March2017-Flipbook

MARTÍ AND YBOR: CUBA’S CENTURY OLD LINK TO TAMPA 

The Magazine for Trade & Investment in Cuba 

March 2017 

COFFEE’S COMEBACK 

Small scale farms meet global demand 

CONGRESS 

AND CUBA 

The prospects of rolling 

back the embargo 

Proponents for Changing Course: Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.) 

and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. 

ENERGIZING CUBA 

Investor’s guide to oil, gas and nickel 

TAKING OFF 

U.S. commercial airlines fill the skies 

PRIVATE SECTOR PIPELINE 

Remittances pay the service bill 

THE CHINA QUESTION 

Will Beijing fill the Caracas void?

Arkansas: Outfront on Cuba Trade 

Arkansas is leading the U.S. in economic and agricultural collaboration with Cuba. And because 

Arkansas is the nation’s number one producer of rice as well as a national leader in poultry, we’re 

a natural for sprinting to the front of the pack when it comes to food-source trade with Cuba. 

In Arkansas, we’re proud to help our neighbors to the south by sharing our resources and our 

expertise — which in the end will help both economies to grow and prosper. 

ArkansasEDC.com | 1-800-ARKANSAS

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business can become part of the scenery.

content 03/2017 

UP FRONT 

10 PANORAMA 

Deals, events and transactions of note 

for trade and investment in Cuba 

26 THE CUBA BRAND 

Stocks and bonds from before the 

Revolution are still in demand, just 

not at par value 

28 REMITTANCES 

For Cubans who travel back and 

forth between Miami and their island 

home, Ño Que Barato has become an 

institution 

46 TOURISM 

Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts has big 

ambitions for its second destination in 

Latin America 

14 INDEX 

Up in the Air: The Surge of Flights 

from the U.S. to Cuba 

16 IDEAS + INNOVATION 

A Miami-based auto distributor is 

shipping electric cars to Cuba 

18 INTERVIEW 

A Q&A with Mariel Special Economic 

Development Zone Director 

Ana Teresa Igarza 

DEPARTMENTS 

20 WASHINGTON REPORT 

Warming U.S.-Cuba relations have 

resulted in a lobbying boom from U.S. 

corporations 

22 POLITICS 

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s chilling effect 

on ports seeking to trade with Cuba 

24 TRANSITIONS 

With Venezuelan support waning, a 

big question is whether China wants 

to fill the gap 

4 CUBATRADE MARCH 2017 

30 RECREATION 

How a Vermont non-profit resurfaced 

Cuba’s Tennis Federation courts in 

Havana. Next: Grass Courts? 

32 TRADE 

Charcoal made from Marabún, is 

the first cargo shipment to the U.S. in 

more than 50 years 

34 ENTREPRENEURS 

How one family of farmers in eastern 

Cuba made the transition to becoming 

a small business 

38 MEDIA 

How American companies are 

tackling the nuances of audio-visual 

productions in Cuba 

42 FINANCE 

Money remitters are starting to play a 

vital role in business transactions 

48 AGRICULTURE 

Cuba’s sugar harvest this season 

should be its biggest in years, and even 

though it’s starting from a small base, 

it could have an economic impact. 

LIFESTYLE 

86 CUBAN ART 

A Talk with Cuban Sculptor Alberto 

Lescay. 

90 REPORTERS NOTEBOOK 

A visit to Cuba’s Villa Blanca. 

94 BOOK REVIEW 

Richard E. Feinberg’s guide to the 

Cuban economy is nothing less than a 

handbook on how to fix what’s broken 

FINAL WORD 

96 IN CLOSING 

Soy growers hope for a continued 

opening of Cuba to U.S. agriculture

How do we move food 

from Hastings to Havana? 

Break down barriers. 

When America farmers are able to freely 

export their crops to other countries, it 

nourishes the people who need them 

most. Opening new markets for US 

agriculture boosts food production, spurs 

job creation and puts food on more tables 

across the globe. That’s why we champion 

open trade flows – to raise incomes for 

all and build local economies that thrive. 

Learn more at cargill.com/food-security. 

Cargill is committed to helping the world thrive. 

© 2016 Cargill, Incorporated

features 

50 

50 CONGRESS AND CUBA 

Executive orders may come and go, but only Congress 

can end the half-century trade embargo 

60 THE SMELL OF SUCCESS 

The Cuban Mountain Coffee company looks forward 

to new foreign markets—including the US—as it 

moves forward with a deal to revive production in 

Eastern Cuba 

65 THE TAMPA-CUBA CONNECTION 

A new renaissance for Tampa’s centuries-old ties to 

the island 

65 

81 INVESTMENT REPORT 

Analyzing Cuba’s call for foreign direct investment 

in energy and mining 

ON THE COVER 

Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Amy Klobuchar 

(D-Minn.) stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. 

Photo by Mark Finkenstaedt. 

81 

6 CUBATRADE MARCH 2017

A FIVE STAR DESTINATION 

FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY AND INVESTMENT 

Puerto Rico’s natural beauty and world-class attractions make it a must-visit vacation spot, 

but the All Star Island's incentive package for the tourism and hospitality industry is just as enticing. 

HOSPITALITY 

AND HOTEL DEVELOPMENT 

Act No. 74 of 2012, the Tourism Development Act, provides 

incentives for the development of world-class tourism 

activities. The benefits under this law will remain valid for a 

period of 10 years from the starting date of the eligible 

tourism-related project, and the business operation will be 

entitled to a 10 year extension. 

INCENTIVES 

• Tax credit equal to 10% of the total project costs, or 50% of 

the cash investment made by investors (whichever is less) 

• 100% exemption on municipal construction excise taxes 

• 100% exemption on sales and uses taxes 

• 100% exemption on excise taxes and other municipal taxes 

for new projects or 90% exemption if existing project 

• 90% exemption on income tax or 100% exemption, if project is 

located in the island municipalities of Vieques or Culebra 

• Up to 90% exemption on personal and real property 

municipal taxes 

ELIGIBLE BUSINESSES 

• Hotels, condo-hotels, small inns ( "paradores "), guest houses, 

timeshares and vacation clubs , excluding the operation 

of casinos 

• Theme parks, golf courses operated by or associated with a 

hotel that is an exempt business, tourism marinas and 

docking facilities for tourists 

• Natural resources that are useful as a source of active or 

passive entertainment or amusement 

• Other facilities or activities that , due to the special attractive 

features deriving from their usefulness as a source of active 

or passive entertainment or amusement, constitute a 

stimulus to domestic or foreign tourists 

PLUS NUMEROUS OTHER INCENTIVES FOR EXPORT SERVICE 

BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS (ACTS 20 & 22). 

There's much more the All Star Island has to offer. For more information call 787.721.2400 or visit: 

WWW.PUERTORICOTOURISM.PR.GOV

editors note 

Taking it to the Hill 

Our cover story this month looks at the legislative initiatives 

inside the U.S. Congress to either loosen the restrictions to trade 

and travel with Cuba, or to end the embargo outright. 

Make no mistake. It will not be an easy fight for these new 

bills to win passage. 

Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans 

(including Cuban Americans) support lifting the embargo, 

there remains strong resistance to change from a handful of Cuban 

American senators and congressmen who continue to hold 

our national policy hostage. They accomplish this by blocking any 

new bills from coming to the floor of the Senate or House, where 

an open vote could turn them into law. 

Now all eyes are on the new president, Donald Trump, to 

see whether he will be open to change—or if he will fall to the 

blandishments of Cuban American legislators who cannot let 

go of grievances that date back a half century. Trying to figure 

out which way he will lean is the Cuba game of the moment, as 

all interested parties read signs in the tea leaves of his cabinet 

appointments—or in his most recent dinner guests. 

What is important to understand, however, is that the president 

does not have the exclusive executive power to abolish the 

embargo. President Obama advocated for its end, and punched 

enough holes in the rules and regulations to move things forward. 

But the embargo still stands, and those advances can now 

be reversed by Trump. 

Even if the new president chooses to move forward, Congress 

must still weigh in. When the embargo was started by 

Eisenhower and made comprehensive by Kennedy, it was a matter 

of executive order. After 1992, things changed. The embargo 

became a U.S. law that was tightened by additional legislation 

in 1994 and 1996. And those laws will require Congressional 

action to undo. 

Yes, a presidential signoff must nonetheless accompany the 

passage of any pro-engagement, anti-embargo legislation. The 

president can still veto any new bills, and the odds of overcoming 

any presidential veto, historically speaking, are about one 

in ten. The hope for all those who find the embargo to be both 

useless and cruel is that President Trump, having been elected by 

a populist movement, will head the voices of that movement— 

and not fall prey to a contentious minority holding onto a Cold 

War mentality. H 

J.P. Faber. Editor-in-Chief 

Publisher 

Richard Roffman 

Editor-in-Chief 

J.P.Faber 

Executive Publisher 

Todd W. Hoffman 

Associate Publisher 

Ritchie Lucas 

Art Director 

Jon Braeley 

Production Manager 

Toni Kirkland 

Associate Editor 

Nick Swyter 

Copy Editor 

Larry Luxner 

Writers 

Michael Deibert 

Doreen Hemlock 

Suzette Laboy 

Victoria Mckenzie 

Emilio Morales 

Oscar Musibay 

Ana Radelat 

Ariana H. Reguant 

Photographers 

Mark Finkenstaedt 

Bahare Khodabande 

Tina-Jane Krohn 

Monique LaRouche 

Matias J. Ocner 

Vice President Sales 

Sherry Adams 

Sales Executive 

Magguie Marina 

Research & Development 

Sydney Glanz 

Aviation Consultant 

Lauren Stover 

Cuba Trade Magazine is published each month by Third Circle Publishing, LLC, 

at 2 S. Biscayne Blvd., Suite 2450, Miami, FL USA 33131. Telephone: (786) 

206.8254. Copyright 2016 by Third Circle Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. 

Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photograph or illustration without prior 

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Postmaster: Send address changes to Third Circle Publishing, LLC, 2 S. Biscayne 

Blvd., Suite 2450, Miami, FL USA 33131. Subscription information domestic and 

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panorama 

Deals, events 

and transactions 

of note for trade 

and investment 

in Cuba 

Record number of tourists 

Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism says the 

country welcomed a record four million 

tourists in 2016––up 13 percent from 

2015. Tourist arrivals have steadily 

increased each year since 2008. The arrival 

of U.S. cruises and commercial airlines is 

expected to spur more growth in 2017. 

Sailing to Cuba 

Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean 

International, Carnival Cruise Line, and 

Pearl Seas Cruises—all of which recently 

won approval from the Cuban government 

to sail to the island—announced plans for 

2017. Pearl Seas Cruises completed its 

inaugural Cuba trip in January. From May 

through November, Royal Caribbean’s 

Empress of the Seas will offer 5-night 

trips from Tampa. From June through 

December, the Norwegian Sky will sail 

with weekly 4-night trips from Miami. 

The Carnival Paradise will take customers 

from Tampa to Havana on a dozen 

four- and five-day trips between June and 

October. 

More flights to Havana 

Alaska Airlines and Frontier flew their 

inaugural flights to Havana in early 

January. The Alaska Airlines flight from 

Los Angeles is the only one to Cuba from 

the West Coast of the U.S. At the same 

time, several airlines have cut the number 

of flights to Cuba, following weaker 

demand than expected. 

Cuban economy slumps in 2016 

In late December, Economy Minister 

Ricardo Cabrisas told the National 

Assembly that Cuba's GDP fell 0.9 

percent in 2016. The slide comes after 

four years of nearly 3 percent annual 

growth. Cabrisas said cutbacks in crude 

oil deliveries from Venezuela, a drop 

in the number of contracts for Cuban 

professional services in Venezuela, and 

the U.S. trade embargo all contributed 

to the slumping economy. He said 

economic reforms can boost GDP 

growth to 2 percent in 2017, but most 

experts doubt that’s possible. 

A show of strength 

Cuba made a rare show of force in early 

January by parading thousands of troops 

through Havana’s Revolution Square. The 

parade was originally planned for December, 

but it was postponed due to the death 

of former President Fidel Castro. 

Expanded travel bill reintroduced 

to Congress 

In early January, Rep. Mark Sanford 

(R-S.C.) reintroduced the Freedom to 

Travel to Cuba Act to the House of 


Representatives. The bill aims to ease 

tourist travel to Cuba. Sens. Jeff Flake 

(R-Ariz.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) 

introduced a Senate version of the bill in 

the last Congress, which did not vote on 

either version of the bill. 

‘Wet foot, dry foot’ policy ends 

In a surprise move, former President 

Obama ended the “wet foot, dry foot” 

policy eight days before his term ended. 

Previously, Cubans who reached U.S. soil 

without a visa could become legal permanent 

residents a year after their arrival. 

Obama also ended the Cuban Medical 

Professional Parole Program, which 

allowed Cuban doctors dispatched in third 

countries to defect to the United States. 

Cuba, meanwhile, is allowing some doctors 

who defected to return to the island. 

Cabinet hearings signal tough approach 

to Cuba 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, UN 

Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Treasury 

Secretary Steve Mnuchin all took a tough 

stance on Cuba during their confirmation 

hearings. Tillerson told Sen. Marco Rubio 

(R-Fla.) that all Obama-era actions on 

Cuba are under review. He also said he 

would recommend Trump veto any bill 

to lift the trade embargo unless there is 

democracy on the island. Haley wrote to 

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) that she will 

not continue last year’s historic decision to 

abstain from Cuba’s annual UN resolution 

condemning the embargo. Mnuchin wrote 

to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that he will 

enforce all statutorily mandated sanctions 

on Cuba. 

Obama era ends with flurry of deals 

In the final days of the Obama presidency, 

the U.S. and Cuba rushed to sign 

several deals, including agreements to 

cooperate on search-and-rescue missions 

in the Straits of Florida; setting territorial 

limits in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico; 

and cooperation on combating oil 

spills. The U.S. and Cuba have signed 22 

accords since the two countries normalized 

relations. Obama also suspended a 

section of the Helms-Burton Act that 

allows business owners who had property 

confiscated during the Revolution to sue 

companies using their former holdings. 

Every president has routinely suspended 

the lawsuit provision every six months 

since 1996. 

Castro meets U.S. Chamber of Commerce 

president 

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President 

Thomas Donohue spoke with Cuban 

President Raúl Castro in early January to 

discuss “issues of mutual interest,” according 

to Reuters. The meeting happened 

before the inauguration of President 

Donald Trump, whose policy towards 

Cuba remains uncertain. 

Cuban cargo reaches Florida 

Charcoal made from marabú, a woody 

weed known for decimating Cuban farms, 

was on the first legal cargo shipment 

from Cuba to the U.S. in more than half a 

decade. About 40 tons of the charcoal was 

shipped to Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades 

in late January. 

Anti-embargo advocacy group fined 

Tampa’s Alliance for Responsible Cuba 

Policy Foundation was fined $10,000 for 

arranging two trips to the island that the 

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) 

says were not authorized. OFAC says 

it reduced the original fine of $100,000 

because the organization did not cause 

significant harm. 

Castro: Willing to work with Trump 

Cuban President Raúl Castro said Cuba 

is willing to work with Trump on normalizing 

relations with the U.S., but not if it 

leads to concessions affecting the country’s 

sovereignty. Castro made the comments 

at a summit of Latin American and 

Caribbean leaders five days after Trump’s 

inauguration. 

Rubio has Trump’s ear on Cuba 

President Trump told reporters on Feb. 16 

that he and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) 

“have very similar views on Cuba.” Rubio 

has been one of the staunchest opponents 

of engagement with Cuba. 

Last-ditch effort to sway Trump 

Before Donald Trump assumed 

the presidency, two prominent proengagement 

coalitions wrote letters urging 

him to continue engagement with the 

island. The Cuba Study Group and 17 

other cosigners asked Trump to conduct 

a “comprehensive evaluation of progress 

made in U.S.-Cuba relations.” Dozens 

of agricultural groups signed a letter that 

said: “We urge you not to take steps to 

reverse progress made in normalizing 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

11

PANORAMA 

relations with Cuba, but also solicit your 

support for the agricultural business sector 

to expand trade with Cuba.” 

Museum spurned 

An exchange between the Bronx Museum 

of the Arts and the Cuba’s National 

Museum of Fine Arts fell apart after 

Cuba backed out of exhibiting its artwork 

in New York. The Bronx Museum 

director told the New York Times that the 

exchange dissipated after Cuban officials 

refused to allow National Museum art 

pieces to leave the country. The Bronx 

Museum loaned more than 80 pieces of 

art to Cuba in the summer of 2015. 

Bipartisan group of lawmakers visit Cuba 

Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Thad Cochran 

(R-Miss.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), 

and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) joined 

Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Seth 

Moulton (D-Mass.) on a trip to Cuba to 

promote economic development. Cuban 

state media reported that the delegation 

met President Raul Castro to discuss the 

"common interest of both countries." 

renewable resources by 2030, up from 

about 5 percent today. 

First local TV station in Cuba 

Miami’s WPLG–Channel 10, an ABC 

affiliate, became the first local TV station 

in the U.S. to have a full-time crew in 

Havana. The team consists of reporter 

Hatzel Vela and photojournalist Brian 

Ely. WPLG says its arrangement with the 

Cuban government comes with “no strings 

attached.” 

Agriculture financing bill reintroduced 

to Congress 

Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) reintroduced 

the Cuba Agricultural Exports 

Act to the House in January. Sens. Heidi 

Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and John Boozman 

(R-Ark.) introduced a Senate version of 

the bill, which aims to remove restrictions 

on offering credit for agriculture exports 

to Cuba. The last Congress did not vote 

on previous versions of the bills. 

Colorado explores ties to island 

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper 

visited Cuba with a business delegation 

to expand ties to the island. Hickenlooper 

told the Denver Post he was impressed 

by the island’s entrepreneurs and that 

educational exchanges would be mutually 

beneficial. He also said Colorado can 

share its expertise on renewable energy 

and agriculture with Cuba. 


Southern ports sign deals with Cuba 

Days after several Florida ports backed 

away from signing memorandum of 

understanding with a Cuban trade delegation 

that toured cities across the U.S., 

the Alabama port of Mobile signed 

one with Cuba’s National Port Authority. 

The deal, inked in Tampa, aims to 

expand business ties between Alabama 

and Cuba. The Mississippi ports of Pascagoula 

and Gulfport signed similar deals in 

Havana several weeks later. 

China invests in renewable energy 

Chinese and Cuban companies signed 

10 agreements in February to expand 

renewable energy on the island, according 

to news agency Xinhua. The deals were 

signed during a forum analyzing clean 

energy cooperation strategies. Cuba hopes 

to generate 24 percent of its energy from 

Florida governor to ports: No Cuba trade 

Three Florida ports backed away from 

signing memos of understanding with a 

Cuban trade delegation after Gov. Rick 

Scott tweeted a threat to cut state funding 

for ports that ink deals with the island. 

Scott’s 2017-18 budget proposal says “no 

funds in Specific Appropriations 1873 

through 1876 may be allocated to infrastructure 

projects that result in the expansion 

of trade with the Cuban dictatorship 

because of their continued human rights 

abuses.” 

Starwood delays opening of Hotel 

Inglaterra 

Starwood, a subsidiary of Marriott International, 

said it would open its second hotel 

in Cuba on Dec. 1. The Hotel Inglaterra 

in Old Havana was originally expected 

to open under Starwood management in 

2016. The company, which did not give 

any reason for the delay, has managed the 

Four Points by Sheraton in Havana since 

summer 2016. H

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INDEX 

Up in the Air 

The Surge of Flights from the U.S. to Cuba 

By Emilio Morales 

Photo by Jon Braeley 

An American Airlines flight from Miami to Holguin touches down at sunset 

Among the many changes in U.S.- 

Cuba policy enacted by former 

President Obama, the two that have 

helped Cuba’s economy the most 

are commercial flights to Cuba and 

the increase in remittances. Thanks 

to those policy changes, U.S. airlines 

now offer daily scheduled flights to 

Cuba—and several already have offices 

in Havana. 

The year 2016 saw a record 7,461 

flights from the U.S. to Cuba—a 55.6 

percent jump over 2015. This marked 

not only the most such flights since the 

1,694 recorded in 2009, but the most 

ever (see Figure 1). In just eight years, 

Cuba-bound flights grew 339.7 percent, 

while overall air traffic to Cuba grew by 

an average 22.4 percent annually. 

