuban-American, it is precisely the opposite. The reasons are simple and unpretentious. First of all, Americans have been, and are for the most part, highly uninformed regarding their own country’s affairs, let alone being familiar with an insignificant little island of the Caribbean, even when this island is located a mere 93 miles south from the southernmost tip of the U.S., in Key West, Florida.

I would dare say that, to most Americans, other than an elite group of Washington politicians, perhaps, Cuba is a foreign word - an alien term of sorts. Little do most Americans realize that this irrelevant and unbeknownst island-nation, has, in fact, had a magnanimous sway in global politics and geo-political affairs throughout the years. Such was this island country’s relevancy in global politics back in October 1962, when Cuba stood at center stage, playing [the] leading role in the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis as the world came to a stand still while the United States and Russia traded threats over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in the “irrelevant” Caribbean island - a tense and overwrought moment, which escalated as close as the world has ever come to a full scale nuclear war.

Notwithstanding the presumable ignorance now presiding over this unheard of island nation, I shall then proceed to cite some of the issues which qualify my contemptuous conclusion on Obama’s bold move to renew political ties with the communist Caribbean island as nothing short of a treasonous and antithetical assault on democracy; a travesty and desecration to the otherwise most basic principles of righteousness on which our country, the United States of America, was founded.  A betrayal to the American legacy, hence the relevancy to the Pearl Harbor attack comparison—a conjecture, mind you, which I shall dare try to demonstrate by quickly reviewing the history preceding Obama’s treachery, albeit daringly constricted by the size of this dissertation.

As a matter of record, in the years prior to the communist revolution takeover on December 31st, New Years’ eve of 1958-59, led by Fidel Castro and his dirty band of revolutionary militia men, the Republic of Cuba, in spite of a tumultuous history of corroded political leaders teetering the legitimacy of its political system, the island did enjoy a most enviable leadership position amongst all countries in Latin-American, comprised, namely, of 26 nation-states bound by the Romance languages of Spanish and Portuguese.

Some of Cuba’s leading statistics compared to other Latin American nations and/or the world just prior the advent of the communist revolution in 1958, were as follows:

• 3^rd most-stable economy in Latin America with highest gold reserves, slightly behind Venezuela and Brazil.
• Lowest inflation rate [1.4%].
• 4^th in world in income earned by blue-collar workers.
• 3^rd in red-meat production per capita.
• 1^st in the production of mineral cobalt in the world.
• 3^rd in caloric consumption.
• 3^rd in the highest per-capital telephone ownership.
• 3^rd in the highest per-capital automobile ownership.
• 2^nd in the highest per-capital radio ownership.
• 1^st televisions per household.
• 3^rd in most radio-stations.
• 3^rd in T.V. networks.
• 2^nd in movie theaters per capita.
• 2^nd in number of physicians per capita.
• Lowest index of infant mortality in all Latin America.
• 4^th lowest per capita index of illiteracy.
• Highest percentage of public debt earmarked for education.
• 5^th in per capita colleges and universities attending students.
• In 1959, the Cuban monetary unit, the “peso” was par with the U.S. dollar - at times slightly higher.
• Highest number of movie-theaters in the world.

Now, to suggest that any of these statistics would have been possible were it not for the prosperous relationship that had once existed between the U.S. and Cuba preceding Castro’s takeover would be, if nothing else, a preposterous lie at that. After the takeover, simply put, communism managed to set back light years the once flourishing Caribbean paradise island, turning the latter into a ghostly status of its past glories.

Cuba, the once-affluent island, was soon to become but a faded version of its joyous past. The nation’s once thriving economy and proud statistics would soon turn into sorrowful epitomes of human deprivation of the most basic necessities, including but not limited to the pursuit of freedom and happiness. The island’s once picturesque promenades and harbors would soon become the stage of escapade outlets for thousands of freedom-seeking Cubans, daringly leaving the island in home-made rafts, willing, if you will, to perish in crossing the Florida Straits in their quest for freedom; a preferred alternative to the oppression of the Castro regime. Statistical accounting of the Cuban prominence before Castro would soon turn into grief-stricken statistics of the regime’s genocidal prominence; statistics, which, as much sparse and imprecise as could be expected under a reign of oversight and repression by Castro’s tyrannical regime, would still claim a death toll in the hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women who perished between 1959 and 1987[1], exclusively as a result of their political conviction; all dying while bravely daring to challenge a system now sanctioned of by none other than U.S.‘s impostor president Barack Obama.

Besides the home-made rafts, desperation for leaving the island incited Cubans on using all sorts of cunningly constructed crafts, including but not limited to, inflatable tubes used in truck-tires - needless to say, a less-than-safe artifact for crossing the dangerous currents in the Straits of Florida.

