Cuba-August-Flipbook

HOW TO TRAVEL TO CUBA NOW: SPECIAL REPORT 

The Magazine for Trade & Investment in Cuba 

August 2017 

SISTER CITIES 

Mobile’s long relationship with 

Havana, yesterday and today 

THE MILITARY FOOTPRINT 

How much of the economy is theirs? 

GRANTS FOR ENTREPRENEURS 

The U.S. government program 

THE CORPORATE FALLOUT 

Business reactions to Trump 

TIME TO TEE UP? 

Cuba’s quest for more golf 

At the entrance to Havana 

Harbor: Pierre Le Moyne, 

founder of Mobile 

AUGUST 2017 

CUBATRADE 

1

American wheat 

growers stand ready 

to meet demand 

in Cuba. 

It’s time to end 

the embargo. 

AUGUST 2017 

CUBATRADE 

1

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

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content 08/2017 

UP FRONT 

24 WASHINGTON REPORT 

Could a US call for grant proposals 

support Cuban entrepreneurship and 

foster bilateral research? 

26 CUBA BRAND 

The Cuba exhibit at New York’s 

American Museum of Natural History 

showcases US-Cuba collaboration 

10 PANORAMA 

Deals, events and transactions of note 

for trade and investment in Cuba 

14 INDEX 

Cuban entrepreneurs have created 

a market that exceeds $3 billion 

annually 

28 REAL ESTATE 

Inside Cuba's quest to become a golf 

destination 

34 ENTREPRENEURS 

Cuba’s storied bartending tradition 

gets a boost from an innovative public-private 

partnership 

LIFESTYLE 

16 IDEAS + INNOVATION 

From rare and luxurious Cuban 

rum to creating clothes and household 

goods from recycled materials 

18 INTERVIEW 

An interview with Vicki Huddleston, 

former head of the U.S. Interests 

Section in Havana 

DEPARTMENTS 

20 LEGAL 

Property claims against Cuba stand in 

the way of completely normal bilateral 

relations 

22 SANCTIONS 

The military has a huge role in the 

economy, but some analysts say it’s 

much less than originally reported 

30 TRAVEL 

How Florida-based International 

SeaKeepers Society facilitates legal 

travel to Cuba 

32 ENVIRONMENT 

US and Cuban conservationists are 

reintroducing endangered crocodiles to 

their natural habitat 

76 ART 

A South Beach hotel puts on a curated 

show of Cuban artists born after the 

Revolution 

FINAL WORD 

80 IN CLOSING 

The harm behind Trump's restrictions 

on US travel to Cuba 

4 CUBATRADE AUGUST 2017

features 

36 

Tours and Travel 

Your Cuba Travel Specialist 

36 WHAT NOW FOR U.S. CORPORATIONS? 

Trump’s Cuba policy directives leave US businesses with 

reason to pause. Nonetheless, some are continuting to move 

forward—especially those in transportation. 

48 HOW TO TRAVEL TO CUBA NOW 

Trump's new policies, with the declared intention of ending 

individual people-to-people travel, could shake up travel 

to Cuba. Here's what you should—or should not—worry 

about. 

48 

67 MOBILE: HAVANA'S SISTER CITY 

Alabama's port city has a relationship with Havana that 

goes back three centuries, right to the port of Havana, 

where a statue of Mobile's founder looks homeward. 

Today it is one of the largest shippers of US goods to Cuba. 

ON THE COVER 

Pierre Le Moyne, founder of Mobile, in Havana 

Photo by Tom Kilroy 

6 CUBATRADE AUGUST 2017 

67 

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editors note 

The Power of Misinformation 

It has been more than a month since President Donald Trump 

announced his Cuba policy. It will be many more months before 

that policy is precisely defined, with specific regulations to be 

issued by the U.S. Treasury Department. In the meantime, we are 

awash in misinformation. 

This is to be expected. The policy itself is based on misinformation. 

First, there is the assertion that most of the Cuban economy 

is controlled by the military. It is repeated time and again by media 

outlets, that the Cuban military “controls most of the Cuban 

economy,” as the Miami Herald printed in a July 21 article. 

In actuality, as you can read in Nick Swyter’s story (pg. 22) 

this month, some analysts challenge that claim. More than one 

expert says enterprises controlled by the military only contributed 

about 20 percent of the country’s gross income in 2016. 

The next bit of misinformation underlying the new policy is 

the idea that prohibiting individual person-to-person travel for 

Americans will drain money from the military, since the military 

controls much of the tourism sector, and that this will also somehow 

help the Cuban people. 

As Collin Laverty argues in our “In Closing,” stopping this 

type of travel will actually take money directly from the growing 

entrepreneurial sector that includes bed-and-breakfasts and private 

restaurants. Yes, they pay taxes to the government, so cutting 

their income reduces state revenue. But that revenue also pays for 

basic social services; even here the Trump policy hurts the people. 

Then there is the public and corporate misunderstanding of 

Trump’s policy, the next wave of misinformation washing ashore. 

Many Americans don’t realize, for example, that none of the 

current rules for travel have changed, at least not yet. You can still 

travel to Cuba with relative ease, and can do so until the rules are 

written, published, vetted, and signed into law. 

“The announced changes do not take effect until the new 

regulations are issued,” said a Frequently Asked Questions document 

posted July 25 on the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s 

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). It also said those 

ammendents are expected to take months. 

Julienne Gage’s article (pg. 36) notes there is also trepidation 

about moving forward on the corporate side as well, especially 

for companies that have yet to establish a presence on the island. 

All transactions permitted under Obama, however, are also still 

permitted. As OFAC’s latest FAQ sheet says, deals cut before the 

new directive will be permitted “provided that those commercial 

engagements were in place prior to the issuance of the forthcoming 

regulations.” 