Florida is the top source of flights 

to Cuba, with Miami accounting for 

6,213 of the 7,427 flights in 2016 

(followed by 768 from Fort Lauderdale- 

Hollywood, 413 from Tampa, and 33 

from Orlando (see Figure 2). 

Overall, more than 806,000 

passengers flew from U.S. airports 

to Cuba last year (up from 700,000 

in 2015), making the United States 

the fastest source market for Cuban 

tourism in 20 years. Of the 2016 total, 

more than half a million were Cuban- 

Americans who travel to the island 

annually and Cuban citizens who 

returned to the island after visiting 

the United States. They pay hundreds 

of millions of dollars a year in airfares 

and baggage fees, 95 percent of which 

were paid in the United States to U.S. 

entities. From 2009 to 2016, the sale 

of Cuba-bound flights alone generated 

about $1.8 billion for U.S. airlines. 

Cuba’s tourism industry is already 

starting to feel the impact of travel 

from the United States. In the first half 

of 2016—even before the launching of 

regular U.S. commercial flights—total 

U.S. tourist arrivals (including Cuban- 

Americans) grew by 27.4 percent 

compared to the same period in 2015. 

In contrast, arrivals from Canada, still 

the top source of tourists to Cuba, fell 

by 6.7 percent, marking the first such 

drop in 20 years (see Figure 3). 

Cuba-bound flights from the 

United States now dominate Cuban 

airport traffic, with volume for the 

final trimester of 2016—when regular 

commercial flights were authorized— 

doubling compared to the same period 

in 2014 and 2015 (see Figure 4). Yet 

this surge will undoubtedly strain 

Cuba's tourism infrastructure, which 

has not kept pace with growth. The 

country needs major investments 

in four- and five-star hotels—and 

not just in new construction but in 

the maintenance and renovation of 

existing ones. Airport capacity will 

have to be expanded as well as options 

to bring tourists to Cuba’s interior— 

all projects that can represent huge 

opportunities for U.S. companies. H 

Emilio Morales is CEO of the Havana Consulting Group. 


Figure 1. Number of flights from United States to Cuba, 2009-2016. 

Figure 2. Number of flights from Florida to Cuba, 2016. 

Source: The Havana Consulting Group and Tech from daily monitoring of 

the flights from the United States to Cuba from the airports of Miami, Fort 

Lauderdale, Tampa Orlando and New York. 

Source: The Havana Consulting Group and Tech from daily monitoring of 

the flights from the United States to Cuba from the airports of Miami, Fort 

Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando. 

Figure 3. Arrival of tourists from Canada and the United States in the January-June 

periods of 2015 and 2016. 

Tourists to Cuba January-June 2015 January-June 2016 % Growth 

Canada 833,889 777,678 -6.74 

United States 332,250 423,368 27.42 

Difference 501,639 354,310 

Source: The Havana Consulting Group and Tech form its own research and data published by Cuba’s 

National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). 

Figure 4. Number of flights from United States to Cuba (from Miami and Tampa), 2014-2016 

Source: The Havana Consulting Group and Tech from daily monitoring of the flights from the United States to Cuba from the airports of Miami and Tampa. 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

15

IDEAS + INNOVATION 

Start Your Engines 

This whole process took over four 

years, so patience is my virtue. 

John Felder , CEO, Cayman Automotive 

A Miami-based auto distributor is shipping electric cars to Cuba 

By Nick Swyter 

Photo supplied by Cayman Automotive 

The streets of Havana—iconic for its 

1950s Chevys and Soviet-era Ladas—will 

make way for electric cars thanks to a Miami-based 

auto distributor that’s won U.S. 

approval to ship vehicles to Cuba. 

In early January, the U.S. Commerce 

Department's Bureau of Industry 

and Security granted Premier Automotive 

Export, a subsidiary of a Cayman 

Islands auto dealer, a four-year license 

to deliver electric cars and charging 

stations to the island. By the end of 

the month, Cuba's Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs (MINREX) gave the OK for 

shipments to begin. 

“This took time because it was the 

first time anyone in the U.S. had requested 

such an approval of an export license,” said 

Cayman Automotive CEO John Felder. 

“This whole process took over four years, 

so patience is my virtue.” 

Premier is only authorized to ship 


cars to non-government entities, which 

includes embassies, private entrepreneurs, 

and foreign-owned or foreign-managed 

businesses. The cars cannot change 

ownership or be re-exported without U.S. 

government approval. 

The auto distributor’s first shipment 

was a Nissan Leaf and electric charger to 

the Guyanese Embassy in Havana. Crowley 

Maritime Corp., which has transported 

goods from the U.S. to Cuba since 

2001, shipped the car in early February. 

Felder says several embassies and business 

have already lined up to receive the next 

delivery. 

“Once the word got around that a 

vehicle was being shipped to Cuba, the 

telephone calls have not stopped yet. It’s 

been unbelievable,” Felder said. Although 

it is hard to predict, Felder says he expects 

to ship dozens more cars and charging 

stations to the island by the end of the year. 

Felder is also taking steps to make 

sure Havana can accommodate electric 

cars, a steep task considering many of 

Cuba's vehicles are decades-old and run 

on diesel. The company is partnering 

with New Jersey-based Advanced Solar 

Products to install a network of charging 

locations at gas stations across Havana. 

Felder also hired a retired General Motors 

engineer to train Cubans how to repair 

and maintain electric cars. 

Felder sees his investments in 

charging stations and training as mutually 

beneficial to Cuba and the U.S. 

Even though electric cars are unlikely 

to ever dominate the Cuban market, the 

installation of charging stations will reduce 

the country’s carbon footprint and 

dependence on Venezuelan oil while 

creating jobs on both sides of the Straits 

of Florida. 

“It’s a win-win situation,” Felder said. H

American wheat 

growers stand ready 

to meet demand 

in Cuba. 

It’s time to end 

the embargo.

INTERVIEW 

Q&A: 

Ana Teresa Igarza, 

Director, 

Mariel Special Economic 

Development Zone 

Photo by Matias J. Ocner 

Cuba recently sent a trade delegation to visit the ports of Houston, New Orleans, Norfolk, 

Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Tampa. It used the tour to promote the benefits 

of investing in the Mariel Economic Special Development Zone (ZED Mariel), which 

is also the island’s largest port. By offering incentives for foreigners to invest, Cuba 

hopes to make Mariel a mega-shipping hub for Latin America and the Caribbean. Here 

are excerpts of our interview with Ana Teresa Igarza, general director of ZED Mariel. 


CT: Tell us about your visit to the U.S. 

How did the various port representatives 

treat you? 

AI: In all of the places we’ve received a 

very positive welcome. The port authorities 

have been looking after us. They have 

been very open, very transparent. And the 

port authorities and the business community 

we’ve met with have both shown a 

willingness and desire to work with Cuba. 

CT: Obviously, there are some changes 

with the new president. Have you 

noticed any differences under the Trump 

administration? 

AI: In relation to Cuba, no. So far, as it relates 

to Cuba, there have been no changes 

or new regulations different than what we 

were doing with former President Obama. 

CT: How did you react to Florida Gov. 

Rick Scott’s threat to cut state funds 


to ports that want to do business with 

Cuba? 

AI: I didn’t have to react to that. Our 

interest is the development of the Port 

of Mariel and the Cuban state is actually 

contributing all the necessary funds to 

ensure the development of the Port of 

Mariel. That’s a question better suited for 

the port authorities of Florida. 

CT: How is progress going at the Port 

of Mariel? What companies are already 

there? 

AI: Right now we have 23 approved users, 

of which eight are already operational. I 

have to say that most of these users are 

wholly owned foreign companies, which 

is foreign investment into our country… 

These companies come from 10 different 

countries. There are four Cuban companies, 

and they have focused on advanced 

manufacturing, logistics, and high-technology––mostly 

in the biotech industry. 

There are companies from Mexico, Spain, 

Brazil, the Netherlands, South Korea, 

Belgium, and Vietnam, among others. 

CT: Which companies would you like to 

approve in the future? 

AI: High-tech companies, companies in 

the area of logistics, and advanced manufacturing. 

You should wait for the news 

and you will learn which companies are 

going to be approved. 

CT: I’ve read, and you have explained, 

that ZED Mariel is more interested in 

projects with advanced technology. But 

it approved a cigarette factory, which is 

not considered advanced technology. 

Can you explain why? 

AI: I think you are mistaken there. The 

cigarette manufacturing industry is an 

advanced manufacturing industry. It is

A container ship docks at the Port of Tampa Bay 

not high technology, which is a different 

concept. But the technology it uses falls 

under the classification of modern technology, 

because it uses robotics and mechanization 

for the cigarette making process. 

This is not something done by hand. This 

is not a labor intensive industry. It is actually 

a technologically intensive industry. 

CT: Can you explain some of the benefits 

of investing in ZED Mariel? 

AI: ZED Mariel has its own regulatory 

framework that sets it apart from the rest 

of the country for development… It has a 

very expeditious approval level. It also has 

a one-stop shop system that provides users 

of the zone with all the paperwork, and 

getting all the authorizations and permits 

and licenses. And the infrastructure available 

to investors includes all of the necessary 

components for the development 

of their facilities, for example electricity, 

water supply, IT, waste management, 

and road connections. In addition, ZED 

Mariel has a very attractive tax regime, 

including a number of tax exemptions and 

tax relief measures. 

CT: In one of your presentations you 

said Mariel can approve projects in 35 

to 65 days. How does that happen? Does 

Cuba have to make any changes to make 

that happen? 

AI: When the file with all the documents 

is OK, it is submitted to the 

zone. ZED Mariel has five days to 

review it through an assessment commission, 

which is headed by the general 

director and includes a number of experts 

from organizations in the country. 

Once the assessment commission OKs 

the project file, there are two approval 

levels… If it’s not specifically indicated 

that a project needs to be approved 

by the council of ministers, there is a 

period of 30 days. If a file needs to be 

approved by the council of ministers, 

it takes about 60 days. Therefore, when 

you put everything together the approval 

turnaround is around 35 to 65 days 

in total. Everything can be improved, 

but I think what we are doing right 

now is being done solidly, and with all 

the expertise required for the current 

situation. 

CT: We’ve read several explanations on 

why Cleber [an Alabama-based tractor 

maker that sought to build a factory at 

ZED Mariel] was not approved. We 

read it was rejected because it was not 

high-tech. Is that the reason or are there 

others? 

AI: It is definitely related to the 

technology. Cleber approached the office 

and in the preliminary documents of 

the application [Cleber co-founder Saul 

Berenthal] said he wanted to produce 

tractors. This activity falls within the 

interest of the special development 

zone so long as the technology supports 

it… We realized the technology he 

was proposing to use in the zone was 

dated from 1940. It was completely 

obsolete and it was not compliant with 

the existing regulations in terms of 

safety and work occupational health. 

Therefore, we contacted him and we 

communicated to him that what he was 

presenting was not attractive for the 

Special Development Zone, and I 

don’t think it is attractive to the 

rest of Cuba. H 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

19

WASHINGTON REPORT 

Signing Up 

for the Push 

Warming U.S.-Cuba 

relations have resulted 

in a lobbying boom 

By Ana Radelat 

Former President Obama’s normalization 

of relations with Havana has prompted 

dozens of U.S. companies to do something 

they've never done, at least not in decades: 

add Cuba and the embargo to their lobbying 

agenda in Washington. 

Last year, more than 120 companies, 

lobbying firms, trade organizations, and 

nonprofits notified Congress in writing 

that they are working on Cuba issues. 

That's a big jump from the three dozen or 

so that filed similar forms in 2014, before 

Obama’s executive orders on Cuba were 

fully implemented. 

Companies that have shown a new interest 

in Cuba include Hilton International 

and Starwood Hotels, Chevron, Cisco 

Systems, Corning, Halliburton, Marriott, 

Shell Oil, Orbitz, Royal Caribbean, and 

nearly every major U.S. airline. Meanwhile, 

others with a long-time interest in Cuba–– 

including farm groups and trade associations 

representing U.S. businesses––have 

increased their lobbying focus on Cuba. 

Many companies and organizations, 

including agricultural giant Louis Dreyfus, 

several state farm federations, and cable 

network giant Viacom specifically instructed 

their Washington representatives 

to lobby for legislation that would end or 

curtail the U.S. embargo. 

Kendall Keith, a lobbyist for Louis 


Dreyfus, said the commodity giant “is 

interested in ways to facilitate trade.” 

Keith said the introduction of legislation 

that would facilitate payment terms 

on shipments of U.S. farm products to 

Cuba captured his company's attention. 

He said Dreyfus is not lobbying for an 

immediate end to the embargo but that 

“interest has been growing to do some 

minimal things. Maybe legalizing commercial 

credit. That seemed to get some 

traction last year.” 

The number of issues involved in the 

flurry of lobbying activity has increased 

alongside the number of lobbyists. 

The Tampa-based Florida Aquarium 

hired a lobbyist to promote the reauthorization 

of the Coral Reef Conservation 

Act “and its implications for supporting 

coordinated research with Cuba.” Cisco 

Systems hired lobbyist Ian Rayder to take 

part in “general discussions regarding 

Cuba and (its) technology needs.” Meanwhile, 

the National Association of Police 

Organizations says it is lobbying to seek 

“extraditions of cop-killers and violent 

felons from Cuba.” 

Even before this year’s bumper crop 

of new registrations, lobbyists were being 

hired to push for change with Cuba. 

The National Cooperative Business 

Association (NCBA) added Cuba to its 

lobbying agenda and formed a U.S. Cuba 

Cooperative Working Group just a few 

months after Obama announced he wanted 

to normalize relations. 

“The idea is to promote U.S.-Cuba 

collaboration whenever possible,” said 

NCBA spokeswoman Sarah Crozier. 

“Co-ops are the preferred form of business 

in Cuba. As the former administration 

moved to normalize relations, that accelerated 

our work on the embargo.” 

The Air Transport Association of 

America, whose members include the 

nation’s leading passenger and cargo airlines, 

began lobbying on Cuba travel––alongside 

major U.S. airlines––after Obama eased 

travel restrictions and negotiated with the 

Cuban government the re-establishments of 

direct commercial flights. 

The association’s lobbyist, Vaughn 

Jennings, said his group’s members “serve 

evolving markets all over the world” and 

that Cuba suddenly became one of them. 

Lobbying disclosure forms show that 

even before Obama eased sanctions, the 

Office of the Commissioner of Baseball 

paid lobbying giant Baker & Hostetler to 

work on “issues related to Cuba.” Since 

then, Major League Baseball has hired 

Dakota Strategies to lobby on the “issue 

of tourist travel to Cuba revolving around 

baseball activities.” H

“WE GROW TRADE” is a registered trademark of the World Trade Centers Association. 

WE GROW TRADE ® 

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF TAKING THE BEST OF ARKANSAS TO THE WORLD 

RICE 

TIMBER 

POULTRY 

SOY

POLITICS 

THE 

GOVERNOR 

WHO 

SAID NO 

Despite his state’s obvious 

advantages for future trade 

with Cuba, Florida Gov. 

Rick Scott has threatened to 

cut funding to ports that try 

By J.P. Faber 

Florida Gov. Rick Scott at a press conference on the day he tweeted his threat to ports 

Photo by Jesse Romimora 

The timing could not have been worse— 

or better, if the intention was to embarrass 

your guests. Just one day before the arrival 

of a Cuban trade delegation at Fort Lauderdale’s 

Port Everglades, on the very eve 

of a historic ceremony to sign a memo of 

understanding (MOU), Florida Gov. Rick 

Scott tweeted his threat: 

“I will recommend restricting state 

funds for ports that work with Cuba in 

my budget.” 

He tweeted a few other barbs, but the 

threat to cut infrastructure dollars for Florida 

ports cooperating with their Cuban 

counterparts was the one that stung. It had 

dollars attached, and it took port officials 

from Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale off 

guard; both had scheduled press events 

to showcase the MOU signing with the 

National Port Administration of Cuba. 

“The Governor’s position was surprising, 

to say the least,” Manuel Almira, the 

Port of Palm Beach’s executive director, 

emailed the Miami Herald. In short order, 

however, both ports backed down rather 

than risk losing money from the Florida 

Department of Transportation and other 

state agencies—as much as $125 million 

for Port Everglades alone. 


“We are in a major expansion here, 

and we want to make sure that it goes in 

that direction,” Port Everglades executive 

director Steve Cernak told Cuba Trade. 

“To do trade with Cuba is an issue, because 

there is an embargo in place.” 

Coincidentally, Port Everglades made 

history the day before the governor’s 

tweet when the first cargo from Cuba to 

the United States in more than 50 years 

landed: a load of artisanal charcoal made 

by independent Cuban farmers. 

“It’s an honor when something like 

that happens,” said Cernak. “But the port 

itself did not do that business with Cuba.” 

That kudo went to the Crowley shipping 

line, and “the [federal government that] 

approved it for entry.” 

While port directors in Florida were 

slow to criticize the governor, however, 

there were howls from the editorial boards 

of the local papers. “What a disappointing 

trump card Gov. Rick Scott played 

this week,” wrote Fort Lauderdale's Sun 

Sentinel. “This economic potential deserves 

the state’s support, not to be held hostage 

to politics of the moment,” wrote the Palm 

Beach Post. 

But why would Gov. Scott attack 

trade with Communist Cuba, but not, for 

example, with Communist China? When 

asked that question by Cuba Trade, the 

Governor’s office responded, “Florida has 

a lot of Cuban refugees who have suffered 

at the hands of the brutal Castro dictatorship. 

At the state level, we give significant 

state funds to our seaports for infrastructure 

projects and the announcement that 

some Florida ports were going to sign 

MOU’s was concerning. Governor Scott 

does not support using state funds to help 

the Cuban dictatorship.” 

No mention was made of China. But, 

as Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiassen 

wrote, “The governor has been a gushing 

supporter of free trade with China, where 

human rights are trampled daily by the 

government.” Why then attack Cuba? The 

answer, says Hiassen, is simple: Gov. Scott 

is positioning himself as “a tough guy” for 

the U.S. Senate race in 2018. 

The trade delegation of Cuban port 

officials, meanwhile, downplayed the 

MOUs and said their signing was not 

needed, inviting Gov. Scott to visit Cuba. 

Not unexpectedly, Scott turned them 

down, and instead included his threat in 

his 2017-2018 state budget proposal. H

Of all the economic possibilities in Cuba today, none comes 

close to the explosion of tourism. 

Want to reach 120,000 readers who want—and need—to travel to Cuba? 

COMING IN MAY: THE TOURISM ISSUE 

In 2016 there were a record 4 million tourists visiting Cuba. 

This number is expected to more than double to 10 million by 

2030—and that does not include the 5 million annual cruise 

passengers expected by then. 

Most of this growth will come from the U.S. According to 

Gallup, more than 40% of Americans want to travel to Cuba. 

And about half of those say they are VERY interested in 

going there. 

What this means is that hotel chains, cruise lines, private 

B&Bs, airlines, travel companies, etc. will all experience excellent 

opportunities for growth. 

Now, Cuba Trade, the only national magazine exclusively devoted 

to trade & commerce with Cuba, announces its Tourism 

Issue—the definitive look at who is doing what in the hospitality 

industry, on the land, on the sea and in the air. 

To confirm your participation contact Gail Scott at 305-987-1169 

or email gail@scottmediasolutions.com

TRANSITIONS 

THE 

CHINA ENIGMA 

With Venezuelan support waning, a big question 

is whether China wants to fill the gap 

By Doreen Hemlock 


Huawei Technologies shows off a smartphone at a recent trade fair in Havana 

China has been Cuba’s No. 2 trade partner 

for years, eclipsed only by the island 

nation’s close ally and energy supplier, 

Venezuela. As a fellow communist nation, 

China has been a stalwart supplier of 

goods and credit. But as Cuba’s economy 

slips into recession for the first time in two 

decades—largely due to cut backs in Venezuelan 

oil shipments, loans, and aid—will 

China pick up the slack? 

Experts say the Asian giant likely will 

cover some of the loss, partly out of political 

solidarity, but not enough to replace 

the massive support provided by Venezuela 

for more than a decade. 

The Chinese tend to be businessoriented, 

say specialists in China-Latin 

America relations, and Cuba doesn’t offer 

too much in the way of natural resources, 

guarantees for loan repayments, or investment 

opportunities that could serve as a 

platform for the United States or other 

major markets worldwide. 

“As long as Cuba continues not to have 

money, the amount of support they will 

get from the Chinese will be limited,” said 

Evan Ellis, Latin American research professor 

at the Strategic Studies Institute of the 

U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. 