The escalating death toll of Cubans crossing the Straits paved the way for the founding of Brothers to the Rescue - a good-willed missionary group of Miami-based pilots, touched by the death of a fifteen-year-old Gregorio Perez Ricardo, who had perished from severe dehydration while fleeing from Castro’s communist island on a raft. The group,Brothers to the Rescue, described itself as a humanitarian organization aiming to assist and rescue raft refugees emigrating from Cuba and to “support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active nonviolence”[2].

On February 24^th, 1996, two of the Brothers to the Rescue Cessna Skymasters were shot down by a Cuban Air Force MiG-29UB, while a second jet fighter, a MiG-23, orbited nearby. Killed in the shoot downs were pilots Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales. A third plane, flown by Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto, was able to escape unharmed. In the days that followed, the controversy over the shoot-down grew steadily over the merciless killing of civilian U.S. air-pilots by trained pilots of the Cuban Air Force, while the victims flew in international air-space.

The shoot-down incident also led to widespread condemnation of Cuba back in the day, and was instrumental on the outcome of the trial of the “Cuban Five” consisting of five Cuban intelligence officers arrested in September 1998 and later convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States. The trial of the ”Cuban Five” on espionage and conspiracy charges resulted in convictions and long-term prison sentences for the five Cuban agents who, for one, had been known to spy on the Brothers to the Rescue missions.

In May, 2012, the Obama administration, in the same old spirit of deceit that has forever characterized this impostor president, deceivingly declined a “spy swap” proposed by the Cuban authorities, in exchange for the release of U.S., contractor Allan Phillip Gross, imprisoned in Cuba for allegedly providing equipment to Cuban Jews striving to have internet access. While leading public opinion to believing that such a sullied swap would never take place only seven month back, the swap did take place on December 17th, 2014, whereby Gross and Rolando Sarraf, a Cuban who had worked as an agent for American intelligence imprisoned in Cuba 20 years back, were exchanged for the last three remaining prisoners of the “Cuban Five”, as two others members of this hideous group had been released earlier.

My dear fellow Americans, one more time, Barack Hussein Obama utilizes the noble office and power bestowed upon him as president of the United States of America, to desecrate the most basic values inherent to our democracy; the most basic principles that stand for what United States is all about. As far as I am concerned, by shaking the hands and making any agreement with the Castro brothers, two of the most renowned assassins in the world, Barack Obama is, one more time, shamelessly and brazenly admitting his willingness to share in and be a part of the thousands of deaths attributable to the Castro brothers and to communism itself. Obama’s hands are as bloody today as the Castro brothers’ are. Obama’s announcement of a renewed relation with Cuba and the Castro brothers, is proof, one more time, of the man’s avatar communist incline, and long history of Marxist devotion - a pious advocate of the Saul Alinsky model. Barack Obama’s agreement with Cuba on December 17^th , 2014, shall make him, in my estimation, as responsible as the Castro’s brothers for the thousands of deaths suffered by young Cuban men and women who perished while crossing the Florida Straits in search of freedom. Obama’s daring hypocrisy shall, I hope, serve only as an everlasting reminder to the American public of this man’s evil political nature. The lifeless remains of all the Cuban martyrs who perished in the pursuit of freedom, I hope, shall only serve as a friendly remembrance to all us that communism, that poisonous system responsible for the death of over 100 million people throughout the history of the world, is alive and well in the United States of America - dangerously so represented, of all people, in the persona of Barack Hussein Obama.

Throughout the past few days I have mournfully listened to the many arguments made by media folk and otherwise, presumably astute political contributors from both sides of the aisle, claiming the president did not get enough in exchange for what he gave up in his trade with Cuba. It was an unbalanced or uneven exchange, they claimed. To all those making this argument, I say hogwash to all of you as I politely remind you that there are no agreements whatsoever, bar none, which can be construed as good or positive when you are dealing with communists or communism, as in the end you will always be on the losing end, regardless. Obama’s trade was no exception, and it is time for me to remind all good people in this country to realize that we are in for the greatest revelation of our lives if we, for a moment, think of this man as anything other than a miserable diehard communist ideologue whom a majority of Americans elected as our president twice in a row. Shame on all of us and prayers for the end of this ugly chapter in American history.

As a Cuban-born immigrant who came into this great country at age 14 in 1960, also fleeing from communism, I do consider Obama’s renewed relations with the communist island and look upon it as one of the most despicable political acts I have ever been a witness to. As a naturalized citizen of this great country which we call the United States of America, I can only forewarn you of the inherent evils of Barack Obama and his administration. As an immigrant and citizen of the U.S., both, I shall forever, reminisce of December 17th, 2014 as I do on December 7th, 1941, both - “a day in infamy”,  as I truly hope that, for the simple and straight-forward reasons stated above, you will too. May God save us all and may God save the United States of America.

[1] “Cuba”: The Human Cost of Social Revolutions.
[2] ^ Jump up to: a b Website of Brothers to the Rescue - Background and information