But, instead of taking advantage of the Cuban opportunity, 

much of the public and corporate community instead is reacting 

to Trump’s blustery smoke about pulling back. 

Doing business in and with Cuba is already hard enough 

under the weight of the embargo. The added fog of misinformation 

only makes it worse. 

J.P. Faber. Editor-in-Chief 

Publisher 

Richard Roffman 

Art Director 

Jon Braeley 

Senior Writer 

Doreen Hemlock 

Copy Editor 

Larry Luxner 

Vice President Sales 

Sherry Adams 

Moore & Company, P.A. 

Editor-in-Chief 

J.P.Faber 

Chairman 

Todd W. Hoffman 

Director of Operations 

Monica Del Carpio-Raucci 

Production Manager 

Toni Kirkland 

Managing Editor 

Julienne Gage 

Associate Editor 

Nick Swyter 

Writers 

Ted A. Henken 

Suzette Laboy 

Victoria Mckenzie 

Emilio Morales 

Ana Radelat 

Photographers 

David Ramos Casin 

Matias J. Ocner 

Tom Kilroy 

Mario Luis Reyes 

Thos Robinson 

Manager, New Business 

Development 

Magguie Marina 

Aviation Consultant 

Lauren Stover 

Maritime • Art • Aviation Law 

Cuba Trade Magazine (ISSN 2573-332X) 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 2017 by Third Circle Publishing LLC. All 

rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photograph or illustration 

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Cubatrademagazine.com Thirdcirclepublishing.com 

www.moore-and-co.com

panorama 

Deals, events 

and transactions 

of note for trade 

and investment 

in Cuba 

Farming frustrations 

More than half of Cuba’s arable land is 

still unused nearly a decade after President 

Raúl Castro vowed to revamp the country’s 

agriculture sector, according to a government 

report. The report also said food production 

has only improved slightly from 

last year. Castro’s reforms have put more 

than 30 percent of the country’s farmland 

in the hands of private farmers who lease it 

from the state, Cuban officials said. Cuba 

imports 75 to 80 percent of its food. 

Recession recovery 

Cuba recovered from its economic recession 

in the first half of this year, according 

to data released during a National Assembly 

committee meeting. The news comes 

after the Cuban economy contracted by 

0.9 percent in 2016—the country’s first recession 

in 23 years. In December, the Cuban 

government said it expects the GDP 

to grow by 2 percent in 2017, though most 

economists say that target is unlikely. 

Cuba not included in annual terror 

review 

The State Department’s 2016 review of terrorist 

threats around the world only mentions 

Cuba once, in reference to Cubans 

attempting to transit to the U.S. through 

Colombia. After spending 33 years on the 

state sponsor of terrorism list, Cuba was taken 

off the list in 2015. At the unveiling of his 


Farming frustrations: More than half of Cuba’s arable land is still unused 

new Cuba policy, President Donald Trump 

did not mention whether his administration 

will place the island back on that list. 

Trade finances go from bad to worse 

Cash-strapped and import-dependent Cuba 

is struggling to obtain trade credits because 

of late payments to suppliers, according to 

Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas. He 

said export revenues through June were 

short of expectations by $400 million. He 

also said imports in 2017 will be $1.5 billion 

less than planned. By May, Cuba only managed 

to finance about 41 percent of its imports 

through commercial credits—a huge 

drop from last year’s 85 percent. 

Colombia makes moves 

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos 

and Cuban President Raúl Castro vowed 

to expand bilateral trade during a meeting 

in Havana. The two leaders also discussed 

building multi-destination tourism packages 

between Bogota and Havana. Santos 

inaugurated the Cuba-Colombia Business 

Forum, where he discussed the country’s 

interest in investing in Cuba. 

A change of leadership 

Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who served as the U.S. 

Embassy’s top diplomat in Cuba, left Havana 

after completing his three-year mission. 

Scott Hamilton, deputy chief of mission in 

Havana for the last two years, was named 

interim Charge d’Affaires. Hamilton did 

not comment on DeLaurentis’ next post 

or if the Trump administration intends to 

nominate a formal ambassador to Cuba. 

New post for top US negotiator 

Josefina Vidal, the outgoing Director General 

of the U.S. Division of the Ministry of 

Foreign Affairs, was sworn in as ambassador 

to Canada. Officials said Vidal’s deputy 

Gustavo Machin will become ambassador 

to Spain. The Cuban government has not 

said who will take their places. 

Pedaling back on self-employment 

The Cuban government suspended the issuance 

of new private sector permits for 

activities related to bed-and-breakfasts, 

restaurants, tailoring, party planning, and 

computer programming, among others. 

The government also announced it will no 

longer issue new licenses for wholesale and 

retail agriculture vendors, CD and DVD 

sellers, and recreation equipment operators. 

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The government says it will continue issuing 

permits once “self-employed work is 

perfected,” which may include measures 

to curb tax evasion and the accumulation 

of private wealth. 

One of Venezuela’s few remaining friends 

The Cuban government accused Washington 

of orchestrating an international operation 

to delegitimize a Venezuelan election 

that created a new legislative superbody 

that answers to President Nicolás Maduro. 

Countries across the Americas and Europe 

denounced the July 30 election, which gives 

Maduro power to rewrite the constitution. 

Business as usual for another six months 

The Trump administration suspended 

a provision of the trade embargo that 

lets Americans use U.S. courts to sue 

non-American companies that use land 

and property stolen during the Cuban Revolution. 

That provision of the Helms-Burton 

Act must be repeatedly suspended every 

six months. 

On track for a record year in tourism 

Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero 

Cruz said he projects tourist arrivals 

in Cuba to reach 4.7 million in 2017—up 

from just over 4 million tourists in 2016. 

Marrero said about 2.7 million tourists visited 

Cuba in the first half of this year, producing 

more than $1.5 billion in tourism 

revenue. Factors influencing the increase 

are the recovery of the Canadian market, 

loosened U.S. travel restrictions, and increased 

flights from Europe. 