What’s more, the Chinese are frus- 


trated by the slow pace of Cuba's economic 

opening. 

“China has been trying to advise the 

Cuban government on ways forward with 

economic reform [but] with little progress, 

much to the dismay of the Chinese government,” 

said Margaret Myers, director 

of the China-Latin American program at 

Washington's Inter-American Dialogue. 

More Chinese engagement will be predicated 

on reform, she said, including less 

red tape for investors. 

China could still become Cuba’s No. 

1 commercial partner as Venezuelan trade 

shrinks. Yet preliminary data for 2016 suggests 

that China isn’t expanding to fill Venezuela’s 

void. Chinese government statistics 

for 2015 show $2.21 billion in two-way 

trade with Cuba, including $1.88 billion 

in Chinese sales to Cuba and $330 million 

in Cuban sales to China. For the first 11 

months of 2016, that trade appeared to be 

running flat or slightly down: $1.96 billion, 

including $1.69 billion in Chinese sales and 

$270 million in Cuban sales. 

In addition to stagnating, the trade is 

lopsided, because China sells Cuba mainly 

higher-priced telecom equipment, buses, 

and industrial goods, and buys mainly sugar 

and other lower-priced Cuban commodities. 

Beijing already finances some sales 

to Cuba, partly based on politics, offering 

the island “no-interest loans you don’t 

see much elsewhere in Latin America,” 

said Myers. Yet that financing is relatively 

limited. Myers estimates that China’s two 

main development banks have provided 

some $5 billion in low- or no-interest 

loans to Cuba in the past decade or so. 

That’s far less than Soviet subsidies to 

Cuba, which topped $3 billion yearly in 

the 1980s, and even less compared to Venezuela’s 

contribution, estimated as high as 

$7 billion annually at its peak. 

The Chinese remain active on some 

infrastructure projects, including wifi 

expansion supplied by Huawei Technologies 

and port improvements in Santiago 

de Cuba estimated to top $120 million. 

But other proposed Chinese ventures have 

yet to materialize, including a Geely auto 

plant in Mariel. 

How much China compensates for 

Venezuela’s decline also depends on President 

Donald Trump. The Chinese were 

hoping that thawing U.S relations with 

Havana would accelerate Cuba’s economy 

and create new opportunities for Chinese 

business on the island. They’re now waiting 

to see what Trump does. H

R 

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CUBA BRAND 

A CUBAN STOCK 

EXCHANGE 

...OF SORTS 

Stocks and bonds from before the Revolution 

are still in demand, just not at par value 

Photo by Monique LaRouche 

By J.P. Faber 

Bob Kerstein, CEO of Virginia-based Scripophily.com holding a Cuban stock certificate 

Even years after the Revolution, even 

after the companies were nationalized, 

shareholders of the Camaguey Sugar 

Company of Cuba, the Cuban Portland 

Cement Corporation, and the 7up 

Company of Cuba, Inc. continued to hold 

onto—and even trade—their increasingly 

worthless stocks and bonds. 

“Cuba is interesting because the 

bonds were still traded after Castro took 

over, until [the holders] realized they 

could never be redeemed,” says Bob Kerstein, 

Virginia-based CEO of scripophily. 

com, a company that specializes in the 

sale of original stock certificates. “After 

Castro took over Cuba the prices were 

way down, but they were still hoping the 

U.S. would invade.” 

Today those stocks and bonds are 

experiencing a small rally. Collectors seek 

them as valuable mementos, like baseball 

cards from Cuba’s capitalist past. “It’s 

picked up recently because of the opening 

of ties and our relationship with Cuba,” 

says Kerstein. “These are pieces of history, 

and they all tell a story.” 


Scripophily.com sells about two 

dozen different Cuban financial certificates, 

including ones from railways, power 

companies, hotels, and banks, all long 

gone. Prices range from $9.95 for a Camaguey 

Sugar Company stock certificate 

(100 shares!) to $295 for a 100 peso bond 

issued in 1882 by a railroad company in 

Guantánamo. Kerstein says shares from 

sugar companies are the most popular. 

Kerstein is far from alone in catering 

to a growing interest in collectables 

from Cuba’s past, and the mystique of its 

memories. Leslie Pantín, a Miami-based 

PR professional, is also the proprietor of 

the annual Cuba Nostalgia show. Last 

year the fair attracted 30,000 visitors who 

came for the sights and sounds of Cuba’s 

past, including a chance to buy memorabilia. 

“With everything that is happing in 

Cuba there is a fascination with Cuban 

things, all over the place,” says Pantín, 

who has put on the weekend-long show 

for the past 18 years. “The difference now 

is that when we started, there were people 

who just sold memorabilia, something 

that was in their Florida room or in their 

garage. Now we have a lot of people who 

do this as a business.” 

On Miami’s Coral Way, for example, 

a store called the Cuban Museum sells 

everything from old Havana phone books 

to silverware from the presidential palace 

(now the Museum of the Revolution). 

The store also sells stocks and bonds, but 

don’t have quite the range as Kerstein. 

Kerstein's catalogue of offerings 

includes certificates from numerous times 

and places in history, but he gets a special 

kick out of his Cuban collectables, which 

he acquires at auctions, from private individuals, 

and “as we come across them.” 

“About 15 years ago I got a lot from 

an old warehouse,” says Kerstein. “Victor 

Astor was big in Cuba at one time, and 

many of them had his name on them.” 

And for a mere $34.95 customers can 

own a 100-share stock certificate issued 

in 1947 by Victor, son of hotel magnate 

John Jacob Astor, for the Vertientes-Camaguey 

Sugar Company of Cuba. H

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REMITTANCES 

HOMEBOUND BARGAINS 

For Cubans who travel back and forth between Miami and 

their island home, Ño Que Barato has become an institution 

By Ariana H. Reguant 


Shoppers hunt for deals at Ño Que Barato in Miami's Hialeah neighborhood 

At the start of every school year, families 

line up outside the studios of America 

TV––a popular local Spanish-language 

television station in a Miami suburb––to 

receive a backpack filled with school 

supplies, courtesy of Ño Que Barato. 

Hundreds of children are served, and 

every immigrant home knows storeowner 

Serafín Blanco gives back to the community. 

Indeed, Ño Que Barato is more than 

a business. 

Blanco, a Cuban immigrant, founded 

Ño in 1996 to cater to the newly arrived 

balseros who, unlike earlier migrant 

cohorts, remained in close communication 

with their families on the island. 

Some 20,000 immigrant visas were being 

granted every year to Cubans and, by the 

end of the decade, both Cuba and the 

U.S. had eliminated travel restrictions for 

Cuban-Americans returning for family 

visits. This led to a growing consumer base 

for underpriced clothes, shoes, and plastic 

household wares that could be transported 

in suitcases. 

Known for his sense of humor, Blanco 

came up with a business name that was 

a stroke of genius. “Ño” is shorthand for 

a colloquial swear word that denotes surprise. 

The entire expression, Ño Que Barato, 

could be translated as “Wow, that’s cheap.” 

The motto quickly stuck. As the store’s 

advertisements proclaim, “the name says 

it all.” In addition, the candid promotions 

on local TV, spoken directly to the camera 

by program anchors, local celebrities, or 

Blanco himself, convey proximity and familiarity, 

as in “I am one of you.” Any day 

of the week, people flock in to buy—by 

the dozen and by the pound. 

Located in an industrial area of 

West Hialeah outside of Miami, Ño Que 

Barato functions like a department store. 

The large warehouse space, lacking in 

air-conditioning, is filled with racks of 

cheap clothing and shoes for men, women, 

and children, including school and work 

uniforms, guayaberas, lingerie, baptismal 

baby robes, and beddings. At Ño, one can 

also find religious objects, USB drives, 

unlocked cell phones, perfumes, watches, 

mosquito netting for beds, hand fans, and 

everything else conceivably useful in Cuba. 

Along the walls, independent sellers rent 

counter space with specialty services and 

merchandise, like optic and jewelry shops. 

On the floor, the sales staff is older, much 

like the average shopper. 

A life-size statue of San Lázaro, also 

known as Babalú Ayé in Afro-Cuban 

religions, greets the public and guards the 

store. San Lázaro—St. Lazarus—was an 

old beggar who suffered from leprosy and 

was saved by Jesus in the New Testament; 

as they exit the store, many patrons leave 

spare change at his feet as a sign of respect 

and devotion. As Babalú Ayé, however, 

he experienced a rebirth and became a 

righteous ruler who punished humans for 

their transgressions. 

When thieves broke into Ño Que 

Barato last year, they might have thought 

they could escape the saint’s wrathful 

watch. Police caught them in the act, and 

one who ran was later found unconscious 

inside a hot industrial dryer in the laundromat 

next door. At Ño Que Barato, staff 

and clients expressed relief, knowing well 

that under San Lázaro’s watch, no bad 

deed goes unpunished—and no good one 

goes unrewarded. H 


CFI 

US-Cuba Trade Relations & 

Investment 

“As proud members of the USACC, 

we support improved trade relations 

and thank the efforts of the coalition.” 

We aim to create stable and synergistic consensus, 

trade, and foreign direct investment 

partnerships. 

Established 2008 

www.ChicagoFoodsInternational.com

RECREATION 

BUILD IT 

AND THEY 

WILL PLAY 

How a Vermont 

nonprofit resurfaced 

Cuba’s Tennis Federation 

courts in Havana. 

Next: Grass Courts? 

Photo courtesy of Kids on the Ball 

By Oscar Musibay 

Jake Agna, founder of Vermont-based Kids on the Ball Program, on the courts in Cuba 

At its height in 1991, Cuba's National 

Tennis Federation was host to tennis 

players from across the Americas, as part 

of the 39-nation Pan American Games. 

Its courts were immaculate. 

Twenty-five years later the 10 

concrete courts in Havana were cracked, 

faded, and basically unusable. In some 

cases, players used a cord between chairs 

to simulate the net. Cuba’s national tennis 

courts needed a $600,000 overhaul. 

“They were the worst I have ever 

seen,” said Jake Agna, founder of Vermont-based 

Kids on the Ball Program, 

who first visited Cuba in 2014. “Yet I 

counted 100 kids there ranging in age from 

5 to 20 that were using it regularly. They 

didn’t have a choice.” 

Despite the difficulties, the facility 

was also where the Cuban Davis Cup team 

practiced. So, Agna recruited Hinding 

Tennis of West Haven, Conn., to take on 

the resurfacing project. 

Finding a contractor to do the work 

turned out to be the easy part. It took 18 

months for the project to get clearance 

from both U.S. and Cuban officials. It finally 

received U.S. approval via a “human- 


itarian” classification from the Department 

of Commerce, which made sense since 

Kids on the Ball’s nonprofit mission is to 

use tennis to improve the lives of at-risk 

youth. A for-profit project would have 

stalled, said brothers Tom and Steven 

Hinding, of Hinding Tennis. 

Helping them along the way was 

Cuban Sports Minister Alberto Juantorena, 

Agna said. On the U.S. side, the tennis 

pros engaged Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) 

as well as the Cuban American Friendship 

Society (CAFS) of Burlington, Vt., with 

the latter doing all the legal heavy lifting. 

The memorandum of understanding that 

moved the project forward identifies 

CAFS as the licensed exporter of the 

needed gear. 

Not unexpectedly, there were a few 

glitches that contributed to cost increases, 

said Steven Hinding. Temperature and 

humidity were factors; the project was approved 

in the spring of 2016, but didn’t get 

started until November, when the weather 

was more manageable (and past the rainy 

season). Cuban officials then delayed 

Crowley Maritime Corp.’s delivery of the 

five shipping containers that held all the 

necessary new equipment and materials. 

The containers were to be delivered to the 

site by Nov. 21, but it took nearly another 

week, which meant additional crew costs. 

Without the shipping containers, no work 

could begin. 

“Whether you need a gas can or a 

screwdriver, there is no Home Depot or 

Lowe’s,” explained Hinding. “The hardware 

store they have down there is the size 

of a one-car garage and they don’t take 

credit cards.” Fidel Castro’s death on Nov. 

25 also meant the city and its resources 

were shut down for nine days. 

But in the end, all the work was 

worth it. 

“It was the most challenging project 

we have undertaken, but also the most 

gratifying,” Hinding said. 

Agna is now looking to raise $1.2 

million to reconstruct two grass courts that 

were part of the facility, as well as a tennis 

federation building that includes showers, 

a weight room, and a conference space. 

“We are looking for sponsors that can 

help us with the money,” he said. After 

that, it’s time to train for the Olympics or 

Wimbledon, whichever comes first. H

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TRADE 

From pesky weed to artisanal export 

Charcoal made from marabú, a plant known for ravaging Cuba’s farms, 

is the first cargo shipment to the U.S. in more than 50 years 


While rum and cigars may be Cuba’s 

most iconic products, charcoal made from 

a weed known for decimating its farmlands 

was the first Cuban cargo to unload 

at a U.S. port in more than 50 years. 

About 40 tons of marabú charcoal arrived 

at Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades 

at the end of January. The charcoal was 

delivered by Crowley Maritime Corp., a 

company that has shipped U.S. agriculture 

goods and medicine to Cuba since 2001. 

“There were three years of development, 

so it was really nice to see that come to 

fruition,” said Jay Brickman, who leads 

Crowley’s Cuba services. 

The export was made possible thanks 

to an Obama administration change that 

allows some products made by private 

individuals to be exported to the U.S. The 

producers must prove they are independent 

of the Cuban government. 

“Marabú charcoal is cut and produced 

by private Cuban cooperatives, providing 

them with a growing market less 

than 100 miles away,” said Scott Gilbert, 

chair of Reneo Consulting LLC—the 

group that arranged the charcoal deal. 

Gilbert also represented former USAID 


Marabú exports to the U.S. 

are just a drop in the bucket, 

but it is significant that this 

deal happened. 

subcontractor Alan Gross, who was jailed 

in Cuba for five years before the U.S. and 

Cuba normalized relations. 

After unloading at Port Everglades, 

the marabú charcoal was delivered to 

Hialeah-based Fogo Charcoal, which 

repackaged it in 33-pound bags for retail 

customers. Fogo describes the charcoal 

as having a neutral flavor with a long and 

hot burn—making it ideal for baking 

bread and pizza. 

The conversion of marabú from 

invasive plant to charcoal marks a turning 

point for Cuban farmers. The woody weed 

has a reputation for overruning otherwise 

fertile farmland. According to an International 

Model Forest Network report, 

the plant covers an estimated 1.7 million 

hectares of once productive land in Cuba. 

“Now it can be used to produce this 

fantastic artisanal charcoal, thereby clearing 

the fields and making them available 

for agricultural growth,” Gilbert said. 

Fred Royce, a University of Florida 

staff member specializing in Cuban 

agriculture, says marabú could potentially 

become an important cash crop. Cuba 

has been shipping thousands of tons of 

charcoal to Europe and Latin America for 

years. The country is also seeking foreign 

investors to help build power plants 

that convert marabú and sugar cane into 

bioenergy. 

“Marabú exports to the U.S. are just a 

drop in the bucket,” Royce said. “But it is 

significant that this deal happened.” 

It’s not yet clear whether the charcoal 

will stick in the U.S. market. Cuban 

sellers should be encouraged that Fogo’s 

pre-orders sold out before the first shipment 

reached U.S. shores. But, according 

to the Associated Press, Reneo Consulting 

purchased the charcoal for $420 per 

ton—significantly more than the $360 

per ton market price for regular charcoal. 

It’s not yet clear whether American consumers 

are willing to pay a premium for 

artisanal charcoal. H

BEFORE THE EMBARGO, 

Cuba was the top 

destination for our rice. 

LET’S GET THERE AGAIN.

ENTREPRENEURS 

How one family of farmers 

in Eastern Cuba made the 

transition to becoming a 

small business 



Hundreds of small roses, some red, yellow and pink, and some two-toned, ready for transport. 

Drive off the main road, down rocky dirt 

lanes, past concrete houses with cactus 

hedges, past men on horseback wearing 

wide-brim hats, and you’ll reach the farm 

of the Sanchez family in Cuba’s eastern 

province of Holguín. 

Like his father before him and grandfather 

before that, Isidro Sanchez Jr. works 

the land as an independent farmer. But 

these days, the sturdy 45-year-old has lots 

more options of how to do business. 

The Sanchez family received its plot 

as part of a government redistribution 

after Cuba’s 1959 Revolution. For decades, 

they depended on the state as an intermediary 

to buy and distribute produce from 

their farm. The family received payment 


only in cash, and only in Cuban pesos. 

But with recent economic reforms, 

Sanchez now has a license to sell directly 

to buyers as well as to the state. He’s 

teamed up with fellow entrepreneurs in a 

venture that offers landscaping and related 

services to hotels and others. And he can 

be paid in pesos, Cuba’s CUC currency, or 

even by check. 

“Now, when we get big contracts, I 

can hire more people,” said Sanchez, walking 

shirtless through his small farm that 

grows ornamental plants, from palm trees 

to roses. “Before, I couldn’t do that.” 

More options means chances for 

higher income. By selling direct, Sanchez 

can charge more than what he’d get from 

a state intermediary. His clients can get a 

better deal without middlemen—a lower 

price and longer-term guarantees on the 

quality of the produce, for instance. And 

he can pay the government more; his 10 

percent tax paid on higher revenue puts 

more cash in state coffers. 

Sanchez now proudly employs six 

people full-time and up to 18 on major 

landscaping projects. Yet like other entrepreneurs 

in Cuba, he faces challenges, 

especially to obtain supplies. There are no 

wholesale markets or retail stores to buy 

farm inputs, so he relies on government 

distributors. 

“Sometimes, it’s a bit hard to get fertilizer, 

because you have to wait until the

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Isidro Sanchez Jr. walking shirtless through his small farm. 

state brings it to you and sells it to you,” 

said Sanchez during a walk through fields 

at the farm. 

Misleidys Gonzalez, 33, teamed up 

with Sanchez several years ago to sell 

landscaping services and floral arrangements 

to hotels and others under the 

Belleza Maxima or Bellmax name. She’d 

left her job as a government nurse earning 

less than $20 per month, hoping to 

expand her horizons. She chose Sanchez 

as her farming partner in this eastern 

province, partly for practical reasons. 

“He’s very responsible and hard-working, 

has good fertile land to develop, and 

had a truck. With the vehicle, we could 

easily transport plants and crews,” said 

Gonzalez. “Renting vehicles costs more.” 

Sanchez still sells some products through 

state intermediaries. Among them are 


Now that 

the old man 

[Fidel] died, 

they’re buying 

a lot more 

flowers for 

the cemetery. 

flowers bound for cemeteries—including 

Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba, where 

Fidel Castro’s ashes are buried. On a recent 

weekday, his crew filled a trough with 

hundreds of small roses—some red, yellow 

and pink, and some two-toned—all ready 

for transport. Quipped Sanchez’s jocular 

dad, Ignacio Sr., already 82: “Now that the 

old man [Fidel] died, they’re buying a lot 

more flowers for the cemetery.” H

MEDIA 

Cuba has become more open to 

foreign films and Hollywood 

because it's good for the economy. 

Fermin Rojas, 

Cuban-American filmmaker 

FILMMAKING 

IN CUBA 

Fermin Rojas on location in Havana 

HOW AMERICAN COMPANIES ARE TACKLING THE 

NUANCES OF AUDIO-VISUAL PRODUCTIONS IN CUBA 

By Suzette Laboy 

For the last half-century, Cuba has been 

forbidden territory for American film 

companies. Following the 1959 Revolution, 

directors who wanted Caribbean 

settings—or even faux Cuban backgrounds—had 

to settle instead for the 

Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. 

But since diplomatic relations 

have eased between the Cold War foes, 

Hollywood and other media industries 

are turning their attention—and 

dollars—to the island. The full-length 

feature “Papa Hemingway in Cuba,” was 

filmed on the island in 2015. Discovery 


Channel’s “Cuban Chrome” depicted its 

obsessive car culture. Comedian Conan 

O’Brien and chef Anthony Bourdain 

both filmed episodes in Cuba for their 

TV shows. Hollywood blockbusters 

“Transformers: The Last Knight” 

and “Fate of the Furious,” were also 

filmed there, as was Martin Scorsese’s 

documentary about the Rolling Stones 

concert in Cuba, “Havana Moon.” 