Oil woes continue 

Venezuelan oil and fuel deliveries to Cuba 

have decreased by almost 13 percent in the 

first half of this year, according to documents 

belonging to Venezuela’s state-run oil monopoly 

that were viewed by Reuters. Cuba 

has responded to declining oil deliveries by 


rationing energy and seeking higher-priced 

oil from other producers, including Russia. 

Minnesota presses on 

Minnesota will continue its efforts to sell 

food to Cuba despite Trump announcing 

tighter restrictions on trade with the island, 

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith told Reuters. The 

comments came shortly after Smith visited 

the island with a business delegation. The 

state sees food sales to Cuba as a prime opportunity 

to bolster its agricultural sector 

during a period of low crop prices. 

Housing shortage 

At the end of 2016, Cuba recorded a deficit 

of more than 880,000 homes needed to 

adequately house its population of 11 million 

inhabitants. There are about 3.8 million 

homes across the island. Deteriorated 

buildings, depleted housing funds, and 

overpopulation in urban areas are among 

the main causes of the housing shortage, 

said a Construction Ministry official. 

Entrepreneurs go to Washington 

A group of eight Cuban entrepreneurs sent 

a letter to the Trump administration urging 

it to support policies that strengthen the 

country’s burgeoning private sector. The 

letter’s policy recommendations include 

continuing individual people-to-people 

travel, not limiting remittances, and loosening 

restrictions on Cubans using bank 

accounts in the U.S. 

Mining outlook 

Cuba intends to produce nearly 55,000 

tons of nickel and cobalt sulfides this year, 

according to state media. That’s a slight 

drop from last year. Cuba is ranked 10th in 

the world in nickel production and sixth in 

cobalt, but declining global prices and productivity 

have slowed the country’s output 

in recent years. A new $278 million lead 

and zinc mine in northwestern Cuba is 

scheduled to open in October. It’s expected 

to produce 100,000 tons of zinc concentrate 

and 50,000 tons of lead concentrate 

annually, executives at the Swiss-Cuban 

joint venture told Reuters. 

The return of the love shack 

The Cuban government announced it will 

allow the reopening of some hourly hotels 

aimed at helping lovers in an overcrowded 

housing market find intimacy. The hotels 

were shut down and used as hurricane 

shelters in the ‘90s when the Cuban economy 

came to a standstill. 

Southwest cuts back 

Southwest will end its Fort Lauderdale 

flights to Santa Clara and Varadero on 

Sept. 4. It will not, however, stop flying to 

Havana. The airline will continue its twice 

daily service from Fort Lauderdale and daily 

service from Tampa. The airline applied 

with the Department of Transportation for 

an additional daily round trip between Fort 

Lauderdale and Havana. 

Calling Euro interference 

The Cuban government applauded the European 

Parliament for voting in favor of its 

first-ever trade agreement with the island. 

However, Cuban officials expressed their 

concern over a non-binding clause encouraging 

Cuba to improve its human rights and 

make steps toward democracy. It called the 

resolution meddlesome and unnecessary, saying 

it hurt the principles of mutual respect 

contained in the rest of the document. H 

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INDEX 

The Emergence of a Cuban ‘Middle Class’ 

Cuban entrepreneurs have created a market 

that exceeds $3 billion annually 

Source: Havana Consulting Group based on statistics published by Ministry of Labor and Social Security and other sources. 

*CUCs are about equal to USD 

** Refers to the total of licenses for house and room rentals, both in CUC and in CUP. 

** Refers to the licenses of different businesses involved in beauty salon activities: masseuses, hairdressers, barbers, manicures, 

trainers, and makeup artists. 

Cuban society is experiencing a transformation 

in the economic sphere, initiated 

by the domestic policy openings implemented 

by President Raúl Castro starting 

in 2010, and supported by the changes 

in Cuba policy implemented by former 

President Barack Obama. The result is 

Cuban entrepreneurs, despite limitations, 

have been able to create a market with an 

annual turnover that exceeds $3 billion. 

The Cuban private sector has, in fact, 

experienced a boom since 2010, with 

entrepreneurs developing very successful 

and profitable business models. Due to 

the number of licenses that are active 

and the volume of business they generate, 

the most significant businesses are: 

privately-owned restaurants, popularly 

called paladares ; hostels for renting rooms, 

popularly called casas particulares; beauty 

salons; cellphone repair shops; footwear 

sales and repair; transportation; and 

wholesale activities. The last activity was 

developed even without being approved 

in the government’s list of 201 categories 

of self-employment. 

Altogether, these industries generate 

a volume of business estimated at between 


By Emilio Morales 

Estimated revenue generated by the private sector in the seven most profitable modes, 2016* 

Industries Licenses Estimated annual Estimated annual 

minimum revenue (CUC) maximum revenue (CUC) 

Wholesale market - 1,500,000,000 2,000,000,000 

Restaurants 1,712 369,792,000 693,360,000 

Lodging** 35,066 163,676,232 429,926,418 

Transport 54,350 215,226,000 286,968,000 

Shoes production 7,902 104,094,400 142,580,800 

Telecommunications 24,440 96,782,400 129,043,200 

Beauty salons*** 17,837 80,222,172 120,185,556 

Others 393,693 50,000,000 80,000,000 

Total 535,000 2,579,793,204 3,882,063,974 

2.5 and 3.8 billion CUC annually (approximately 

the same in U.S. dollars). 

The private sector now officially 

employs 535,000 people, with another 

half million operating informally. These 

workers receive an average wage ten times 

higher than state workers. This significant 

jump in income has given rise to new 

market segments with divergent levels of 

purchasing power and patterns of consumption 

different from the rest of the 

population. 

Two aspects of consumption show 

the emergence of what undoubtedly 

represents the birth of a middle class on 

the island. First, the growth of national 

tourism in hotels that charge in dollars, 

which in 2016 hosted 991,122 Cubans. 

Second, and travel by Cubans abroad, 

which saw some 671,000 citizens travel 

outside the island between January 2013 

and December 2016. These trips represented 

an estimated expenditure of more 

than $1 billion just for air fares. The 

performance of both statistics marks an 

astonishing break from the past. H 

Emilio Morales is CEO of the Havana Consulting 

Group 

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in Cuba must read it. Knowledge is the key. ” 

Remittances, Tourism, Real estate, Energy, Telecommunications, Retail market, Transportation, Automotive, Manufacturing, Cell phone market, Agriculture, 

Sugar industry, Infrastructure, Cruises market, Brands, Legal, Chicken meat market, Private sector, Biotechnology, Nickel, Payment networks, 

Care & hygiene products industry, Shoes production, Tobacco, Accommodation, Housing, Logistic, Income population in USD and other topics. 

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Hugo Cuevas-Mohr 

President and CEO of Mohr World Consulting 

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IDEAS + INNOVATION 

THE PRICE OF LUXURY 

How much are you willing to pay for Cuban rum that is rare and luxurious? 

Executives at Havana Club have been betting that connoisseurs 

of the island’s “liquid gold” are ready to pony up more than $1,600 for 

a half liter bottle. Dubbed Havana Club Máximo, only 1,000 bottles 

of the precious, aged rum are produced each year. Technically, the rum 

cannot be marketed in the U.S. But you can snatch a bottle online 

through UK’s Whiskey Exchange for £1,235 pounds sterling. As for 

the taste, “notes of pear and dried fruit percolate through the drink’s 

smoky oak base before melting into a cinnamon finish,” said one review 

in London’s The Telegraph. 

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WET & WILD 

Taking a page from nearby Florida, Cuba’s 

Tourism Ministry plans to court foreign 

investment for theme and water parks in 

this year’s Portfolio of Opportunities for 

Foreign Investment. According to a XinhuaNet 

interview with Reinaldo Daniel 

Alonso, the ministry’s director of business 

development, some 140 new projects 

will be presented in the hospitality sector. 

While most of these will be for new hotels 

and golf courses, several will seek capital 

for amusement parks. Details will be announced 

at this year’s Havana International 

Fair in November. 

Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters 

CHIC RECYCLING 

The absence of wholesale stores and a scarcity of raw materials 

in Cuba has forced many designers to rummage through 

trash cans and sidewalks for materials, according to Reuters. 

The designers have succeeded in creating clothes, household 

goods, and stylish appliances out of the recycled materials 

they gather. One entrepreneur said he uses leftover carpentry 

scraps and the frames of discarded windows and doors 

to make bases for his lamps. Another entrepreneur said she 

makes bags out of old trousers, while the backs of shirts are 

used to make patchwork quilts. 

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INTERVIEW 

An interview with 

Vicki Huddleston, 

former head of the U.S. 

Interests Section in Havana 

Years before the U.S. and Cuba reopened embassies in 

Washington, D.C. and Havana, both countries maintained 

communication channels through interests sections. 

Vicki Huddleston, a former ambassador to Madagascar 

and Mali, served as the head of the U.S. Interests 

Section from 2000 to 2002. Currently, she is writing a 

book titled “Our Woman in Havana” describing her time 

on the island. Here are excerpts from our interview. 

(AP Photo/Jose Goitia) 

By Nick Swyter 

Back in the Day: Huddleston holds a short wave receiver during an interview at her residence in Havana on May 7, 2002 

How did Cuba and the Cuban government 

receive you while you were the head 

of the U.S. interests section? 

When I arrived in Cuba, I thought the 

Cuban government would be pleased I 

had the title of ambassador. I was also a 

woman. Fidel Castro is known to like to 

deal with women. And Bill Clinton was in 

the process of attempting for the second 

time an opening with Cuba. So I thought 

all these were great signs. 

Well it turned out the Cubans didn’t 

think so. The last head of the interests section 

for the Cubans in Washington, D.C., 

didn’t care for me and he reported back to 

the Cubans that I was really a hardliner. 

One of the first things that happened 

was that Governor [George] Ryan of 

Illinois decided to bring a delegation to 

Cuba. He was the first governor of a U.S. 

state to visit Cuba since the Revolution, 

so the Cubans were very pleased. They 

treated him almost as if he were a head 

of state. I had arranged for him to meet 

with other ambassadors and to meet with 

human rights activists. Well, after meeting 

with the human rights activists he told the 

waiting press corps that he thought the 

problem with Cuba was Castro. 

Castro was furious. Ryan had to deny 

that he said it, so that he could still have 

his dinner with Castro. But Castro was 

especially annoyed with me. So as soon 

as Ryan left, Castro went on TV and he 

proceeded to denounce me. That was the 

beginning of my relationship with Fidel. 

Did your relationship ever change? 

It changed quite radically with the advent 

of little Elian Gonzalez, the child found 

floating in the Florida Straits. The Cubans 

had to deal with us. They appreciated 

that I was trying to help them obtain the 

return of the child, and our relationship 

improved exponentially. [chuckles.] Then I 

would do something that he disapproved 

of, and suddenly the relationship would be 

off again. 

For example, I began handing 

out little AM/FM shortwave portable 

radios in transparent plastic bags with a 

little pamphlet with the sayings of José 

Martí. At first the government didn’t say 

anything when I handed them out [in 

Havana]. But then I began to hand them 

out all over the island. And Fidel was 

furious. He claimed the radios were tuned 

to Radio Martí so we could get around the 

jamming. He held a tribunal abierta across 

the river in Alamar of about 20,000 people 

to denounce my activities and those of 

the interests section. The ‘nest of spies’ he 

called us. 