Not only do these productions require 

substantial expenditures to bring equipment 

into Cuba, they also require permits 

and connections. For this, filmmakers 

typically turn to European or Canadian 

companies to help them through the 

process. 

“It’s absolutely essential to use somebody 

that knows what they are doing,” 

said Cuban-American filmmaker Fermin 

Rojas, who contracted a Canadian production 

company in 2012 to help obtain 

permits for “Alumbrones”––a documentary 

that follows 12 Cuban artists living in 

Havana. “That was the only company at 

the time who had been doing it for, like, 

20 years.” 

Last year, the Obama adminstration

Cuba is unknown 

territory with 

locations that have 

never been used 

before by American 

companies 

Barry Pasternak 

CEO of Cuba International Network 

Pasternak testing a new camera system in Havana 

gave the green light for Florida-based 

Cuba International Network (CIN) to 

provide equipment and personnel to 

American companies filming in Cuba. 

“Cuba is unknown territory, with 

locations that have never been used 

before by American companies,” said 

company CEO Barry Pasternak of Cuba’s 

allure. “We handle it from concept to 

completion,” with everything from film 

equipment to food service, soundstage, 

and security. 

Although CIN has yet to work on 

any major productions on the island, 

Pasternak—an Emmy award winning 

veteran of the TV industry—has consulted 

on various projects, including the 

uplink of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball 

game watched by President Obama 

during his 2016 visit to Cuba. CIN now 

has the availability and approval to bring 

in equipment for full production work, as 

well as experience with Cuban authorities 

on getting proposals approved and 

permits processed. 

Moviemaking in Cuba can be 

challenging. Filming requires work and 

location permits via the state film commission 

Asociacion Cubana del Audiovisual 

(Cuba’s Audiovisual Association). Among 

other things, strict script approvals are 

required. On the technical side, CIN 

works with Cuba’s Instituto Cubano del 

Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (the 

Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art 

and Industry or ICAIC). 

Like many industries now exploring 

opportunities in Cuba, filmmaking is 

waiting to see what the Trump administration 

will do. 

“I get requests just about every 

day regarding any potential threat to 

U.S.-Cuba engagements that have 

been so fruitful and advanced over past 

two, three years,” said Bill Martinez, a 

California-based attorney who works on 

U.S.-Cuba cultural exchanges and artists’ 

visas. 

Before the Obama administration, 

filmmaking in Cuba required a specific 

license. Now filmkmakers no longer 

need to formally apply to the Treasury 

Department’s Office of Foreign Assets 

Control (OFAC), which enforces trade 

sanctions. It is “based on good faith that 

you are there to actually do filmmaking 

and not drink mojitos on the beach,” 

says Martinez. 

“Cuba has become more open to 

foreign films and Hollywood because it’s 

good for the economy," said filmmaker 

Rojas. 

Pasternak added: “We all need to 

work together so the industry can promote 

the areas that are going to become major 

profit centers [and] we could be a major 

assistance to the government of Cuba 

because we can bring these people to the 

table.” He also said U.S. companies would 

employ Cuban technicians and artists to 

work on projects, from major league sports 

to entertainment, music concerts, and 

more. 

Politics aside, Pasternak said the 

future for the industry in Cuba looks 

promising. “What’s really happening is we 

believe these are the kinds of things that 

Americans want to see: Sports from Cuba, 

the Latin jazz, to really be able to see a live 

concert,” he said. “It’s not a tourist thing, 

it’s a cultural thing.” H 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

39

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www.worldtrade.org

FINANCE 

A PIPELINE 

TO CUBA'S 

PRIVATE SECTOR 

Money remitters 

are starting to play 

a vital role in business 

transactions 


When Cuba legalized the U.S. dollar in 

1993, it was difficult to use remittances 

for anything other than food, household 

goods, and utilities. Now, after 24 years of 

changes in U.S.-Cuba remittance policies, 

cash transfers are so valuable that they are 

propelling private businesses on both sides 

of the Straits of Florida. 

Elsa Vazquez Velar is just one of 

several small U.S. business owners who 

use money remitters to pay Cubans for 

services in the private sector. Her business, 

CasasCuba B&B, consists of several casas 

particulares (bed & breakfasts) in Santiago 

de Cuba. Vazquez Velar manages reservations 

from her home in Miami, and uses 

Western Union to pay her uncle in Santiago 

de Cuba for welcoming those guests. 

“I have no complaints,” Vazquez Velar 

said. “Obviously, we are over here and my 

uncle is running the B&Bs over there, but 

it is still very efficient.” 

CasasCuba B&B is not alone in 

using money remitters to pay for services 

in Cuba’s burgeoning private sector. Its 

best-known competitor, hospitality giant 

Airbnb, pays many of its hosts through the 

Miami-based remitter VaCuba. 

The casas particulares industry's use 

of money remitters to pay hosts illustrates 

how remittances are pivoting towards 

conducting business transactions. U.S. and 

Cuban policy changes helped make that 


pivot happen at an astonishing speed. 

According to the Havana Consulting 

Group, annual remittances to Cuba rose 

by 116 percent from 2008 to 2014, making 

Cuba the fastest-growing remittance 

market in Latin America. Cash transfers 

to Cuba––worth more than $3 billion 

dollars in 2015—now rank among one of 

the most valuable sectors of the Cuban 

economy. 

The Cuban government has authorized 

several money remitters to operate 

on the island, though none are as recognizable 

as Western Union. Today, WU 

facilitates cash transfers worth thousands 

of dollars each at more than 400 locations 

throughout the country. 

WU set up shop in Cuba in 1999, 

six years after the Cuban government 

legalized the possession of the U.S. 

A Western Union office in Havana 

dollar as a way to offset its dependence 

on the collapsed Soviet Union. In order 

to operate in Cuba, the company signed 

a contract with FINCIMEX, the Cuban 

government entity that manages—and 

takes a cut from—all remittance wire 

transfers to the country. WU charges a fee 

of 8 to 10 percent. Since then, the amount 

and frequency of WU’s cash transfers has 

been largely dependent on U.S. policy. 

Remittance flows to Cuba fall into 

three eras: Clinton, Bush, and Obama. 

Wire transfers first took shape 

under the Clinton presidency. Cubans 

mostly used those transfers to pay for 

food, household goods, and repairs. Even 

though remittance flows to Cuba were 

relatively small during those years, some 

Cubans used the foreign capital to finance 

small private businesses. 

Photo by Matias J. Ocner

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• Accommodations for two, four or six people. 

• Reasonable rates. Breakfast included. 

Contact Maylu Hernenandez at 

maylu21@hotmail.com for availability and rates.

Under the Bush administration, it 

became more difficult for Cubans to use 

remittances to finance private businesses. 

In 2004, Bush tightened the policy to 

allow Cuban emigrés to send no more 

than $300 to relatives every three months. 

Authorized Cuban-Americans were only 

allowed to travel to the island once every 

three years—cutting off another valuable 

avenue for remittances. 

Under Obama, remittance flows 

skyrocketed and became an invaluable 

resource for aspiring Cuban entrepreneurs. 

In 2009, Obama increased the remittance 

limit to $500 per quarter. By September 

2015, that restriction had been lifted 

entirely, along with the $10,000 limit 

that authorized travelers were allowed to 

carry to Cuba. Those loosened restrictions 

paved the way for entrepreneurs to finance 

everything from ingredients for a private 

restaurant to the remodeling of homes 

into B&Bs. 

“It is the principal support for the private 

sector,” said Emilio Morales, CEO of 

Havana Consulting Group. He added that 

Cubans are also using remittances to pay 

for telephone bills, hotel stays, and flights 

to visit relatives outside the country. 

Western Union appears to be embracing 

its role as an intermediary for business 

transactions in Cuba’s private sector. In 

June 2016, WU innovated by putting its 

CasasCuba B&B 's Elsa Vazquez Velar (center) and staff 

Cuba cash transfer services online and 

on mobile apps—making transfers more 

convenient than ever. 

“To have the service and do it right 

away right from my office is priceless,” 

said CasasCuba B&B’s Vazquez Velar. She 

recently helped guests who ran out of cash 

during their stay in Santiago de Cuba by 

referring them to WU’s online services. 

Even though remittance flows to 

Cuba are at an all-time high, Morales 

warns that WU may have some challenges 

on the horizon. Unlike many 

other sectors of the Cuban economy, real 

competition exists among money remitters. 

VaCuba is an up-and-coming rival 

since it already conducts transactions for 

Airbnb and does direct delivery for many 

of its cash transfers. Moneygram and 

TransCard are also serious competitors. 

Even PayPal has announced its intentions 

to enter the fray, though up until 

now it has actively blocked transfers that 

involve Cuba. 

“It could be the end of an era, because 

there are going to be other competitors,” 

Morales said. 

Money remitters must also keep a 

close watch on President Trump’s approach 

to Cuba. Trump has made several non-specific 

threats to undo Obama’s Cuba 

opening. Just like Bush, he could decide to 

tighten the current remittance policy. H 

U.S. CASH TRANSFERS TO CUBA 

A TIMELINE 

1993 

Cuba legalizes the use of the U.S. dollar. Most 

remittances to Cuba are delivered by hand 

through visitors to the island. 

1995 

Cuba’s FINCIMEX creates American International 

Services to create contracts with 

money remitters from around the world. 

1997 

Canada-based TransCard becomes the first 

foreign company in Cuba to handle cash 

transfers. Customers transfer cash to Cuba 

by loading a beneficiary’s debit card. 

1999 

Western Union enters Cuba after signing a 

contract to work with FINCIMEX. It opens 

with dozens of locations throughout the 

island. 

2004 

President Bush tightens the remittance 

policy. People can send only $300 to immediate 

family members every three months. 

Authorized travelers are only allowed to visit 

the island once every three years. 

2009 

President Obama raises the remittance limit 

to $500 per quarter. Travel limitations are 

loosened and authorized visitors are allowed 

to carry $3,000 to the island. 

2015 

In January, President Obama increases the 

remittance limit to $2,000 per quarter and 

allows authorized travelers to carry $10,000 

in cash to the island. By September, the limits 

are lifted entirely. 

JUNE 2016 

Western Union starts mobile remittance 

services. 

OCTOBER 2016 

The Department of Treasury expands the 

list of authorized recipients of remittances 

to include certain members of the Cuban 

government. 


TOURISM 

Singapore Plants its 

Flag in Cuba 

Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts has big ambitions 

for its second destination in Latin America 


Photos supplied by Banyan Tree 

The 516-room Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria on Cuba’s northern coast 

Cuba’s hotel industry—which has been 

dominated by Spanish brands such as 

Meliá and Iberostar for the last 25 years— 

is making way for a new player from Asia. 

Singapore-based Banyan Tree Hotels 

& Resorts plans to open four resorts in 

Cuba by 2019—enclaves that will extend 

their brand of “naturally-luxurious, 

ecological, culturally-sensitive” properties 

in anticipation of the steep growth in 

tourists heading for the island nation. 

While Banyan Tree is relatively 

unknown to Americans, it’s a recognizable 

hotel chain in Asia. The company 

has dozens of luxury properties across the 

continent and in parts of Africa. Now it’s 

expanding its presence to Latin America 

by opening resorts in both Cuba and 

Mexico. 

“In a lot of our hotels we’ve been a 

relative pioneer developer,” Banyan Tree 

Managing Director Des Pugson told 

Cuba Trade. “Cuba fits that pioneering 

spirit, combined with the medium and 


long-term potential of the whole country 

for tourism.” 

About 4 million people visited 

the island in 2016, according to Cuban 

government statistics. The country hopes 

to welcome 10 million visitors annually 

by 2030—but to make that happen Cuba 

must speed up foreign tourism projects. 

“The opportunities for the industry 

to grow are really vast and enormous,” 

says Richard S. Newfarmer, co-author of 

a recent Brookings Institution report on 

tourism in Cuba. 

Banyan Tree’s Cuba play is centered 

on two geographic regions. The company 

recently soft-opened its 516-room Dhawa 

Cayo Santa Maria on Cuba’s northern 

coast, about 70 miles east of Santa Clara. 

It plans on opening an adjacent 220-room 

Angsana Cayo Santa Maria by November 

of this year. Banyan Tree’s other destination 

will be Cayo Buba, a small island 

known for its mangroves that sits next to 

Varadero’s resort strip. The company plans 

on opening adjacent resorts here by 2019. 

As is required by Cuban law, Banyan 

Tree is partnering with state enterprise 

Gaviota SA to build its resorts. Pugson 

says Banyan Tree has a management 

agreement with Gaviota that allows the 

Singaporean company to manage properties 

owned by the state enterprise. 

Opponents of U.S. engagement 

with Cuba consider the move controversial 

because Gaviota reports to the 

Cuban Ministry of Defense (MINFAR). 

According to the recent Brookings report, 

Gaviota controls about 25 percent of the 

rooms available to international tourists. 

U.S.-based Starwood also partnered with 

Gaviota for its Four Points by Sheraton 

hotel in Havana. 

“As an owner they have been very 

supportive. They have delivered the hotel 

on time, which is pretty good,” said 

Pugson, adding that it's not his place to 

comment on U.S. skepticism of Gaviota. 

While U.S. companies interested in

The lobby of the 516-room Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria 

Cuba have earned a lot of media attention, 

Banyan Tree’s entry highlights Singapore’s 

growing desire to forge relationships 

with the island. That's evident with 

PSA International, a Singaporean port 

operator that signed on to manage Cuba’s 

ambitious Mariel Special Economic 

Development Zone in 2011. 

The Singapore-Cuba relationship 

appears to be moving forward despite 

the two countries having little in 

common. About the only similarity is 

that they are both island-nations with 

strong central governments. In 1959, 

Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore embraced 

free-market capitalism while Fidel 

Castro’s Cuba inched towards Sovietstyle 

communism. Singapore is also 

renowned for streamlining bureaucracy 

for foreign companies. Cuba does not 

have the same reputation. Regarding 

tourism, Singaporean hospitality brands 

tend to promote modernity while Cuba 

specializes in nostalgia. The two countries 

are also separated by an 11-hour time 

difference. 

These stark comparisons beg 

the question: Why is a Singaporean 

hospitality company betting big on Cuba? 

“The progression to Latin America 

is just us spreading our wings that much 

further, to where the great opportunities 

exist,” Pugson said. “It’s quite clear that 

now, and when we started working with 

the owners, that there was going to be 

future opportunity [to capture tourists] 

from places like Europe and the U.S.” 

Pugson added that he is confident 

Banyan Tree can shake-up Cuba’s tourism 

industry by offering perks that aren’t 

available at other hotels. Banyan Tree 

plans on installing wifi in every guest 

room. The company is also making a push 

to attract younger customers—as opposed 

to the couples and older families who 

have tended to visit Cuba’s beach resorts. 

What makes Banyan Tree stand out 

from the competition, says Pugson, are the 

interactions between staff and customers. 

While many foreign enterprises have 

criticized the Cuban government for 

making them hire and pay employees 

through a state staffing agency, in recent 

years these practices have been loosened 

to permit foreign companies to choose 

from a pool of potential employees—and 

to offer them minor performance bonuses. 

Pugson says Banyan Tree has had success 

selecting its staff through this system. 

“[Gaviota] provided the potential 

candidates to us for the hotel, so we’ve 

been able to have a choice,” Pugson said. 

“They are not the ‘it’s just a job’ brigade. 

We’ve been able to pick a younger group 

desiring to learn, desiring to grow, and 

have that sort of passion to do well.” 

In total, Banyan Tree is expected to 

bring some 1,250 hotel rooms to Cuba 

by 2019. The country has made foreign 

investment in tourism a priority and it 

aims to add 108,000 rooms to its current 

roster of about 60,000 rooms by 2030. H 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

47

AGRICULTURE 

Without sugar, there 

is no country. 

Elsys Pupo, Lopez Peña Sugar Mill 

Photos by Jon Braeley 

Cuba’s sugar harvest this season should 

be the biggest in years, and even though 

it’s starting from a small base, it could 

have an economic impact. 

A Sugar Comeback? 


Lopez Peña, a sugar mill in Eastern Cuba 

In her 32 years working in the sugar industry, 

Elsys Pupo has seen lots of change. 

When she was younger, sugar was so vital 

to the economy that Cubans would say, 

“Without sugar, there is no country.” But 

after the Soviet Union's collapse and end 

of subsidies from Moscow, officials closed 

nearly half the island’s mills, leaving more 

than 200,000 sugar workers unemployed. 

This year, Pupo is proud that the Lopez 

Peña mill where she works in Eastern 

Cuba’s sugar heartland is again grinding 

cane. Last year, a drought––followed by 

heavy rains––hurt cane production, and 

harvests were too small to supply the 

area's mills. But this season, some 430 


people are busy at Lopez Peña, up from 

the 255 employed last season only for 

maintenance. 

“Now we are more technologically 

advanced,” said the 50-year-old agro-industrial 

technician. “Now, you can watch 

the entire process of the factory from one 

machine.” 

Pupo’s not the only one optimistic 

about sugar nowadays. Sugar will likely 

grow faster than any other sector of the 

Cuban economy this year, Economy Minister 

Ricardo Cabrisas recently told the 

National Assembly. With better weather 

and new machinery helping boost sugar 

production, output could rise as much as 

12 percent this harvest season, when 54 

mills are set to grind. That's up from 50 

mills last season, said Liobel Perez, spokeman 

for state sugar company Azcuba. 

The result could be a boon for the 

overall economy. Expansion in sugar could 

help Cuba’s economy grow about 2 percent 

this year, reversing a 0.9 percent drop 

in 2016, according to Cabrisas––although 

some economists predict a continuing 

slide in the economy. 

The timing is good, because sugar 

ranked among the best-performing commodities 

worldwide in 2016. Prices rose 

on growing demand, including a shift by 

Hershey and some other producers from

genetically-modified sugar beets to cane as 

a source for sweeteners in their candy. In 

mid-January, world sugar prices topped 20 

cents per pound, up by more than 5 cents 

from a year earlier, according to futures 

markets. 

This is positive news for Cuba’s quest 

to increase export earnings, now that 

Venezuela has cut back on oil shipments, 

loans, and other support to its socialist ally. 

“Cuba has to gain foreign exchange 

somehow, and sugar is one of the few exports 

not controlled 49 percent by foreign 

companies, unlike tobacco, rum, nickel 

and cobalt,” said Jorge Salazar-Carrillo, a 

professor of economics at Florida International 

University. 

To be sure, the growth comes off 

a relatively small base. A century ago, 

after World War I decimated European 

production, Cuba ranked as the world’s 

largest sugar producer. During the Soviet 

era, Cuba became a top sugar supplier for 

the USSR and Eastern Europe, producing 

more than 8 million tons in its peak year. 

But in recent decades, production has 

plunged. Cuba’s share of world exports 

dropped from roughly 23 percent in 1989 

during the Soviet heyday to 8 percent in 

2002 and less than 1 percent now, said 

Salazar-Carrillo. Cuba’s annual sugar 

output has been running below 2 million 

tons for years and even fell to 1.1 million 

2000 

1000 

Cuba Sugar Production 2010-2017 (thousands of tons) 

1,150 

1,400 

1,600 

Source: USDA 

2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 

tons earlier this decade, its smallest output 

in about half a century. 

Many factors limit production. The 

invasive marabú weed has taken over much 

of the island’s farm land. Railroads are old, 

as are many mills. And even the quality of 

Cuban cane is waning. “In other countries, 

they take out the old cane and plant new 

cane that has better quality yields,” said 

Salazar-Carrillo. 

During Soviet times, Cuba’s sugar 

harvest had become highly mechanized. 

The USSR provided machinery, fertilizer, 

fuel, and other supplies, and it bought 

Cuban sugar at inflated prices. When that 

support ended, Cuba lacked the funds to 

buy supplies at market rates. By 2002, with 

production costs high and output waning, 

Cuba decided it no longer made sense to 

keep so many old mills open and closed 

A sugarcane harvester cutting cane in Eastern Cuba 

1,650 

1,850 

1,625 

1,950 

dozens. The only celebrated upgrade was a 

mill in Cienfuegos under management by 

Brazilian company Odebrecht SA. 

Today, Cuba no longer ranks among 

the world’s 10 largest sugar producers; 

Brazil and India are on top. And sugar’s 

not even one of Cuba’s top five exports; it 

trails far behind medical services provided 

by doctors and other professionals overseas. 

The island now consumes 600,000 tons 

of its own sugar per year––more than the 

400,000 tons it’s contracted to sell China 

annually. 