What was the impact of tough talk on 

Cuba from Miami on your diplomatic 

efforts? 

It was essentially an enormous fight between 

Fidel Castro and the diaspora. He 

hears them, but he scorns them. He was 

determined to win this battle. 

So, he had all these enormous 

marches. Six in a six-month period. He 

called them “million man marches,” but 

they ran to 200 to 300 thousand people 

marching down the bay past the interests 

section. He turned the country into 

a theater, in which the Cuban people 

were the actors and he was the director. 

And of course, Miami, led by Jorge Mas 

Santos of the Cuban American National 

Foundation, had their own show and 

their own marches. It had to have been 

the most epic clash between Cuba and 

the United States with perhaps only the 

Bay of Pigs and the Missile Crisis— 

which was more between the US and the 

Soviets—equal to the emotion and vitriol 

it involved. 

What impact does Trump’s approach 

have on the Obama-era normalization? 

Can bilateral ties still exist even if there 

is animosity from the executive branch? 

Definitely. There will continue to be 

an embassy. There will continue to be a 

Charge d’Affaires. We will continue to 

have diplomatic relations. And we still 

have the 23-plus bilateral agreements 

that improve our cooperation with 

Cuba on issues that are vital to both 

countries. 

What I think is the most disappointing 

and destructive element of the Trump 

rollback is that it rolls back the Obama 

opening. It means there isn’t going to 

be any further progress in establishing a 

normal, respectful relationship with Cuba. 

And that’s very sad, because this country 

is 90 miles away from us. It’s in our interests 

for all sorts of reasons, from political 

to security to militaristic. 

Trump said the purpose of his policy 

is to weaken the Cuban military. Is the 

U.S. entrenched enough to really make a 

significant enough impact on weakening 

the military? 

No. That’s ridiculous. I mean, he could 

have said for human rights, and he 

did to some degree, but it’s really hard 

to justify human rights when you just 

come back from Saudi Arabia and you 

have lovely things to say about [Filipino 

President] Duterte and [Egyptian President] 

Al-Sisi. So, we can hardly say that 

Cuba’s human rights is the reason for the 

rollback. The military isn't going to stop 

running the tourist sector because we 

forbid dealing with them. The military 

took over the agriculture and the tourism 

sector when Cuba was on its knees 

during the special period. Their relatively 

effective management of those sectors 

allowed Cuba to survive and develop 

Cuban tourism as we know it today. 

There’s a lot of talk about Russia and 

China moving deeper into Cuba’s 

economy and military. Does the Trump 

administration’s move nudge them 

towards that? 

Yeah, I think it nudges them. It was clear 

they were already very interested. The 

Russians signed an agreement between 

the militaries last year. The Chinese are 

putting in a significant amount of investment. 

It’s not anything new, but I think it 

will add a little ‘oomph’ to it. 

Is there anything else you would like to say? 

I keep wondering what can one say that 

will persuade the Trump administration 

or conservative Cuban-Americans that it 

doesn’t help to keep repeating a failed policy. 

I just can’t see any logic to it. If we want 

to see change in Cuba, it must be through 

a different policy that allows communication, 

transportation, the ability to talk to 

the country’s leaders, and to work together 

on issues of mutual interest. H 


AUGUST 2017 CUBATRADE 

19

LEGAL 

Much of the obstruction comes 

from the U.S. government... 

Pennsylvania lawyer Hayes Hunt 

WE GROW TRADE ® 

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

Attorney Hayes Hunt: The U.S. government 

is shielding companies 

SEEKING A 

SETTLEMENT 

Property claims against 

Cuba stand in the way of 

completely normal bilateral 

relations. One path 

to resolution: Suing the 

US government 


By Ana Radelat 

In addition to the countless hurdles that 

stand in the way of total U.S. rapprochement 

with Cuba lies the minefield of millions 

of dollars in civil judgments in U.S. 

courts against the Cuban government. 

The case of Rafael Del Pino is one of 

them. 

Pennsylvania lawyer Hayes Hunt is 

trying to secure a $235 million judgment 

awarded in 2008 by a Dade County, Fla., 

court to Del Pino’s children, who said 

Fidel Castro tortured and murdered their 

father. To try to satisfy that judgment— 

which has accrued interest and is now 

worth about half a billion dollars—Hunt 

has sued the federal government to ferret 

out information about U.S. companies 

that do business with Cuba. He hopes to 

garnish payments the Cuban government 

receives from those transactions. 

Lawsuits like Del Pino’s were allowed 

after Congress amended the Foreign Sovereign 

Immunities Act to allow civil suits 

by U.S. victims of terrorism against certain 

countries supporting terrorism. But legal 

experts give Hunt’s efforts long odds. 

Other claims against the Cuban government 

have been satisfied—but that was 

years ago, when the U.S. government had 

about $200 million in frozen Cuban assets 

at its disposal. 

That money was used to partially 

satisfy the families of those killed when 

Cuban aircraft shot down two Brothers 

to the Rescue planes in 1996. The pilots’ 

families had been awarded $188 million in 

damages. Frozen funds were also used to 

pay $87 million to the daughter of a CIA 

pilot shot down over Cuba during the 

1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. 

“That pot is now dry,” said Richard 

Feinberg, former senior director of the 

National Security Council’s Office of 

Inter-American Affairs. 

And as for other bank accounts to go 

after, Hunt says Cuba now “systematically” 

Continued on page 35 

RICE 

TIMBER 

POULTRY 

SOY

SANCTIONS 

How big is the 

military footprint? 

The military has a huge role in the economy, but some 

analysts say it’s much less than originally reported 


Photos by Jon Braeley 

Owned by the military: La Floridita Bar & Restaurant (left), the Manzana de Gomez shopping center (middle), and Kempinski's Gran Hotel Manzana 

....Revenue from GAESA and Interior Ministry 

(which oversees the police) entities constituted 

about one fifth of Cuba’s gross income in 2016 

Havana Consulting Group 

Cuban entities controlled by the military 

are in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. 

President Donald Trump’s prohibition 

on conducting transactions with those 

companies will likely reveal new information 

on the military’s participation in the 

Cuban economy—a topic that has steered 

U.S. policy toward the island for decades. 

Trump’s policy intends to weaken the 

Revolutionary Armed Forces’ (MINFAR) 

massive GAESA conglomerate, whose 

holdings include hotels, retail chains, 

banks and remittance services, import and 

export companies, bars and restaurants, 

and construction companies, among others. 

GAESA’s expansive portfolio has led 

many to ask how entrenched the military 

is in the economy. 

In the days leading up to Trump’s announcement, 

several media outlets including 

Cuba Trade reported that some Cuba 

experts estimated the military to control up 

to 60 percent of the economy. Economic 

analyses conducted by the Havana Consulting 

Group and Back Channel to Cuba 

author William LeoGrande challenge that 

claim. They show revenue from GAESA 

and Interior Ministry (which oversees the 

police) entities constituted about one fifth 

of Cuba’s gross income in 2016. 

So what’s behind the huge difference? 

In June, LeoGrande claimed the 60 

percent figure originated from a 2004 

Miami Herald report that cited the 

USAID-funded Cuba Transition Project 

conducted by the Institute for Cuban 

and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS). 

Outgoing ICCAS director Jaime Suchlicki 

confirmed the figure’s origins. “This 

is based on the [Cuba Transition Project] 

analysis of Cuba’s government control 

of businesses in Cuba, including Grupo 

Gaesa, the largest military complex in the 

island,” he wrote. 

One of the major problems with the 

60 percent figure, says LeoGrande, is that 

ICCAS refers to entities led by current or 

former military officers, and not entities 

that report to MINFAR. An example of 

Suchlicki specifically discussing the participation 

by military officers in the economy 

appears in a 2007 Harvard International 

Review essay he wrote: “Today, more 

than 60 percent of major industries and 

enterprises are in the hands of current or 

former military officers.” 

Suchlicki says the findings about 

military officers leading industries and 

enterprises should be treated as an equivalency 

to the armed forces operating 60 

percent of the economy. 

LeoGrande and Morales disagree, 

insisting there is no basis to the claim 

that the armed forces control enterprises 

and ministries led by active or retired 

military officers. “Sometimes the government 

decides to put somebody who was 

working in the army into a civil company. 

That doesn’t mean it belongs to the army,” 

Morales said. 

The Havana Consulting Group used 

a narrower definition of military participation 

in the economy to conclude it 

contributed less than 21 percent of the 

island’s gross income in 2016. Its analysis 

used data Morales has collected over the 

last 15 years to generate revenue esti- 

mates for GAESA and Interior Ministry 

entities. Those figures were compared to 

estimates for state-controlled and private 

entities. 

LeoGrande says his analysis, which 

used the same definition of military 

participation in the economy, produced 

similar estimates. 

Now, the Trump administration 

faces the difficult task of identifying military-controlled 

entities. That decision 

may have significant impacts on sectors 

such as tourism, because GAESA’s 

Gaviota tourism wing controls about 40 

percent of country’s hotel rooms. And 

Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz 

is a former colonel. The military’s participation 

in that sector, however—like 

others—will vary depending on who is 

being asked. H 



23

WASHINGTON REPORT 

Funny 

Money? 

Could a US call for grant proposals support 

Cuban entrepreneurship and foster bilateral 

research? Perhaps, say experts. 

A boost to the private sector? The U.S. Embassy in Cuba offers grants to entrepreneurs 

Photo by Matias J. Ocner 

Photo by David Ramos Casin 

At a time of shrunken international 

aid budgets, many a humanitarian and 

entrepreneur would be glad to hear that the 

U.S. Embassy in some emerging economy 

is offering as much as $100,000 for projects 

relating to small business development, 

environmental protection, and the advancement 

of global health. But in Cuban engagement 

circles, news of a grant offer for 

just that came with some mixed reactions 

this summer. 

That’s because, while many countries 

have experienced some form of pressure 

from the U.S. government, Cuba is among 

those who have felt it the most. 

In July, the U.S. Embassy in Havana 

announced that U.S. and Cuban individuals 

and nongovernmental organizations 

have until Aug. 15 to email project proposals 

to foster Cuba’s burgeoning private 

sector. The proposals should focus on 

training for “efficiency, creativity, customer 

service, and innovation,” according to the 

announcement published on the embassy 

website. 

In addition, it is considering projects 

that support agricultural initiatives aimed 

at promoting plant and animal health, 

“I think if we have cool heads working at the U.S. 

Embassy and at State, it behooves everybody to work 

with them and to get informed as to the real purpose 

of the program." 

with special attention to scientific and 

environmental concerns, such as the spread 

of pathogens. Also eligible are proposals 

exploring sustainable fisheries, marine pollution, 

endangered marine life, coral resilience, 

wildlife conservation, and terrestrial 

protected areas. Programs that improve 

cooperation on the research and prevention 

of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and the 

Zika virus will also be considered. 

The grants can’t be used as seed 

money, but they can pay for workshops, 

academic exchanges, and capacity building 

collaborations that promote “exchange 

of information, best practices, scientific 

collaboration, research, and monitoring,” 

By Julienne Gage 

Ric Herrero, former executive director of the #CubaNow campaign 

confirmed a U.S. Embassy spokesperson in 

Havana. 

“Some aspects of the program might 

be particularly well received,” said Mayte 

Pinon, a South Florida-based Cuban 

agronomist. “For example, everyone wants 

to know how we insert this kind of knowledge 

into the globalized market.” 