But union leader Pupo doesn’t fret 

that sugar is no longer center-stage for 

Cuban agriculture. She’s keen on Cuba 

building a diverse economy, with sugar as 

just one of its pillars. “We have great potential 

in tourism,” she said. “Nowadays, 

we’re into tourism 100 percent.” H 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

49

CONGRESS 

AND CUBA 

Executive orders may come and 

go, but only movement in the U.S. 

Congress can end the half-century 

economic embargo against the 

island nation 90 miles from Florida 

By J.P. Faber 

It is an old joke, but it’s one that senators and 

congressmen who oppose the embargo like to 

use. “What’s the definition of insanity?” asks Rep. 

Tom Emmer of Minnesota. “It’s when something 

doesn’t work but you try it again and again.” 

For the growing cadre of national legislators 

who want to see an end to what they call “our failed 

Cuba policy,” this is the first and most irrefutable 

argument for ending the 55 years of U.S. economic 

sanctions against the island nation. The policy simply 

hasn’t worked, they say. If anything, it has backfired. 

“The embargo did exactly the opposite of what 

it was intended to do,” says Emmer. “The embargo 

was enacted with the stated purpose of undermining 

I think we should lift [the 

embargo] over a period of 

time. I think that would be 

best for the Cuban people 

themselves… A gradual 

change will be in the best 

interest of all parties. 

John Boozman, Arkansas Senator 


Cutting off trade with people so close to our shores only 

meant that people there dug in with their positons. It 

hasn’t given the average Cuban a say in moving toward 

a more entrepreneurial system. I think it has failed. 

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Senator 

Photo by Mark Finkenstaedt

Rep. Tom Emmer (third from right) meeting with MINCEX, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment 

the Castro regime. [But] the embargo has only empowered the 

Castro regime. Common sense tells you that the embargo is the 

definition of insanity.” 

With this conviction in mind, Emmer introduced H.R. 

442, the Cuba Trade Act, in the House of Representatives in 

January. Emmer, a Republican, co-sponsored the bill along with 

Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Tampa. The bill repeals or 

amends all embargo legislation, from the Foreign Assistance Act 

of 1961, to the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, to the Cuban 

Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996. 

“The embargo will be lifted.” says Emmer. “Its time is past.” 

Emmer’s fight to abolish the embargo outright is shared by 

his legislative colleague from Minnesota, Sen. Amy Klobuchar. 

Two years ago, she introduced the Freedom to Export to Cuba 

Act of 2015 (S.491), which advocated the same repeals as Emmer’s 

bill. 

“Cutting off trade with people so close to our shores only 

meant that people there dug in with their positions. It hasn’t given 

the average Cuban a say in moving toward a more entrepreneurial 

system. I think it has failed,” says Klobuchar, who plans to 

reintroduce the bill again this year. 

Klobuchar says her decision to push for an end to the embargo 

was driven by her constituency as much by as any personal 

conviction. 

“This wasn’t just my idea. People in my state came to me. 

They were in a few different categories. One was agriculture 

and farm people, who wanted to do business there. Another was 

Catholic Church people who are trying to improve the human 

rights situation there. Fifty years of the embargo has not helped.” 

Besides concern for the Cuban people who are hurt by the 

embargo, Klobuchar—who is on the Senate Commerce Committee—is 

unabashed in her advocacy of U.S. commercial interests. 

“We want to lift the embargo from a commercial standpoint. 

We went to [the Cuban port of ] Mariel. We want to see American 

ships there with American goods going in. The fact that it 

has a Chinese computer system just cries out, when most ports 

[in the world] use U.S. software,” she says. And, noting the anticipated 

explosion of U.S. tourists heading to Cuba, “If we don’t lift 

the embargo those people will be sleeping in Spanish hotels and 

eating Chinese food.” 

The embargo will be 

lifted. Its time is past. 

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota 

The question, of course, is when—and how—the embargo 

gets lifted. Many of the lawmakers who want to see more 

engagement with Cuba advocate a slow approach, taking the 

embargo apart one piece at a time. 

A leading voice for this path is Sen. John Boozman, an 

Arkansas Republican who is a stalwart supporter of U.S. agriculture 

interests. His state was the leading exporter of rice to Cuba 

before the Revolution, and the opportunity for those farmers 

to get a piece of Cuba’s $2 billion annual food import market is 

paramount. 

Together with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Boozman 

reintroduced the Agricultural Export Expansion Act of 2017 in 

February. Its aim is to lift the ban on private banks and companies 

offering credit for agricultural exports to Cuba, a move that 

will level the playing field for U.S. farmers and exporters. Cur- 


An anti-embargo demonstration outside 

the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Bipartisan support: Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) 

in a 2015 press conference to lift the travel ban 

rently, Cuba must pay cash in advance, something that is unheard 

of in trade finance. 

“I think we should lift [the embargo] over a period of time. I 

think that would be best for the Cuban people themselves,” says 

Boozman. “They do not have the infrastructure or everything in 

place [to deal with full, immediate commercial reengagement 

with the U.S.]. A gradual change will be in the best interest of all 

parties.” 

While advocating a slow landing, Boozman also believes that 

demands for political change in Cuba as a condition for lifting 

the embargo are useless and hypocritical. 

“I have to be consistent. We deal with a lot worse actors than 

the Cubans on human rights [such as] the Saudis, the Vietnamese, 

the Chinese—the list goes on and on,” says Boozman. “If 

they are going to sponsor terrorism, that’s another matter. But 

in terms of their running their own country, if we demanded 

free elections first, then we wouldn’t be trading with a lot of the 

world.” 

Another Arkansas Republican, Rep. Rick Crawford, reintroduced 

the same bill to the House in January. A long-time advocate 

of opening Cuban markets to U.S. agriculture products, last 

year Crawford attached a similar bill (H.R. 525) to the House 

appropriations bill—the mechanism by which the government is 

funded—but withdrew it after he said Cuban-American congressmen 

told him they would allow a similar bill to come up for 

a vote this year. 

“I think there is good chance we can make this move [this 

year]. I’ve done a lot of back channel work with the people who 

are concerned,” says Crawford. “The difference is that this time 

we went to them [South Florida politicians who favor the embargo], 

to ask, ‘What do we have to do to write a bill that you will 

support, that will be sensitive to your Cuban-American constituency?’” 

Crawford emphasizes that his bill does not represent an endorsement 

of President Obama’s policy of re-engaging Cuba, but 

is strictly humanitarian, a way to help the Cuban people. 

“A law that says you need cash up front is not consistent 

with how we deal with other areas of the world,” says Crawford, 

whose bill also puts the risk in private hands, with no bailouts 

from U.S. taxpayers. “If some farmer wants to sell 10,000 tons of 

soy to Cuba, he is on his own, and if he takes a bath, that is his 

risk. This bill simply gives him the opportunity to the make the 

deal.” 

THE PUSH BACK 

When John F. Kennedy put in place the full embargo against 

Cuba in 1962, he did so by executive order. Jimmy Carter lifted 

some travel and remittance restrictions during his term, but most 


Until the conditions are 

met, the sanctions remain 

Rep. Diaz-Balart 

Rep. Díaz-Balart, Republican House member from South Florida 

were re-imposed by Ronald Reagan. It was not until the 1990s 

that Congress passed laws that made the embargo permanent. So, 

while President Obama used executive orders to punch holes in 

it, only Congress can truly lift the embargo. 

Members of Congress have been pushing to do just that for 

more than 17 years, with little to show for it. In 2000, Congress 

passed the Trade Sanctions and Export Enhancement Reform 

Act (TSRA), which allowed for the sale of U.S. food and 

medicine to Cuba for humanitarian reasons. But even that was 

strangled by additional Bush administration regulations, which 

made it impossible to finance those goods. 

In 2015, the year Washington re-established diplomatic 

relations with Havana, lawmakers introduced a new flurry of 

anti-embargo bills in Congress. At the time, Pew Research polls 

showed that nearly three-quarters of Americans favored lifting 

trade sanctions against Cuba. Regardless, those bills never saw 

the light of day, thanks to the efforts of a group of Cuban-American 

lawmakers and their powerful allies in Congress. Among 

them were Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Robert Menendez 

(D-N.J.), and a trio of Republican House members from South 

Florida, Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Iliana Ros-Lehtinen, and 

Carlos Curbelo. 

While Curbelo is new to the game, the rest have been in office 

long enough to have earned key positions on committees that 

control the flow of legislation to the floor of the Senate and the 

House. For years, they have traded their support for other issues 

in exchange for support of their embargo truculence. 

These lawmakers argue that the embargo has stopped the 

Castro regime from “exporting its violent and repressive ideology 

throughout the region,” in the words of Menendez. Embargo 

proponents also argue that sanctions have weakened the regime’s 

ability to repress the Cuban population. “Our sanctions have 

worked,” says Curbelo. 

When asked, Díaz-Balart will list the conditions for lifting 

the embargo, which were largely codified by the Helms-Burton 

Act of 1996. They include freeing all political prisoners, abolishing 

press restrictions, and beginning the process of free elections—as 

well as removing Raúl Castro from power. “Until the 

conditions are met, the sanctions remain,” he says.. 

Díaz-Balart doesn’t appear worried by his colleagues’ efforts 

on Capitol Hill to lift the embargo because “we have the votes” to 

block those bills. Indeed, through control of key positions in various 

committees, the Cuban-American delegation has prevented 

embargo-lifting bills from reaching the floor of either the House 

or the Senate for a vote. 

“There is a handful of Cuban-American members of Congress 

who, largely for family reasons or domestic political reasons, 

continue to defend the embargo,” says Sen. Patrick Leahy, (D- 

Vt.). “I don’t question the motives of those who remain wedded 

to the embargo, but their numbers have sharply diminished and 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

55

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE U.S. EMBARGO AGAINST CUBA 

1960 US President Eisenhower places an embargo on exports to Cuba, except 

for food and medicine 

1961 Eisenhower severs diplomatic ties with Cuba 

1961 Congress passes the Foreign Assistance Act, prohibiting aid to Cuba and 

authorizing the President to impose a complete trade embargo 

1962 By executive order, President Kennedy extends the embargo to include 

all imports of goods from Cuba, even if assembled outside of Cuba 

1962 The Foreign Assistance Act is expanded to prohibit aid to any country 

that assists Cuba 

1963 Kennedy expands the embargo to include travel restrictions 

1963 Kennedy issues the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, freezing all Cu 

ban assets in the U.S. and giving the Treasury Department the power to 

enforce the embargo via the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) 

1977 President Carter lifts restrictions on U.S. citizens travelling to Cuba and 

spending money there 

1982 President Reagan re-imposes the travel restrictions for business and 

tourism, allowing travel only for journalists, professional researchers, 

and family visiting relatives 

1992 The embargo is strengthened by the Cuba Democracy Act, aka the 

Torricelli Law, which prevents foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. 

companies from trading with Cuba. It also bans travel to Cuba by U.S. 

citizens, family remittances to Cuba, and any vessel that trades with 

Cuba from entering a U.S. port for 180 days. 

1996 Congress passes the Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act, aka 

the Helms-Burton Act, which extends the embargo to include foreign 

companies trading with Cuba, and penalizes foreign companies that 

use property formerly owned by the U.S. (or by Cubans who have since 

become U.S. citizens) confiscated after the Cuban Revolution. 

2000 Congress passes the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement 

Act, which allows the sale of agricultural goods and medicine to Cuba 

for humanitarian reasons 

2005 President Bush imposes restrictions on the sale of agricultural goods to 

Cuba, requiring cash in advance prior to leaving U.S. ports 

2009 President Obama allows Cuban Americans to travel freely to Cuba and 

permits families to send $500 a month home to Cuba 

2010 President Obama eliminates the Bush restriction on agriculture finance. 

Cash is still required, but not before the product is loaded 

2014 President Obama announces his intentions to re-establish relations with 

Cuba 

2015 President Obama lightens restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba, 

and lifts the restrictions on the amounts of remittances Cubans can 

send or carry home. The Commerce Department begins to issue license 

exemptions for the sale of some goods to Cuba. 

2016 President Obama issues a series of regulatory reliefs for Cuba, including 

allowing the import of Cuban biomedical drugs approved by the FDA, 

loosening restrictions on U.S. citizens bringing rum and cigars home, 

and permitting imports of some goods produced by private Cuban 

citizens 

the Cuban and American people are fed up with a failed, discriminatory 

policy. They want change.” 

BEING THERE 

Leahy advocates lifting all travel restrictions, and two years 

ago introduced, along with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), the Freedom 

to Travel to Cuba Act (S. 299). “It is unconscionable that an 

antiquated U.S. law prevents American citizens from traveling 

to an island nation just 90 miles away that poses no threat to 

the United States,” says Leahy. “Do we have profound differences 

with the Cuban government? Of course. But there is no 

other country in the world—not Iran, not Syria, not Russia, not 

Vietnam, not China, not Sudan—where Americans can’t travel 

because of a ban by their own government.” 

Interestingly enough, none of the Cuban-American members 

of Congress have been to Cuba except for Ros-Lehtinen, 

who was born there and fled as a child. This is important, say 

critics of the embargo. If you haven’t visited Cuba, you cannot 

understand the failure of the policy. 

“I took a trip down there, and what was talked about conceptually 

in Helms-Burton was a long way away from what it was 

doing. I began to shift,” said Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), who 

along with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) reintroduced a Freedom 

to Travel to Cuba Act (H.R. 351) to the House in January. 

“All that went wrong in the island was blamed on the embargo. 

It was an excuse. It perpetuated power, not eliminated it,” 

said Sanford. “The embargo has not worked. It has exacted real 

pain on the 11 million people who make up the island of Cuba. 

Those in power are able to exempt themselves from the pain of 

daily life experienced by regular people.” 

The economic damage wrought by the embargo has not been 

one-way, either. While the Cuban government estimates that the 

embargo has caused Cuba $753.69 billion in damages, the U.S. 

Chamber of Commerce says it has cost the U.S. economy $1.2 

billion per year in lost sales and exports. In 2014, the Peterson Institute 

estimated that U.S. exports of goods and services to Cuba 

could reach $5.9 billion per year if the embargo is lifted. 

THE OTHER CUBAN FORCE 

Largely motivated by the damage they see inflicted on 

Cuba’s populace by the embargo, Cuban-Americans increasingly 

oppose the policy in South Florida, the traditional stronghold of 

pro-embargo sentiment. 

A leading embargo opponent is Carlos Salidrigas. Among 

the most successful Cuban-American businessmen in the country, 

and a staunch Catholic, Salidrigas has for the last decade 



Photo byTina-Jane Krohn 

Anti-embargo donor Mike Fernández: Economic rights come first 

and a half devoted himself to solving the Cuban dilemma. His 

renowned Cuba Study Group, a think tank comprised of many 

influential Cubans, took 10 years to conclude that the embargo 

was useless at best and counterproductive at worst. He now considers 

it “very unethical.” 

“The [advocates for embargo] in the Cuban-American 

community believe in pushing Cuba to the brink and causing 

collapse, and using the people of Cuba as a weapon of mass 

destruction… by starving the people so that they eventually rebel 

against their own government,” he says. 

Even if brutal economic pressure could lead to bloody revolt, 

says Saladrigas, that is not the way to achieve democratic reform. 

“There is plenty of evidence to suggest that good democratic 

transitions require at least a significant amount of economic 

development to go along with it. So, Haiti, for instance, had the 

worst time transitioning to democracy… Poor counties don’t 

transition well.” 

Saladrigas says he believes South Florida’s Cuban-American 

members of Congress are self-serving relatives of wealthy and 

politically powerful Cubans ousted during the Revolution. “There 

are political agendas here. There are families here that believe 

they are determined by destiny to rule Cuba in the future. For 

them only an outcome where there is a sudden collapse of Cuban 

society and law and order—that is the only option they have to 

see those dreams realized.” 

Engage Cuba President James Williams: Congress must heed voters 

Another leading South Florida Cuban-American against 

the embargo is billionaire Mike Fernández, whose family’s 

small business was nationalized by the Castro regime. Fernández 

caused a stir in 2015 when he penned an open letter to the 

Cuban community in the Miami Herald, declaring his choice to 

rebuild Cuba. For Fernández, economic rights are more fundamental 

than political rights. 

“Almost nothing happens until you have secured a better 

way of life for your family. The process [of change in Cuba] has 

to start with economic freedom. Everything else will follow 

that,” he says. “I have experienced this personally. You find a 

group of Cubans on a street corner in Havana and you ask them 

this question: ‘Which would you prefer of the following—300 

newspapers to choose from, 500 TV stations to go through, 15 

political parties from which to elect your representatives, or a 

better quality of life for you and your family? And every time 

they chose the last one.” 

“The idea that we will somehow bully the self-protective and 

sometimes abusive Castro regime into capitulating is absurd,” 

says Fernández. “As much as I dislike their system of government, 

you’re not going to threaten the Cubans into actions. It’s bred into 

the Cuban mindset to rebel … If the failure of the Soviet Union 

[in the 1990s] did not get them on their knees to ask the U.S. to 

help them, then I hate to tell you, it’s not going to happen now.” 

The reason a small clutch of Cuban-American congressmen 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

57

THE 16 STATES 

These are the states that have set up Engage Cuba Councils 

so far, that the dates their councils went live 

Idaho July 2016 

Minnesota Mar. 2016 

Iowa May 2016 

Ohio Feb. 2016 

Aug. 2016 Colorado 

Aug. 2016 New Mexico 

Virginia Jan. 2017 

Tennessee Dec. 2015 

Georgia May 2016 

Alabama May 2016 

Mississippi May 2016 

Sep. 2016 Kansas 

June 2016 Texas 

Louisiana Feb. 2016 

Arkansas Apr. 2016 

Missouri Sep. 2016 

can prevent the embargo from being lifted, says Fernández, is 

because the issue is not as important to their colleagues, who are 

willing to trade their votes for something else they care about. 

He cites the flip-flop of House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Ryan 

(R-Wis.), who formerly pledged to lift the embargo, but now 

supports it. Fernández believes Ryan’s support for the embargo 

is a tradeoff for Cuban-American support on issues important 

to him—and because Florida is such a critical swing state in the 

general election. Ryan says his thinking has simply “evolved” 

under the tutelage of Díaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen. 

To bring the issue to mind for more lawmakers, Fernández 

and others (he is the largest single contributor) funded 

a lobbying group called Engage Cuba. Their conclusion: 

congressmen won’t change their opinion on the embargo until 

their constituents make them. 

Engage Cuba began a grassroots campaign in 2015 to create 

state councils that gave voice to voters who want new policies for 

Cuba. It’s now up to 16 states, with more expected to follow. 

“This is one of those issues where there is just a massive 

divide and disconnect between the halls of congress and the 

American people,” says James Williams, president of Engage 

Cuba. “The feedback we got from members of Congress when 

we went to go see them and talk about the issues, about the 

polling, about the economic interests, was, ‘You know, it sounds 

okay, but to be honest I’m not really hearing much about this 

back home.’ So we started the idea of the state council.” 

The first Engage Cuba state council was set up in Tennessee, 

quickly followed by Ohio, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Arkansas. 

“Our goal wasn't to change people's opinions in Tennessee. 

This is one of those issues where there 

is just a massive divide and disconnect 

between the halls of Congress 

and the American people 

James Williams, president of Engage Cuba. 

It was to work with the people there we knew who already 

supported it [lifting the embargo] and just get them to make 

sure they communicated that to their members of Congress,” 

says Williams. “You know, sometimes you think that stuff just 

happens, but shockingly it does not.” 

Addie Bryant, Engage Cuba’s chief of staff, says they were 

initially encouraged by a “heartland poll” they took of voters in 

Tennessee, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana, showing popular support 

for trade with Cuba. Using these numbers and similar polls, they 

began working with state legislators, agriculture commissioners, 

prominent corporate citizens, and governors to lobby their 

representatives in Washington. 

Bryant says Engage Cuba is getting very close to assembling 

the needed votes to lift the travel ban in the Senate, and to lift 

agriculture finance restrictions in the House. “In the house we 

feel very confident on the agriculture bill,” thanks in part to the 

addition of new congressmen elected in the last election. “New 

members haven’t been hit up by Mario Díaz Balart yet. They are 

still listening to their constituents.” 


BEYOND THE PAROCHIAL 

One of the most encouraging signs about the effort to lift 

the embargo is the fact that it is truly bipartisan. Virtually every 

bill introduced this year has, or will be, introduced and cosponsored 

by a balanced team of Republican and Democratic 

lawmakers. 