The timing of the grant announcement 

appears to be an extension of President 

Donald Trump’s June 16 announcement 

of policies intended to limit the flow of 

money to entities controlled by the Cuban 

military and to support the island’s private 

sector instead. 

It is and it isn’t. The embassy says 

the first call for proposals came last year 

under former President Barack Obama. 

The spokesperson was able to confirm that 

the funds were disbursed last year but did 

not have immediate information on who 

received them and for what projects. 

But the embassy spokesperson said 

the program aligns with the “priorities 

outlined in President Trump’s National 

Security Presidential Memorandum on 

Strengthening the Policy of the United 

States toward Cuba.” 

The Cuban government did not return 

requests for comment on the grant. 

“Federal funding of on-the-ground 

programs in Cuba is highly sensitive,” noted 

Ric Herrero, former executive director 

of the pro-engagement campaign #CubaNow, 

which ran from early 2014 through 

November 2016. As such, he believes Cubans 

and Americans who request funding 

will likely be under some form of Cuban 

government scrutiny. 

For decades, U.S. State Department 

funding was contentious because programs 

like its Human Rights and Democracy 

Fund covered the salaries and covert activities 

of hardline Cuban exiles. It also paid 

to distribute messages aimed at undermining 

the leadership of the Castros through 

the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors’ 

Miami-based Radio Martí. 

In recent years, the State Department’s 

United States Agency for International 

Development (USAID) made headlines 

for several controversial programs 

with similar aims. Between 2010 and 

2012, USAID ran a covert micro-blogging 

platform known as Zunzuneo. On the outside, 

it operated much like Twitter, but its 

aim was to foment a “Cuban Spring,” much 

like the social media-inspired Arab Spring 

that led to civilian protests and uprisings 

throughout the Middle East during the 

same time period. 

In 2014, the Associated Press uncovered 

a covert USAID program to infiltrate 

Cuba-based HIV outreach and prevention 

Techie Skills Required: Workers repair computer equipment in Havana 

programs with Latin American youth 

who were to be tasked with identifying 

“social change actors.” Run by the Washington-based 

international aid program 

Creative Associates International (CAI), 

the program appears to have begun in 

2009. This USAID-funded organization 

continued to run it for several years, even 

after the December 2009 arrest of U.S. 

government contractor Alan Gross, held 

in Cuba until 2015 for smuggling radios to 

the island’s Jewish community. The arrest 

prompted U.S. officials to privately encourage 

CAI to suspend the program. 

The Trump administration has since 

proposed slashing USAID and State Department’s 

budget all over the world, Cuba 

included, as a way to save money. 

“Among the most inefficient USAID 

programs were the ones for Cuba,” said 

Lopez Levy. “The Cuba program was out 

of any accountability standards. It was a 

loose cannon and still is.” 

Continued on page 35 



25

CUBA BRAND 

A Way Forward Through Science 

Now in its last month, the Cuba exhibit at New York’s 

American Museum of Natural History is also a display 

of cooperation between US and Cuban scientists 

Strategic Planning / Public Affairs Consulting 

By Victoria Mckenzie 

Photo by AMNH/D.Finnin 

Leapin' Lizards: Museum attendees examine an exhibit showcasing Cuba's wetlands 

It began 125 years ago, when the American 

Museum of Natural History sent 

ornithologist Henry Chapman in search 

of new treasures on the Caribbean’s most 

biologically diverse island: Cuba. 

Ever since that 1892 voyage, AMNH 

scientists have continued to work with their 

Cuban colleagues in common devotion to 

cave bats, lizards, coral reefs, tree frogs, and 

other creatures—participating in more than 

30 joint expeditions over the last century. 

“In the last five years, we had a bit 

of a deepening, or a broadening, of the 

collaboration,” says Ana Luz Porzecanski, 

director of the museum’s Center 

for Biodiversity and Conservation, and 

co-curator of the Cuba! exhibit. The show 

is the result of joint field research between 

the AMNH and the National Museum of 

Natural History in Havana, which began 

in 2013 and culminated in the first largescale 

expedition to Humboldt Natural 

Park, among the most biologically rich 

tropical island forests on earth. 

“We have built a significant collection 

of Cuban specimens here, which means 

this is a very valuable place for Cubans to 


come and study,” Porzecanski told Cuba 

Trade. “In addition, it builds personal 

relationships between the scientists, which 

transcend whatever’s going on in the political 

sphere…. They find a way forward.” 

Cuba! is the museum’s first completely 

bilingual show. Since it opened last 

November, it has garnered a high level of 

interest, particularly from schools with bilingual 

programs. For some Cuban-American 

visitors, seeing the exhibit has been an 

emotional experience, occasionally moving 

them to tears. “It brings them back to their 

childhoods in Cuba,” said Porzecanski. 

After passing through Voices of Cuba, 

large portraits of ordinary Cubans with 

short interview excerpts, the exhibit opens 

to a pedestrian boulevard bracketed by 

colonial architecture, complete with an 

outdoor “cafe” allowing visitors to explore 

Cuban cuisine, play dominos, and watch 

a film of Havana. Through pillars on each 

side, seven rooms feature natural habitats, 

wildlife, and cultural traditions. 

The habitat rooms are particularly impressive. 

Walking through the ecosystems 

(caves, forests, coral reefs, and wetlands), 

you’re hit by island’s singularity: over half 

of Cuba’s plant species, 85 percent of its 

lizards, and 95 percent of its frogs are endemic 

to the island—meaning they cannot 

be found anywhere else. 

Most of the displays were built from 

scratch, but thanks to past collaborations, 

there are a few exceptions—such as the 

Megalocnus rodens skeleton, a giant sloth discovered 

by Cuban and U.S. scientists during 

an early expedition. Next to it perches a 

newly constructed, realistic, and terrifying 

Giant Cuban Owl, which likely “stomped its 

prey to death,” said Porzecanski. 