“Within the last four or five years it’s been impossible for the 

Congress to agree on anything,” say Luke Albee, a senior advisor 

to Engage Cuba and the former chief of staff for Sens. Mark 

Warner (D-Va.) and Leahy. “What’s been heartening about this 

is that the legislative process appears to be working as it should. 

Not only is there bipartisan support, suddenly the discussion is 

going beyond a couple of zip codes in South Florida.” 

As Albee notes, supporters for lifting economic sanctions 

hail from a broad swath of the country’s agricultural hinterland. 

“The key thing on this issue is that it is geographic, not partisan. 

Any time there is a farm bill it doesn’t matter if you are Democrat 

or Republican, it only matters what you grow.” Albee believes 

that, had the agriculture bill gone to the floor for a vote last year, 

it would have passed. 

But therein lies the problem. Because of key positions they 

hold and their ability to horse-trade votes, Cuban-American 

congressmen have been able to stop that from happening. 

One element that may change the scales in favor of the proengagement 

faction is the question of national security. That issue 

transcends any parochial interests—the idea that another power 

might become so engaged with Cuba that it starts to use it as a 

military base. 

“We talk about this from an economic point of view, and I 

come from an agricultural and manufacturing state,” says Emmer. 

“But the conclusion I came to is that it’s really more about 

national security for the Western Hemisphere.” 

Crawford feels the same way. “We do need to take a long 

view and we do know that Iran, Russia, and China are very 

aggressive about filling the [economic] void in Cuba,” says 

Crawford. “If we truly want to be an agent of change in Cuba we 

need to change our posture. If that void is filled by bad actors it 

will have a bad outcome.” 

The worst thing we can do, say the congressmen who are 

pushing for change, is to go back to a Cold War mentality of 

estrangement rather than engagement. 

“I think that when you trade goods and services you are 

trading ideas and ideals, and that will make a big difference in 

other counties,” says Boozman. “You change the world through 

relationships, and you develop those with interactions and with 

business. That’s how you make an impact on societies for the 

good.” 

Regardless of any vote in Congress, however, for legislation 

to become law requires approval from the man in the White 

House—unless Congress musters a veto-proof majority. Whether 

the pro-engagement forces have the muscle for that, and which 

direction President Trump ultimately decides to move, remains 

the real enigma for the embargo. H 

PENDING PRO-ENGAGEMENT LEGISLATION 

UNDERWAY IN CONGRESS 

There are four initiatives underway in Congress to dismantle— 

or scale back—the embargo against Cuba. The first is intended 

to lift the restrictions on financing agricultural exports into 

Cuba; the second eliminates travel restrictions to the island; the 

third codifies the telecom opening initiated by Obama; and the 

fourth advocates for full repeal. 

AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS TO CUBA 

House bill H.R.525, the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act, was introduced 

by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) in January. The similar 

Senate bill S.275, the Agricultural Export Expansion Act, was introduced 

by Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Heidi Heitkamp 

(D-N.D.) in in February. Both bills are designed to lift the restrictions 

on trade finance for agricultural products exported to Cuba. 

FREEDOM TO TRAVEL TO CUBA 

House bill H.R.351, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, was introduced 

by Reps. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and Jim McGovern 

(D-Mass.) in January. The Senate version was introduced by 

Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Both remove 

the restrictions for U.S. tourists traveling to Cuba. 

TELECOM INVESTMENTS 

House bill HR.498, the Cuba DATA Act, was introduced i by Rep. 

Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) in January. The Senate version (S.1389) 

was introduced in 2015 by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). Both bills 

codify the regulatory changes made by Obama that permit U.S. 

telecom companies to invest in Cuba. 

LIFTING THE EMBARGO 

The biggest bill of all, and the one with the least support in terms 

of co-sponsors, is the Cuba Trade Act, which would basically end 

the embargo. It was first introduced to the Senate in 2015 (S.1543) 

by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and co-sponsored by Sens. John 

Boozman (R-Ark.) and Angus King (I-Maine). A more recent version 

(HR.442) was introduced to the House in January by Reps. 

Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla). 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

59

The Smell 

The Cuban Mountain Coffee company 

looks forward to new foreign markets— 

including the U.S.—as it moves forward 

with a deal to revive production in 

Eastern Cuba. 

By Victoria Mckenzie 

Photos by Phillip Oppenheim 

Long before the name evoked an infamous detention 

center, the southeastern province of Guantánamo was 

known for its beautiful mountain ranges and coffee 

plantations, which produced most of the island’s high-quality 

arabica beans. This was Cuban coffee at its finest, with a 

worldwide reputation for excellence. 

Some 90 percent of Cuba's coffee comes from Eastern 

Cuba, another 8 percent from the central provinces, and the 

remaining 2 percent from the western province of Pinar del 

Río. Coffee no longer grows in the deforested and exhausted 

soils in the plains and hills around Havana. 

Cuba’s efforts to replenish its coffee exports, in partnership 

with foreign investors and marketing companies, could 

help resurrect its once-proud global image. One company in 

particular is already beginning to make a difference. Cuba 

Mountain Coffee (CMC), owned by former British Conservative 

MP Phillip Oppenheim, is investing in the revival of 

Guantánamo’s coffee crop and will reintroduce the beans on 

the world market. 


of Success 

A small private coffee plantation in 

San Antonio de Sur

Drying coffee in a secador at the beneficio 

in the San Antonio microregion

In the high mountain ranges of Guantánamo province, conditions 

are particularly favorable for cultivating specialty grade coffee. 

Aided in part by winds coming off the Caribbean sea, the beans 

are able to slow-ripen at much lower altitudes than in hotter 

countries such as Brazil, Panama, and Colombia, resulting in a 

higher complexity of flavor. 

In a deal that’s been nearly five years in the making, CMC 

announced in January that it had finalized terms for partnering 

with Empresa Procesadora de Café Asdrúbal López Vazquez 

(AL), a Cuban processing company, to market and sell arabica 

beans grown by private farmers in 17 microregions throughout 

Guantánamo. Those terms were expected to win final approval 

this month from various Cuban government ministries, including 

the Ministry of Agriculture. 

CMC first announced the pending deal in August, at the 

same time reporting an agreement between CMC and Nespresso 

to supply the company with green coffee beans. Nespresso, a 

division of Swiss food giant Nestlé, caused a flurry of excitement 

across the United States in August when it began exporting the 

first Cuban coffee to the U.S. market in half a century. Under 

new U.S. regulations that permitted the import of some products 

from the private sector, debut supplies of Cafecito de Cuba 

capsules to sold out almost immediately, thanks to limited sources 

in Cuba. 

CMC aims to change that. Over the next five years, it plans 

to invest $5.5 million in local production, including the purchase 

of equipment, plants, and nurseries. While AL provides technical 

agricultural support to 2,000 farmers and manages the local processing 

plants, CMC will advertise and sell the green beans, splitting 

the proceeds. For Oppenheim, this involves distinguishing 

Guantánamo’s coffee by each microregion, altitude, and variety, 

characteristics that don’t presently exist for the global consumer. 

“At the moment, the state export agency (Cubaexport), 

which exports all Cuban coffee, tends to bulk the coffee up,” 

Oppenheim told Cuba Trade. “It only has about four grades. It’s 

really a bulk product only sold by the container.” 

Revitalizing a Niche Industry 

In the high mountain ranges of Guantánamo province, conditions 

are particularly favorable for cultivating specialty grade 

coffee. Aided in part by winds coming off the Caribbean sea, 

the beans are able to slow-ripen at much lower altitudes than in 

hotter countries such as Brazil, Panama, and Colombia, resulting 

in a higher complexity of flavor. 

“Consumers don’t really care where [sugar] comes from,” says 

William Messina, an agricultural economist at the University of 

Florida, “whereas Cuban coffee could command a real niche in 

global markets with the help of foreign investment.” 

UNESCO recognized the historic significance of Cuba’s 

southeastern coffee region in 2000, when it designated the 

remains of 171 coffee plantations as a World Heritage Site. 

Strewn throughout the provinces of Guantánamo and Santiago 

de Cuba, and occupying some 200,000 acres, these decaying 19th 

century plantations are monuments to an era when Cuba’s coffee 

economy flourished. They owed their success in large part to new 

agricultural methods imported by French exiles from present-day 

Haiti (then known as Saint-Domingue) after its revolution broke 

out in 1791. Aided by an increasing supply of slave labor, Cuban 

coffee production eventually surpassed sugar production. While 

sugar later became Cuba’s preeminent export, in the years leading 

up to the 1959 Revolution the country was exporting more than 

20,000 metric tons of coffee a year––most of which was grown in 

the southeastern provinces. These days, however, coffee production 

lies in the hands of small family farmers, and has fallen to 24 

percent of its pre-revolutionary volume. 

“One of the reasons is the farmers haven’t been incentivized 

with price support, or with inputs, and it has not been worth 

their while growing coffee,” explained Philip Oppenheim. “You 

go up into the Guantánamo mountains and there are thousands 

of farmers. Mostly, they’ve got a pig, they’ve got a mango tree, 

and if they grow coffee at all, they’re no longer specialist farmers 

like they used to be. They’re subsistence farmers, and the coffee’s 

their cash crop. So, two kilos of coffee a year to the [government] 

buying authority, and that’s it.” 

In recent years, the Cuban government has raised the price 

of coffee in an attempt to stimulate production, and farmers now 

get slightly more than the average world price, depending on the 

grade. As part of the deal with CMC, AL is authorized to pay 

out quality bonuses to farmers; Oppenheim says his company is 

pushing for its Cuban counterpart to be given complete flexibility 

over what they pay farmers in the future. 

Political Sensitivities 

The agreement for CMC’s Guantánamo project—which 

is not a joint venture, but a ‘contract of administration’ allegedly 

designed to make it easier for foreign businesses to work in 

Cuba—took nearly five years of negotiating and numerous trips 

to the island. The contract falls under a new category introduced 

in Cuba’s 2014 Foreign Investment Act (Law 118) that makes it 

easier to set up than a joint venture. In exchange for the invest- 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

63

Coffee workers in the microregion of Yateras 

ment and product marketing, CMC gets rights to the coffee from 

these micro-regions for up to ten years. 

Despite the success of the venture so far, Oppenheim warns 

that businesses with a romantic view of Cuba can easily come to 

grief. “I know people think it’s the promised land, but it’s quite a 

difficult place to do business,” he says. “The Cubans have got to 

get to know you very well before they’ll do anything with you. 

It’s very personally based. They want to be sure they can trust you 

and work with you.” 

Another factor that make deals so time-consuming is the 

still-sensitive nature of foreign agricultural investment in Cuba, 

and the fact that CMC is operating in such a politically charged 

region—demonstrated by the recent rejection of TechnoServe, the 

U.S. NGO that had originally planned to work on the project. 

Washington-based TechnoServe was the first to approach 

CMC about working with Nespresso, announcing in July that 

the NGO would be working alongside its long-time partner to 

provide on-the-ground support to Guantánamo coffee farmers. 

But as Cuban officials became aware of TechnoServe’s involvement 

later in the year, “the guys in Guantánamo made very clear 

to us they did not want an American NGO” in their backyard, 

said Oppenheim. “They like Nespresso, no problem, but they 

won’t work with an American NGO.” 

Nespresso told Cuba Trade that it is moving forward with 

discussions on how to best work with Cuban farmers, adding that 

“as a global partner among others, TechnoServe is a valued member 

of our team and will continue to play a role in this endeavor.” 

A Long Term Investment 

Because it takes three years for coffee plants to begin 

producing––not to mention the need for continual replanting–– 

coffee is not a short-term investment. Still, thanks to a recent increase 

in production, CMC will be selling Guantánamo’s arabica 

beans on the world market as soon as this year, Oppenheim told 

Cuba Trade. Now that negotiations with the Cuban government 

have concluded, the project should take off by late 2017. CMC’s 

next task will be to raise additional capital—either through 

crowdfunding or concessional loans from Finnish, Danish, or 

Canadian banks. 

“The banks are still very difficult,” said Oppenheim, referring 

to U.S. regulations that prohibit American financial institutions 

from corresponding with Cuban banks. “There is no perceptible 

change yet in the banking system in response to Obama. A lot of 

people now use Canadian or Estonian banks.” Even so, the long 

arm of the U.S. Treasury can block transfers, even if not in dollars 

and outside the United States, for many months. 

With so much U.S and worldwide demand, however, the 

long wait to export coveted Cuban coffee is apparently beginning 

to come to an end. H 


A Special Report By Cuba Trade Magazine 

THE TAMPA-CUBA 

CONNECTION

Tampa to Havana! 

We are proud to annouce new cruise itineraries including 

Havana, Cuba. 

1101 Channelside drive, tampa, Florida 33602 

www.porttb.C om | 800-741-2297

eginning 

April 30, 2017!

THE TAMPA-CUBA 

For more than a century, Tampa—Florida’s “Cigar City”—has been 

intimately linked to Cuba. It was here that José Martí planned Cuba’s 

war of independence from Spain. Even the famous Cuban Sandwich 

was invented here. Today, the connection lives on in historic Ybor City, 

Tampa’s Cigar industry and a mutli-generational Cuban population. 


CONNECTION 


Tampa cigar workers at the turn of the 

century, listening to their "lector" reading 

from newspapers and books. 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

69

WITH U.S.–CUBA TRADE 

LOOMING, GREATER 

TAMPA IS LEVERAGING ITS 

DEEP HISTORIC LINK TO 

THE ISLAND NATION 

As U.S. regions jockey for business and other links with 

Cuba, the Tampa Bay region has one big advantage on its 

side: history. No place in the United States shares as long 

and rich a historical connection to the island as Tampa Bay. 

The western Florida region is where, nearly 500 years ago, 

the first Spanish explorer from Cuba came ashore to check out 

North America. It’s where cigarmakers from Cuba started setting 

up factories in the 1880s, attracting Cuban workers and earning 

Tampa the nickname “Cigar Capital of the World.” 

It’s where Cuban independence leader José Martí repeatedly 

visited in the 1890s seeking funds and support to liberate his 

homeland from Spain. And it’s where Teddy Roosevelt and his 

Rough Riders cavalry kept their headquarters before heading off 

to Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898. 

Many in Tampa Bay want to build on that legacy now that 

the United States and Cuba have restored diplomatic ties after 

a 54-year break. With the U.S. embargo limiting most business 

with the island, they’re forging wide-ranging links, from marine 


IN MARTÍ'S FOOTSTEPS 

Cuba’s Icon of Independence Lives 

on in Tampa 

To trace the steps of Cuban independence leader Jose Marti 

in Tampa, start by downloading an app. 

A smartphone app called Florida Stories features a guide 

that takes Tampa visitors along the José Martí Trail. The tour 

makes an initial nine stops in Ybor City that the Cuban patriot 

visited in the 1890s, including former cigar factories where he 

gave rousing speeches to Cuban workers to raise money for 

the war of independence from Spain. It also highlights the spot 

where Marti recovered after Spanish agents poisoned his drink, 

trying to kill him. 

The guide to the José Martí Trail was developed as a joint 

project between the Florida Humanities Council, the Ybor City 

Chamber of Commerce, and the Visit Tampa Bay tourism group. 

It’s part of the Humanities Council’s “Florida Stories” app that 

also offers interactive walking tours in other areas of the state. 

The idea for Tampa is to drive cultural tourism, encouraging 

longer stays for both visiting Cubans and for Americans before 

or after a visit to the island nation. 

The tour notes that Martí “combined the intellectual, 

organizational and oratorical talents of George Washington, 

Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.” The writer and activist 

died in battle in eastern Cuba in 1895, fighting Spanish 

troops in the independence war. He was only 42. 

Scholars say Martí gave instructions on when to start that 

war. The message came in a cigar rolled in west Tampa. In all, 

Martí he spent more than 50 days in Tampa Bay on at least 20 

visits between 1891 and 1894. 

José Martí park 

Trolleys of The Teco Line Streetcar System in historic Ybor City 

science to the arts and sports. Indeed, it was a Tampa Bay Rays 

game against Cuba’s national baseball team that Presidents Barack 

Obama and Raúl Castro watched in Havana last spring during 

the first visit to Cuba by a sitting U.S. president in 88 years. 

Tampa Bay has much to offer Cuba. The four-county region 

has the second-highest economic output of any metro area in 

Florida, trailing only after Greater Miami. Much of its activity 

comes from Hillsborough County, home to the city of Tampa 

and about half of the region’s three million residents. 

In addition, Tampa hosts Florida’s second largest Cuban- 

American community, about 100,000 people. It's older than 

Miami’s one million-strong group, with many residents descended 

from cigarworkers who arrived a century ago. Tampa’s 

Cubans tend to be more open to engagement than Miami’s, with 

ideologues considered less of an obstacle to building ties with the 

nearby island. 

“Miami is Cuba. Here, we’re Tampa,” joked Roberto Galban, 

32, serving a Cuban-style coffee at a cigar shop in Tampa’s 

Florida Stories is a free download on the App Store and Google Play. 

Users must install the “José Martí Trail” within the app. 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

71

DEEP SEA COOPERATION 

How scientists from Tampa and Cuba 

are working together to save the reefs 

When it comes to the ocean, coral reefs, sea turtles, and 

other marine life know no borders. 

That’s why the Florida Aquarium in Tampa and the National 

Aquarium of Cuba have agreed to cooperate on research affecting 

their shared marine environment. 

The two groups signed a memorandum of understanding 

for collaboration in August 2015 and have been focusing since 

then on corals—from different angles. 

Florida has been suffering major losses of its coral reefs, 

partly from runoff of chemicals and other pollutants from developed 

land. Cuba in contrast has some of the world’s most 

pristine reefs. 

From Tampa, scientists have been working on ways to help 

patchy and distant corals reproduce in the ocean. They’ve also 

been creating on-land sites to grow genetically diverse adults 

from small fragments of coral and, ultimately, restore coral 

populations in protected environments. The coral team at 

Florida Aquarium shares that research with their Cuban counterparts, 

even starting an underwater nursery off Cuba’s west 

coast at Guanahacabibes National Park, one of Cuba’s many 

marine protected areas. 

“We get to help them, but we learn from them what a 

healthy reef looks like, so we can build toward that,” said Margo 

McKnight, Florida Aquarium’s senior vice president of conservation, 

science and research. She also arranged for Cuban scientists 

to come to Florida to work on coral projects. 

The Florida Aquarium operates with an annual budget of 

about $20 million. It now is planning a three-year, $500,000 

program with Cuba, McKnight said, including building a coral 

greenhouse in Havana similar to one operating south of Tampa, 

the "ark" in Apollo Beach. 

Cuban and Florida Aquarium scientists 

historic Ybor City neighborhood. He left Cuba 20 years ago and 

grew up in Tampa Bay, learning English and ignoring Cuban 

politics. “When I got here, no one really spoke Spanish.” 

Largely because of its Cuban-American community, Tampa 

was among the first U.S. cities outside Miami to get charter 

flights to Cuba. Charters from Tampa International Airport 

began in 2011, and when U.S. airlines were allowed scheduled 

service last year, Southwest Airlines began flying Tampa-Havana 

daily in December. Havana Air also started a new route to Cuba 

from Tampa last year. 

“Scheduled service is a big deal, because it’s cheaper, easier to 

buy tickets, and easier to plan around than charters,” said airport 

spokeswoman Emily Nipps. “We’re hoping Southwest’s service 

will be the start of a successful route that can grow over time.” 

For now, with U.S. tourism to Cuba banned under the embargo, 

Tampa-Cuba air traffic remains small, with some 22,000 

passengers in 2012 rising to 34,000-plus in the first 10 months of 

2016. But its potential is big. Cuba business already brings more 

than $1 million in annual revenue to the airport, said Nipps. 

Port Tampa Bay also sees opportunity in travel. The port’s 

first cruises to Cuba in more than half a century are set to launch 

this spring. Royal Caribbean will begin sailing to Havana in April 

with its 1,840-passenger Empress of the Seas vessel. The Empress 

is offering four-, five- and six-night trips that also include stops 

in Key West or on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, providing Americans 

a chance to learn about Cuba and share with its residents in 

people-to-people exchanges. Carnival also begins sailing out of 

Tampa starting in June. 

In a free-trade, post-embargo scenario, 

Tampa is Cuba-ready 

Raul Alfonso, 

Chief commercial officer, Port of Tampa 

The Tampa seaport, Florida’s largest by acreage, already 

handles cargo bound for Cuba under waivers to the embargo 

that allow sales of U.S. agricultural products. Volume is still 

relatively small, however. In the past five years, the seaport has 

sent about 70,000 tons of freight to Cuba, mostly fertilizer—not 

even 1 percent of its total cargo volume, said Raul Alfonso, the 

port’s Cuba-born chief commercial officer who grew up in South 

Florida. 

“In a free-trade, post-embargo scenario, Tampa is Cubaready,” 

said Alfonso, touting the port as Florida’s closest in 

nautical miles to the Cuban mega-port of Mariel (17-hours away 

in transit time). He sees potential to export to Cuba everything 

from fresh foods to cement—and to import goods transshipped 

through Mariel and destined for Central Florida’s fast-growing 

Interstate 4 corridor region. While South Florida ports focus 

more on containerized cargo and likely will lure more of that 

Cuban business, “no one single port is going to do it all,” Alfonso 

told Cuba Trade. “We’re all trying to prepare for post-embargo 


Departures from Miami, Tampa and Key West. 

Operated by 

Phone: 305-615-4151

Above: Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa 

Right: Statue of Vicente Marinez Ybor 

Cuba.” In tourism, Tampa sees opportunity now in attracting 

visitors before and after their Cuba trips, “building on the historic 

and cultural ties between Cuba and Tampa,” said Santiago 

Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, the destination 

marketer for Hillsborough County. Tampa Bay has been breaking 

tourism records for the past four years. In 2016, it hosted 

almost 22 million overnight visitors, nearly 19 million airport 

passengers, and 814,000 cruise passengers, said Corrada, also a 

Cuban-American. 

As flights and cruises to Cuba expand, Tampa can lure more 

visitors to its Cuba-related locales—especially Ybor City, the area 

developed by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and fellow cigarmakers 

from Cuba. Today the neighborhood is designated a National 

Historic Landmark District, featuring century-old brick factories 

and shops, restored wooden worker homes, and a captivating 

local history museum. 

In Ybor City, travelers can visit Cuba without a passport. 

That’s because the park honoring Cuban independence leader 

José Martí has been deeded to Cuba since the 1950s. It is the 

rarest of places: property in the United States owned by a foreign 

government that does not have an embassy or consulate on it. The 

park sits on land where Martí often stayed in the 1890s at the 

home of his friends, the Pedrosos. 

Short-term, some Tampa entrepreneurs have specific busi- 


CONGRATULATIONS 

CUBA TRADE 

MAGAZINE 

Your vision will serve you well 

as you continue to forge ahead 

in this worthwhile endeavor. 

Our Cuba Task Force attorneys are uniquely 

positioned to assist clients with the legal 

and business opportunities following the 

changes in U.S. public policy toward Cuba. 

Established in 1910, Shutts & Bowen has witnessed 

and participated in almost every major event in 

Cuba’s history since the beginning of the 20th century. 

No other law firm in South Florida has this experience. 

“U.S. business owners need to understand 

the process and meet the requirements of 

U.S. and Cuban laws. We are happy to help 

them navigate through these new waters.” 

—Aliette DelPozo Rodz, Cuba Task Force Chair 

Shutts & Bowen LLP 

200 South Biscayne Boulevard | Suite 4100 

Miami, Florida 33131 

305.358.6300 

www.shutts.com 

FORT LAUDERDALE | MIAMI | ORLANDO | SARASOTA | TALLAHASSEE | TAMPA | WEST PALM BEACH

THE ICONIC 'SANDWICH CUBANA' 

One of Tampa’s contributions to 

Cuban lore is gustatory 

Odelma Matos, master cigar roller at La Faraona Cigars 

ness plans for Cuba, including agro-businessman Mike Mauricio. 

The grandson of Cubans who came to work in Tampa’s cigar 

industry a century ago, Mauricio began visiting Cuba in the 

early 1990s. After Washington allowed food sales to the island 

in 2000, his Florida Produce company was among the first U.S. 

businesses authorized to sell there, exporting items from raisins 

to fresh pears and dehydrated coconut. 

Now, Mauricio wants to open a food distribution center 

in Cuba, either in the Havana area or at the Port of Mariel. He 

envisions a warehouse spanning at least 50,000 square feet that 

would store dry goods and refrigerated foods from the United 

States and beyond. The warehouse could be a joint-venture with 

the Cuban government. He’s awaiting word from Cuban authorities 

on the proposal. 

“I’ve never agreed with the U.S. embargo, because it’s 

devastated the Cuban people,” said Mauricio, who dreams of a 

time when Tampa will be a key trading partner with the land of 

his ancestors, as it had been before Cuba’s 1959 Revolution and 

before Washington’s 1960s embargo. 

Of course, open trade with Cuba could bring competition 

for Tampa, especially for its cigarmakers. But Odelma Matos, 

a master cigar-roller who left Cuba in 2010 and now owns the 

small Ybor City shop La Faraona Cigars or Pharaoh Cigars, is 

not worried. 

In Cuba, folks love ham and cheese sandwiches. But the ‘Cuban 

Sandwich’ popular across the United States—the one filled with 

roast pork, ham, cheese, pickles, and other fixings—that one 

comes from Tampa. It reflects the immigrant groups that settled 

in cigar-producing Ybor City more than a century ago. 

The Tampa City Council is so proud of the local creation 

that in 2012 it designated the “Historic Tampa Cuban” as the 

city’s signature sandwich. The historic version uses Cuban 

bread scored with the leaf of a palm frond. 

The story goes that the sandwich, first called the “Mixto,” 

emerged in the 1890s as lunch fare for cigar workers. It was 

filling enough to keep workers satisfied but not too heavy to 

make them drowsy. And it needed no refrigeration. Its ingredients 

evolved as different nationalities came to Ybor City. 

“The Spanish brought the fine ham, the Sicilians the Genoa 

salami, the Cubans the Mojo marinated roast pork, the Germans 

and Jews the swiss cheese, pickle and mustard. Put it all 

together in between sliced freshly baked Tampa Cuban bread 

from La Segunda Central Bakery, and life is great,” according to 

Ybor’s Columbia Restaurant, billed as the oldest continuously-operated 

eatery in Florida and open since 1905. 

The Columbia uses the 1915 sandwich recipe from Casimiro 

Hernandez Sr., the Cuban immigrant who helped develop 

the Ybor City eatery that now seats 1,700 people in 15 dining 

rooms. Its recipe keeps the same proportions of meat and the 

same layering of ingredients “on Cuban bread brushed with 

butter on top and pressed to a crispy finish,” according to the 

Hernandez/Gonzmart family, which still owns the iconic Ybor 

restaurant and five smaller Columbia locales serving Cuban 

and Spanish cuisine in Florida. 

Outside Tampa, many Cuban sandwiches come without 

the salami, but Tampa locals call that version incomplete: Why, 

they ask, would you leave out the contribution of Italian immigrants 

in the mix? 

Tampa's version of the Cuban sandwich 


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“When Cuban cigars become available, there’ll be demand. 

It’s something you weren’t able to get, so you’ll want it,” said 

Matos from her popular storefront. “If I could sell cigars from 

Cuba, I would.” 

READY TO COMPETE 

Many Ybor City leaders figure the cigar market is big enough 

for Tampa’s limited production to thrive alongside new imports 

from the island. “Initially, it might hurt—but not that bad or for 

that long,” said Larry Wilder, former chairman of the Ybor City 

Chamber of Commerce, who helped organize a Chamber trip 

to Cuba in 2015. “The novelty will wear off fast, because people 

will realize, ‘Hey, they have good cigars, but we have good cigars 

as well.” 

Tampa Bay also expects to compete with other U.S. areas for 

a future Cuban consulate, and St. Petersburg hopes to host that 

office. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman visited Cuba in August 

2015 to build relations and returned there in March 2016 to 

attend the game by the Rays, who hail from St. Pete. He recently 

welcomed a Cuban cultural delegation and a Cuban art exhibit 

to his Pinellas County city, which is known for its Salvador Dalí 

museum and vibrant art scene. 

Part of Kriseman’s pitch for a Cuban consulate is that the 

first Spaniard to explore North America from Cuba, Panfilo de 

Narvaez, landed in what is now St. Pete nearly five centuries 

ago in 1528. Kriseman also sees potential to work with Cuba’s 

highly educated workforce in areas including the life sciences, an 

economic driver in St. Pete and one of the island’s most promising 

industries. “We share a lot in common––whether it’s arts and 

culture, medicine, or the fact that we’re both coastal communities 

and as such, have to deal with climate change, sea-level rise and 

the risk of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Kriseman. For 

now, he hopes St. Pete can help restore a Martin Luther King 

monument in Havana. 

Art is also forging Cuba links at the downtown Tampa Museum 

of Art, housed in a new $33 million, award-winning building 

since 2010. The riverfront museum this winter season hosted 

its first exhibit of contemporary Cuban art, displaying some 40 

works by two dozen artists. It dedicated its annual gala held last 

November to a Havana-Tampa theme for the first time. 

The educational community has also been forging links with 

Cuba. The University of Tampa was selected as one of 12 U.S. 

schools to participate in the 2015 International Academic Partnership 

Program with Cuba, and now offers several Education 

Abroad programs in Havana. Stetson University’s College of Law 

offers a Spring Break study abroad program in Cuba. 

Driving his gleaming 1929 Model A Ford through Ybor 

City on a history tour, professor Wallace Reyes takes heart in the 

renewed ties with Cuba. He notes Tampa even came up in talks 

restoring U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties. That’s because Cuba owed 

money for maintenance of the Martí park during the Cold War 

years. Havana is now making payments to maintain its land in 

the Tampa area once dubbed Cuba Town—yet another symbol of 

Greater Tampa’s deep ties with the island nation. H 

The novelty will wear off fast, because 

people will realize, ‘Hey, they [Cuba] 

have good cigars, but we have good 

cigars as well 

Larry Wilder, 

Former chairman of the Ybor 

City Chamber of Commerce 


The historic Colombia restaurant in Ybor City

GO. 

GLOBAL. 

NOW. 

Looking to expand to international markets? Whether your company is in the 

Tampa Bay region and interested in exporting or abroad and looking to expand to the U.S. market, 

the Tampa Hillsborough EDC is your one-stop resource connection. From developing an export 

strategy to finding international customers to understanding Foreign Trade Zones or accessing 

grants, our team will link you to the tools needed to grow your business globally. Home to the 

largest port in Florida and one of America’s most loved airports, Tampa Bay is the perfect place to 

locate or grow your international business. Ready to get started? Give us a call. 

> Lorrie Belovich, 

Director of International Business 

Development, at 813-518-2654 

or send an email to: 

lbelovich@tampaedc.com 

tampaedc.com

investment report 

NICKEL, OIL, AND 

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 

A REPORT ON THE MAIN SECTORS 

FOR INVESTMENT IN CUBA 

By Emilio Morales 

Oil refinery in Havana, Cuba 

Of all the sectors of the Cuban economy in search of foreign 

direct investment, none surpass energy and mining. 

Cuba’s foreign investment portfolio for 2016-17, presented 

at last fall’s Havana International Fair by Cuban Foreign 

Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca, contained 123 investment 

projects in energy and mining. This represented nearly a third 

of the total, followed closely by tourism (114 projects) and way 

ahead of food (76), biotechnology and health (18), industry (16), 

construction (10), and transportation (10). 

Unquestionably, Cuba’s economic development depends

Source: Portfolio of foreign investment opportunities of the Ministry of Foreign 

Trade and Foreign Investment 2016-2017. 

Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET). CUPET is the state organization 

responsible for supplying the domestic market with fuels and lubricants, 

maximizing the use of domestic fuels, advanced technologies, and highly 

qualified human resources. CUPET is a vertically integrated entity, 

comprised of 41 enterprises, 36 domestic and 5 mixed. It is authorized 

to conduct all upstream as well as downstream operations using its own 

resources or in association with foreign enterprises. 

UNION ELECTRICA (UNE). The Electric Union is responsible 

for meeting the electricity needs of its clients. To do this it generates, 

transmits, distributes, and commercializes electricity to about 2.6 million 

clients. About 95% of the nation has access to electricity. UNE controls 

3,267 MW of installed generating capacity from 17 thermoelectric 

plants situated throughout the country. It also controls the generation 

and distribution grids from power plants to consumers. 

CUBANIQUEL. CUBANIQUEL is responsible for the extraction and 

processing of nickel and cobalt. This managerial group has more than 50 

years of experience in nickel mining and processing. It has production 

capacity of 70,000 tons per annum of nickel metal in three plants. Cuba 

has the second largest nickel and cobalt reserves in the world (about 

26%), located in the Eastern region of the country, with proven reserves 

of 800 million tons and probable reserves of 2,000 million tons. 

heavily on investment in the energy sector. Without a modern 

and efficient energy system, all other strategic sectors of the 

island’s economy will suffer—which is why the Ministry of Energy 

and Mines has more projects in the latest investment plan 

than any other Cuban state entity. 

That ministry controls three strategic entities: The Electrical 

Union (UNE); Cubaniquel; and the Cuban Petroleum 

Union (CUPET). All three hope to attract the right partners to 

develop the 123 projects identified by the Cuban government 

for generating electricity, producing nickel, and extracting and 

processing oil and gas. 

Yet bringing such ambitious plans to fruition is a real 

challenge, given the current difficult scenario: rapidly shrinking 

shipments from Venezuela; falling world oil prices; declining 

nickel production and the abrupt collapse in world nickel prices; 

and rapidly growing consumption of electricity, prompted by an 

expanding private sector and tourism. 

All this has taxed Cuba’s antiquated energy grid, which 

must be upgraded and dramatically expanded to increase power 

generating capacity. Here’s a look at key projects now underway: 

NICKEL 

The nickel industry is going through a tough period. In the face 

of falling world nickel prices, investment has shriveled up at Moa 

Nickel SA, a 50-50 venture between Canada’s Sherritt International 

and Cubaniquel that’s been a financial bonanza since its 

establishment in 1994. It now owns the Moa extraction, processing 

and smelting operation, a refinery located in the Canadian 

province of Alberta, and an international marketing company. 

Statistics on nickel production and export reflect current 

difficulties. Beginning in 2000, nickel production began climbing 

steadily, exceeding 75,000 tons in 2005. 

In 2007, nickel export revenues surged past $2 billion. 

With world prices at $50,000 a ton, the nickel industry became 

Cuba’s main source of export revenue, surpassing both sugar 

and tourism. This led to plans for two new nickel refineries—one 

in partnership with Venezuela (worth $700 million) and another 

with China (worth $500 million). 

However, by 2010 both production and prices had fallen, 

sharply cutting into Cuba’s nickel export revenues. Consequently, 

neither investment materialized. In 2015, Cuban nickel 

exports came to only $521 million, a 75 percent drop from 2007 

levels. 

Cuba remains one of the world’s largest nickel producers 

and exporters. It also supplies 10 percent of the world’s cobalt. 

Nickel is essential in the production of stainless steel and other 

corrosion-resistant alloys, such as those used in mobile phones, 

batteries, automobiles, engines, and aircraft turbines. 

Currently, Cuba has two refineries which must be upgraded 

in order to reduce production costs to compensate for the decline 

in nickel prices. Sherritt recently invested in a plant to produce 

sulfuric acid—a key input in nickel processing—with the aim of 

reducing production costs by 12 to 15 percent. 

Nickel prices have fallen mainly because of lower demand 

from China, the world’s top nickel consumer, and rising use of 


Cuban nickel production, 1975-2015 

Cuban nickel production, 1975-2015 

Cuban nickel production, (thousand 1975-2015 tons) (thousand tons) 

(thousand tons) 

Pedro Soto Alba nickel refinery in Moa is 50% owned by Sherritt International 

cheaper materials in steel alloys. Given this scenario, no major investments 

will materialize in this sector until world nickel prices 

recover enough to justify them. If nickel prices remain low, Cuba 

should try to reduce costs rather than boost production. 

OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION 

Value Value of Cuban of Cuban exports of nickel (millions usd), usd), 2004-2015 2004-2015 

Value of Cuban exports of nickel (millions usd), 2004-2015 

2,200.0 

2081 

2,200.0 

2081 

1,650.0 

1,650.0 

1434 

1419 

1347 1434 

1419 

1347 

1151 

1068 1151 

1,100.0 1068 994 1011 

1,100.0 994 1011 

839 

839 

711 

711 742 742 521 

550.0 

521 

550.0 

0.0 

0.0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 

Source: Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONEI). 

Source: Oficina Nacional de Estadística Información (ONEI). 

Oil and gas account for 87 of the 123 energy and mining projects 

in Cuba’s current investment portfolio. In the last six years, 

Cuba’s annual oil production has remained constant at around 

2.97 million metric tons. During this same period, gas extraction 

has risen by 16 percent; the Energas joint venture uses this gas 

to generate more than 1,875 GWh of electricity. 

Cuba extracts only 5 percent of its oil, according to government 

authorities, because CUPET lacks the technology for 

secondary recovery, which requires substantial investment. At 

present, CUPET extracts about 80 percent of Cuba’s oil production; 

Sherritt extracts the remaining 20 percent. Production 

comes mostly from the offshore fields of Puerto Escondido 

and Boca Jaruco, using directional drilling from onshore in the 

vicinity of Matanzas. 

Geologically, Cuba is framed on the south by the Caribbean 

volcanic arc and on the north by the North American platform. 

Cuba’s oil fields are located in an area between Havana and 

Matanzas, where the largest oil reservoir has been found, with 

reserves estimated at six billion barrels. According to Cuban 

government sources, nearly all of Cuba’s land mass has potential 

for oil production, as do offshore and deepwater areas. 

Cuba has dozens of petroleum deposits, most of them 

consisting of very heavy oil, although some medium, light, and 

extra-light deposits have also been discovered. Most are offshore, 

Natural gas extraction (MM m 3 ), 2004-2015 

Natural gas extraction (MM m 3 ), 2004-2015 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

83

! 

! 

3,300.0 3252.97 

3,300.0 3252.97 

Natural gas extraction (MM m3), 2004-2015 

Oil Oil extraction (Mt), 2004-2014 

Oil extraction (Mt), 2004-2014 

3,150.0 

3,150.0 

3024.8 

3003.1 

3011.72998.9 

3,000.0 

3024.8 

3003.1 

3011.72998.9 

2935.06 

3,000.0 

2900.04 2905.01 

2897.12905.3 

2935.06 

2900.04 2905.01 

2897.12905.3 

2,850.0 

2,850.0 

2731.29 

2,700.0 

2731.29 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 

2,700.0 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 

Source: Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONE 

Source: Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONEI). 

Source: Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONE 

in coastal areas, and are exploited using directional drilling. A 

2004 study by the U.S. Geological Service estimated the potential 

of Cuba’s northern basin at 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 

9.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Cuban scientists have made 

higher, but perhaps less reliable, estimates of up to 20 billion 

barrels of oil. 

In January 2012, Spain’s Repsol-YPF became the first multinational 

oil company to explore in deepwater north of Havana, 

leasing the Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 drilling platform from Italy’s 

ENI. Yet the results were not encouraging, and Repsol-YPF 

soon ended drilling operations. 

Subsequently, Scarabeo 9 made two other drilling efforts on 

behalf of Malaysia’s Petronas and Venezuela’s PDVSA, but the 

platform left Cuba without finding the hoped-for oil deposits. 

Russia’s Zarubezhneft drilled a fourth exploratory well using the 

semi-submersible drilling platform Songa Mercur—owned by 

Norway’s Songa Offshore—but this effort also came up dry. 

RENEWABLE ENERGY 

In recent years, Cuba has seen significant activity in renewable 

energy, driven above all by its need to phase out the island’s 

dependence on fossil fuels to generate electricity. 

Although Cuba produces some four million tons of oil and 

gas per year—mostly used for power generation—this only covers 

half the country’s consumption. That’s why the electric grid still 

depends on subsidized Venezuelan crude. These supplies, which 

peaked at 125,000 barrels a day, fell to 45,000-50,000 barrels a 


Solar panels installed at a Cuban farmstead 

day last year, prompting the Cienfuegos refinery to close. 

Given this new reality, the government has accelerated investments 

in renewable energy. Its goal: to produce 24 percent of 

Cuba’s electricity from “clean” sources by 2030. To this end, the 

government has included $3 billion worth of renewable energy 

projects in its investment portfolio. Together, these would add 

2.1 gigawatts of capacity from wind, solar, biogas, and biomass 

plants. 

Unión Eléctrica alone plans 23 renewable energy projects; 

the most important are in wind energy and solar parks. The government 

recently contracted Spain’s Gamesa to build seven wind 

farms in eastern Cuba with total generating power of 750 MW. 

That’s in addition to Cuba’s four existing wind parks: two in 

Gibara (Holguín province, in the east); one in Turiguanó (Ciego 

de Avila province, in central Cuba) and one at Los Canarreos 

(on Isla de la Juventud, in the west). 

Solar energy is another government priority. In Cuba, solar 

radiation averages about 5 kWh per square meter per day (1,825 

kWh per square meter per year)—much higher than in European 

countries that rely on solar energy. 

According to Cuban experts, 100 square kilometers of networked 

photovoltaic systems could generate 15,000 GWh/year 

of electricity—an amount now generated by conventional fuels. 

Other studies suggest that the solar radiation Cuba receives in 

one day is equivalent to the oil Cuba consumes in five years. 

Cuba’s strategy is to have solar provide 400 MW of power 

by 2020. The country currently has 21 solar generating plants 

connected to the national grid; together they generate 34.8 

MW. Another 2.4 MW plant is in the process of synchronization, 

and eight more facilities with a combined generating 

capacity of 15 MW are under construction. 

Recently, the Abu Dhabi Development Fund (ADFD) 

loaned Cuba $15 million under favorable terms to develop four 

10-MW solar power plants using photovoltaic silicon panels. 

The plants are slated for the provinces of Matanzas, Santa Clara, 

Camagüey and Sancti Spíritus. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Of the three investment areas under the jurisdiction of the Ministry 

of Energy and Mines, the most attractive are clearly oil and 

gas production, and electricity generated from renewables. 

For these sectors to expand, however, foreign investment 

is essential. To facilitate that, the Cuban government will 

allow investments in the energy sector to be 100 percent foreign-owned—a 

development that would have been unthinkable 

20 years ago. 

Regarding oil and gas, projects related to secondary 

extraction methods are especially attractive. Similarly lucrative 

are facilities that use co-produced gas to generate electricity, 

given their low production costs and high efficiency in power 

generation. With respect to renewable energy, solar seems to be 

the most promising, given the high levels of solar radiation that 

blanket Cuba uniformly and throughout the year. H 

Emilio Morales is CEO of the Havana Consulting Group. 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

85

ART 

A Talk with 

Cuban Sculptor 

Alberto Lescay 

Interview by Michael Deibert 

Photos by Bahare Khodabande 

Born in Santiago de Cuba in 1950, 66-year-old sculptor Alberto 

Lescay graduated from Cuba’s renowned Escuela Nacional 

de Arte (now known as the Instituto Superior de Arte) 

in Havana. As part of the first generation of Cuban artists 

to grow into adulthood after the 1959 Revolution, Lescay’s 

career has, in many ways, mirrored the successes and struggles 

of Cuba’s creative community. A leader of the team that created 

the iconic monument of Cuban independence hero Antonio 

Maceo Grajales (the so-called ‘Bronze Titan’) that dominates 

Santiago’s Plaza de la Revolución, Lescay famously 

declined the prize money for winning that project. Instead 

he asked then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro to help him found 

an arts foundation in his native city. That led to the creation 

of the Caguayo Fundación para las Artes Monumentales y 

Aplicadas, a non-governmental, non-profit cultural institution 

consisting of both an exhibition space in Santiago (the 

Galería René Valdés Cedeño) and a workshop dedicated to 

creating large sculptural projects. During a recent visit to 

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba Trade talked with Lescay about 

his life, his work, and the rewards and challenges of being a 

working artist in Cuba. 

Continued on page 89 


From a point of view of the conditions, of the environment, 

the spiritual environment––which is the motivation, which 

is the fundamental thing that an artist has to have––here 

[in Cuba] is the best place to be an artist.

CT: Can you explain a little about your 

work here? 

AL: I was nine years old when the Revolution 

occurred. When I opened my eyes 

to think and to know that I was a human 

being, a new life had begun in Cuba. And 

one of the new things that happened to 

me was that I knew that I had an aptitude 

for the arts. I was able to enter a professional 

art school for thirteen years and I 

discovered the art world…[And] I never 

left, because I realized that it was a paradise, 

with all its intricacies. That’s where I 

can feel, studying painting and sculpting. 

CT: Was this in Havana or in Santiago 

de Cuba? 

AL: I graduated from the art academy 

here in Santiago, and then I worked a few 

months before I went on to graduate from 

the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana. 

I was then selected to go to study in the 

Soviet Union and spent six years in the 

Academy of Leningrad [present-day St. 

Petersburg]. 

CT: When exactly? 

AL: From 1973 to 1979, and upon my 

return, I decided to live in Santiago. The 

most important project for me in that 

era, in 1982, was the competition for the 

Antonio Maceo monument. [Note: Maceo 

was born in Santiago and was killed near 

Havana in 1896 during Cuba’s War of 

Independence from Spain.] We built an 

interdisciplinary team from sectors of engineering, 

architecture, and design and we 

won the contest. We had the honor and 

the right to conduct that work for over 9 

years… It was a very complicated work, 

very large in theory, almost unrealizable. 

But Antonio Maceo was the Bronze Titan 

and he had to be cast in bronze. 

CT: And how did the project unfold? 

AL: The first thing I did was to investigate 

the history of the attempts to make 

a Maceo monument, and it was very 

interesting. [They started] practically as 

soon as he died, since he was killed in the 

war… It was a debt, really, that Santiago 

de Cuba had with Maceo. And that debt 

was resolved by Fidel and Raúl [Castro] 

on the occasion of the Fourth Communist 

Party Congress in Santiago. I remember 

explaining to Fidel that by holding the 

Congress here it was a pretext for Santiago 

to have some of the things it lacked as 

a city: A theater, an airport with the possibility 

of receiving international flights, 

and a hotel—a three-star hotel—that Santiago 

did not have. And it lacked a great 

monument to Antonio Maceo, made by a 

Cuban. 

CT: And how about the sculpture 

institute? 

AL: When I came up with the idea of 

creating an institution to develop the 

applied arts, the monumental arts, with 

the resources that remained from the 

experience (of creating the monument), I 

wrote a letter (to Fidel Castro) saying that 

I wanted to develop this foundation. And 

he approved it. The commitment was that 

I was going to contribute knowledge and 

provide solutions to the country, and I was 

not going to ask for anything material… 

This institution is celebrating its 20th 

anniversary, and the workshop itself, where 

the work is done, is almost thirty years old 

and is working as a unique, professional 

foundry in Cuba. We do work not only for 

Cuba, but for other countries as well. Even 

in the United States our works are there. 

CT: Is it possible to talk a little about 

changes with Cuban artists now that we 

have this opening between the U.S. and 

Cuba? 

AL: The situation is the same… The 

professional artists in Cuba often live and 

paint with the materials we bring back 

when we travel, and that comes with all 

the inconvenience that you know: The 

weight, the payment, everything. The 

drawbacks in this regard are very large. 


There is a Cuban entity that is an importer 

[of these materials] and can do it, but 

imagine, they are materials brought from 

China, and from other places, not with 

efficiency or the proper quality. Lack of 

materials is a problem, really. 

CT: What do you think the future is for 

artists here in Cuba? 

AL: I believe that the artist, wherever he 

is, has to do his work. What is needed here 

are the materials. From the point of view 

of the conditions, of the environment, of 

the spiritual environment—which is the 

motivation and fundamental thing one 

must have as an artist—here [in Cuba] 

is the best place to be. Though there are 

sometimes hardships, I have never accepted 

the idea of not working one day because 

I do not have the right color of paint, or 

because I do not have a specific material. 

I have always said to my son “never 

justify the idea of not working for lack of 

material,” because we are surrounded by 

materials. I think, in sum, that it has been 

more positive than negative. Because the 

creativity one sees in Cuban art is rare. It 

has been very varied and very inventive, 

producing many different results. H 

Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo Grajales 

(the so-called ‘Bronze Titan’) 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

89

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK 

GIBARA 


Though Hurricane Ike battered Gibara nearly a decade ago, 

the town—founded in 1817—has recovered splendidly and 

much of its old colonial core remains intact. 

A VISIT TO CUBA'S VILLA BLANCA 

by Michael Deibert 

Photos by Bahare Khodabande 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

91

Just outside of the Sol y Mar is a statue of rebel leader Camilo Cienfuegos 

Nestled into the corner of a picturesque bay in the 

northern extreme of Cuba’s Holguín province, the town 

of Gibara seduces visitors in a way that only certain 

out-of-the-way Caribbean gems can. Isolated and bubbling with 

a unique cultural mix—often a point of reference in Cuba’s music 

for a sort of idealized past—Gibara is accessible via a quick jaunt 

of just under an hour from Holguín’s Frank País Airport (which 

largely caters to the hedonistic resorts in nearby Guardalavaca). 

As visitors ride in battered taxis along the undulating farmland 

of northeastern Cuba—the sometimes smiling, sometimes 

somber visages of revolutionary “martyrs” displayed on billboards 

along the road—the glistening Caribbean eventually comes 

into view, its surface criss-crossed by small fishing vessels. A 

huge bandshell marked by the outline of a swordfish serves as 

a greeting to Gibara, a sign that fishing looms large in the local 

economy. 

Seafaring alone, though, cannot account for Gibara’s distinctive 

culture and the effect it has on those who visit. From time 

to time these have included itinerant celebrity travelers such as 

the famous American dancer Isadora Duncan, said to have spent 

time here in 1916. 

Duncan’s visit, as a dancer, would be apt today; the sound 

of music—sinuous, ebullient and profoundly Cuban—echoes 

through Gibara’s narrow winding streets. In a semi-derelict building, 

the band Villa Blanca is practicing, attracting a small group of 

locals and, on a nearby wall, a pair of seemingly interested cats. 

“We play traditional Cuban music,” says René Serrano, 32, 

the guitarist and leader of Villa Blanca whose name—White 

Town—refers to Gibara’s nickname. “I like the cultural life here. I 

like the idiosyncrasies of the place.” 

At the Hostal Sol y Mar, which abuts Gibara’s modest 

malecón (seaside promenade) and boasts a friendly, multilingual 

staff, visitors can sit on a front porch cooled by the sea breeze. The 

visible blades of windmills for wind-energy farms turn lazily just 

outside of town, along a rocky shoreline. Gibara’s nearest tourist 

beach—the somewhat stark, mostly treeless Playa Caletones— 

awaits a rough 45-minute drive down the coast. [A fancier option 

for accommodations nearer to the center of town is the refurbished, 

turn-of-the-century 27-room Hotel Ordoño.] 

Just outside of the Sol y Mar is a commanding statue of the 

celebrated Cuban rebel leader Camilo Cienfuegos, looking much 

as he did in life: Bewhiskered, a guajiro (peasant) hat pulled down 

over his head, and a machine gun clutched in one hand. [Cienfuegos’ 

plane disappeared mysteriously over the Straits of Florida 

less than a year after the Revolution’s triumph in 1959.] As the 

statue of Cienfuegos hints, Gibara’s current placid vibe belies a 

sometimes-violent past. 

“Historically, this region was always the rebellious province 

against Havana, so many movements started in Oriente,” says 

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute 


Locals get around town easily by bicycle 

A swordfish adorns the bandstand on the seaside promenade 

for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, referring to the wider 

region by the name it was known until 1976. “This was the port 

where boats from Key West and elsewhere in the United States 

landed in Cuba on expeditions against [dictator] Gerardo Machado 

in the 1930s.” 

Though Hurricane Ike battered Gibara nearly a decade ago, 

the town––founded in 1817––has recovered splendidly, with 

much of its old colonial core intact. Excellent seafood restaurants—some 

with rooftop views—dot Gibara, and residents are 

friendly and welcoming to visitors. In the evening, visitors can 

sit and enjoy a drink at the Centro Cultural Recreativo that abuts 

the Parque Calixto García, listening to the songs of birds as they 

return to the surrounding robles africanos (a kind of African oak). 

For a more raucous experience, head to the Plaza de la Cultura, 

with grand, late 19th century buildings gazing down on its 

square, and various establishments such as Bar La Loja hosting 

nightly music ranging from reggaetón DJs to full-on floor shows. 

In addition to the spontaneous examples of the region’s 

artistic temperament, every April the town hosts the Festival 

Internacional del Cine Pobre de Gibara, founded in 2003 by the late 

Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solás (director of the famous 1968 

film "Lucía"). Dedicated to self-described “low budget” cinema, 

the festival attracts hundreds of visitors to the town every year 

(Solas himself passed away in 2008). 

Some of the town’s festivals have more religious roots, such 

as the Fiesta de San Fulgencio Esta and the Fiesta del Gibareño 

Ausente. Suppressed during the anti-Catholic tide immediately 

following the 1959 Revolution, these have begun to gingerly 

return. 

Gibara is a place to visit more for its ambiance than for any 

specific site. In a country whose iconic images—old cars, the 

distinctive lilt of well-known Cuban son tunes—have become a 

bit too-familiar, Gibara offers visitors a unique opportunity: The 

chance to discover a new place off the beaten path. H 

MARCH 2017 

CUBATRADE 

93

BOOK REVIEW 

Open for Business: BUILDING 

THE NEW CUBAN ECONOMY 

Richard E. Feinberg’s guide to the Cuban economy 

is nothing less than a handbook on how to fix what’s 

broken and make the engine hum 

By J.P. Faber 

One of the most refreshing aspects of 

Richard Feinberg’s overview of the Cuban 

economy—and what it needs to thrive—is 

the book’s distinct freedom from any political 

agenda. Feinberg, befitting his training 

as an economist, addresses the subject 

without judgment or the baggage of opinion. 

The result may be the most objective 

treatise on Cuba’s economic challenges 

and opportunities in print today. 

Among other virtues, the book is 

based on impressive amounts of research. 

Feinberg, who is both a professor at the 

University of California–San Diego and 

part of the Brookings Institution brain 

trust, brings to bear an arsenal of details 

from both inside and outside Cuba. “I did 

a lot of legwork,” he says when asked how 

he garnered his information. 

Feinberg manages the gymnastics 

of big picture-little picture discourse 

with dexterity, from inside the corporate 

and political channels where decisions 

are made at 20,000 feet, to on the 

street with individual entrepreneurs. 

He moves from macro insights in trade 

relationships, foreign direct investment, 

legal frameworks, and savings patterns to 

laser–specific examples of the challenges 

foreign companies face. 

Feinberg also shines with his wellcrafted 

models of what could have been, 

should have been, and still can be done to 

rocket the Cuban economy. He traces the 

past economic experiments of the Cuban 

government with equanimity, offering 

kudos for accomplishments and criticisms 

for failings. It is as much a book about 

lost opportunities as it is a blueprint of 

the possibilities that still lie ahead for 

Cuba’s potentially wealth-creating 

industries. 

Particularly interesting for U.S. 

readers are Feinberg’s case studies, both 

of foreign corporations doing business in 

Cuba and of local entrepreneurs trying to 

gain traction. Among the deals he probes 

are Canada’s Sherritt International and 

its mining operations, Spain’s Meliá and 

its hotel operations, and BrasCuba, the 

Brazilian cigarette-making joint venture, 

the oldest of its kind in the country. All 

had to wend their way through a maze of 

regulations, but all have done well. 

Feinberg looks at small businesses 

as well, via interviews with a panoply of 

young entrepreneurs––people who are 

setting up private B&Bs, cafés, catering 

firms, electronics repair shops, car rental 

services, construction companies, and 

the like, with honest reflections on their 

challenges and progress. 

Unlike most books about Cuba, 

Open for Business also looks to the future. 

Feinberg presents readers with three likely 

scenarios—Decay, Inertia, or a Sunny 

2030—a sort of economic version of the 

Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Showing 

his optimism, Feinberg leans toward the 

most hopeful of the possible paths, the 

one where the centrally planned economy 

transitions to one that is instead “smartly 

regulated.” 

Getting there will be the challenge. 

It will take some aggressive tinkering, 

which is what this book is ultimately 

about: How to fix the broken clock that 

is the Cuban economy, how to tighten 

its gears and replace its missing parts, 

so that the whole thing will hum along 

beautifully. H 


EDITORIAL 

CALENDAR 2017 

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 

Economic Predictions 

Top Economic thinkers from 

US Universities and Think 

Tanks 

MARCH 

The Embargo Issue 

Where US Congressmen 

and Senators line up on 

the question 

APRIL 

Economic Report Card 

Our annual look at the Cuban 

economy, what’s working and 

what’s not 

MAY 

The Logistics Issue 

How to get in and out of Cuba; 

the top transport providers 

JUNE 

High Tech Cuba 

Software, telecom, biomed, 

pharmaceuticals, plastics, 

industrial parks 

JULY/ AUGUST 

The Cuba Advisors 

A survey of the top 

consultants and lawyers 

for business in Cuba 

SEPTEMBER 

The Energy Issue 

Economic sectors emerging 

in the near future 

OCTOBER 

The Cuba 100 

The top multinational corps 

doing business in Cuba 

NOVEMBER 

The Agriculture Issue 

From US exports of rice, 

wheat and corn, to Cuba 

exports of organics 

DECEMBER 

CEO of the Year 

The most impactful CEO 

operating in Cuba 

Subscribe online at 

cubatrademagazine.com

in closing 

DON'T STOP NOW 

Soy Growers Hope for 

Continued Opening of 

Cuba to U.S. Soy 

By Ron Moore 

Ron Moore farms in Roseville, Ill., and serves as 

president of the American Soybean Association 

Trade is the lifeblood of the American soybean industry, and as 

we move into 2017, soybean farmers face both opportunities and 

barriers to enhancing global trade. 

While the major foreign markets for U.S. soy—China, 

Mexico, Japan, Germany—remain unchanged, one emerging 

market that has shown a great deal of potential is Cuba. Given 

its close proximity to major U.S. ports, its importation of more 

than 80 percent of its food, and its emerging economic potential, 

Cuba represents a growth market for American soybeans––if we 

can get the policy right. That process begins with continuing the 

progress on removing the economic embargo that stands in the 

way of trade between our two countries. The American Soybean 

Association supports that progress, and at the regional level, my 

home-state Illinois Soybean Growers has been a leading voice in 

the dialogue over normalization of trade with Cuba. 

Cuba is a missed opportunity for American soy. As recently 

as 2008, U.S. farm exports to Cuba totaled almost $700 million. 

However, those sales totaled less than $200 million just 

two years ago and have since slipped to less than 10 percent of 

the nearly $2 billion market that Cuba represents. This loss is 

due almost entirely to the continued trade embargo, and while 

American companies have been able to export to Cuba since 

2001, several key conditions exist that prevent those sales from 

reaching their full potential. These barriers require congressional 

action to overcome. 

Chief among these roadblocks is Cuba's access to credit. As 

long as the U.S. maintains its provision requiring Cuban purchasers 

to pay cash in advance or use a third-party institution, 

our farmers are placed at a serious disadvantage behind foreign 

competitors that can extend credit. 

Both chambers of Congress now have efforts ongoing to ease 

trade between the U.S. and Cuba by addressing those remaining 

barriers. ASA supports a bill sponsored by Rep. Rick Crawford 

and Sens. John Boozman and Heidi Heitkamp to remove the 

cash-in-advance provision. 

While Cuba will not provide nearly as large a market for 

U.S. soy as China or Mexico, we support the expansion of trade 

between our countries because the island nation nonetheless represents 

a valuable market for our products. In a time of distressed 

markets and lower prices, we need to explore more trade, not less. 

This expansion of trade makes for strong rural economies. 

At the executive level, the Obama Administration took 

significant strides to normalize relations between our two nations. 

This included the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana and 

the removal of restrictions on the use of checkoff funds to market 

American products in Cuba. 

It is our sincere hope that President Trump and Congress 

will continue our progress toward opening the Cuban marketplace 

to American soy, and we look forward to working together 

with both to see that happen. H 


EXPLORE CUBA. 

ALL OF IT. 

Now flying to six cities from Miami 

Whether you choose Havana, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Santa Clara, 

Varadero or Camaguey, now you can fly nonstop from Miami. 

With frequent daily flights, low fares and easy booking, 

American makes it easy to get there. 

Book today at aa.com or call your local travel agent. 

American Airlines and the Flight Symbol logo are marks of American Airlines, Inc. 

oneworld is a mark of the oneworld Alliance, LLC. © 2016 American Airlines, Inc. All rights reserved.

March2017-Flipbook

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