On the other side of the promenade, 

three rooms offer perspectives on Cuban 

culture. One features Santería shrines to 

the orishas, another, the inside of a tobacco 

drying house, and the third, a display of 

contemporary art, including 35 art posters 

by young Cuban designers. 

For their next step, Porzecanski 

and her colleagues hope to replicate 

portions of the exhibit to share with the 

Natural History Museum in Havana, to 

be featured as part of their permanent 

collection. H 

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REAL ESTATE 

Jorge Luis Acosta, director general of Palmares 

Taking a cue from its Caribbean neighbors, Cuba has ambitious plans to become a 

golf destination. Although the island now has just one 18-hole course in Varadero and 

a nine-hole one in Havana, it has plans for up to 30 more courses in the next decade or 

so—all linked to major tourism developments featuring hotels and vacation homes. 

Achieving this goal will take some effort. Major golf projects have been touted for 

years, but not yet broken ground. Cuba Trade spoke with engineer Jorge Luis Acosta, 

director general of state company Palmares, on Cuba’s golf plans and why they’re likely 

to move forward now. Palmares handles tourism services other than hotels including 

restaurants, gift shops, night clubs, and now, massive golf-real estate developments. 

ON THE 

FAIRWAY 

By Doreen Hemlock 

Inside Cuba's quest 

to become a golf 

destination 

Photo courtesy Cuban Government 

Varadero 18-hole golf course 

What is the status of golf projects in 

Cuba? 

We now have 13 real-estate projects with 

golf components that have foreign partners 

selected for their development. Of 

course, there will be other foreign partners 

involved too, such as construction companies 

and hotel managers. 

We plan to have all 13 projects set up 

as joint ventures by the end of 2018. So 

far, we have three joint ventures established: 

Bellomonte, located 20 minutes 

from Havana by Playas del Este; Carbonera 

in the Havana-Matanzas corridor, 

some 26 kilometers [16 miles] from Varadero; 

and Punta Colorada, announced 

in May at the Cuba International Tourism 

Fair, which is in the far west of Pinar 

del Rio province. We plan to set up eight 

more joint ventures this year, and next 

year, we’ll have two more to finalize. 

The projects we’ve been discussing 

haven’t been frozen in time. There’s a 

schedule. These 13 projects together run 

$14.3 billion. They’re very complicated. 

Just their first phase takes us through 

2025. Because they’re so complex, negotiations 

with foreign partners have been 

taking time. And frankly, we Cubans have 

no experience in this type of development, 

so we’re on a learning curve. 

Today, Bellomonte and Carbonera are 

in the pre-investment stage. We’re doing 

the feasibility studies. 

When will you break ground on those 

two projects? 

We hope later this year. 

Tell me more about the three projects 

approved. 

The largest is Punta Colorada. It spans 

more than 3,000 hectares [more than 

7,000 acres] and has seven golf courses. 

Just the first phase will require $3 billion 

in financing by 2020. Punta Colorada 

will revolutionize business for Palmares. 

In addition to golf, it will have a marina, 

a retail complex, and more than 20,000 

residential units. It’s the most ambitious 

project we have in the country. 

Who is the foreign partner for Punta 

Colorada? 

A Spanish company called Havana Golf 

will handle the golf development. Later, 

we will sign contracts for project management, 

sales and marketing, hotel management, 

marina management and other 

aspects of the project. This will be done in 

phases over some 25 years. 

And where will the $3 billion come from? 

Hasn’t funding been a sticking point? 

That $3 billion won’t come in one shot. The 

joint venture gives Cuba 51 percent and 

the foreign partner 49 percent ownership. 

There’s a timetable for what each partner 

gives. For example, Cuba now has to 

provide millions of dollars worth of surface 

rights to the land, and the foreign partner 

will give an amount mutually agreed upon 

to fund feasibility studies and other costs 

for this initial phase. 

And where will the rest of the $3 billion 

come from? Funding has been a problem 

in Cuba, even for foreign companies. 

One of the most complicated parts in 

forming these joint ventures is verifying 

the financial and economic capacity of the 

foreign partner. For Cuba to form a joint 

venture, we first do an investigation into 

where the foreign partner gets its money and 

how solvent the partner is. That’s one of the 

reasons that these negotiations take time. 

For the golf projects, we’ve also had 

to make sure that we can offer the surface 

rights to the foreign partner. At Bellomonte, 

for example, we paid CUC 72 

million [about $72 million] to make sure 

the land rights are clean, which involved 

helping move companies operating there 

and relocating individuals living on those 

parcels. The law says that for legal residents 

the joint venture must pay to build a 

similar home elsewhere. 

So, if you’ve verified their creditworthiness, 

why haven’t these projects started? 

The issue hasn’t been funding. It’s been 

negotiations, surface rights, the learning 

curve… We’re working on projects for 30 

golf courses. 

How does the real-estate component of 

these golf developments work? What are 

the terms for foreigners to buy properties 

in Cuba? 

Recent laws and regulations allow foreigners 

to have [leasing] rights for properties 

for 99 years, up from 75 years before. The 

sale of homes and apartments in these 

projects is legal. You become the owner for 

99 years. You can sell, exchange, barter and 

even inherit that property. 

And what happens after 99 years? 

You’re the owner in perpetuity. 

What do you think will be the prices for 

the vacation homes, and who will be the 

buyers? 

That depends on what the feasibility studies, 

and on what the sales and marketing 

studies show. 

How will Cuba differentiate itself from 

Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and 

other golf destinations? 

One differentiator will be nature - our 

beaches and national parks. 

Cuba has no real history of golf, at least 

in recent years. 

The Capdevila course in Havana is from 

1945. It’s the oldest in the country. But 

you’re right, golf is new for us. It’s a 

revolution. One thing we want for the 

future are schools to teach and practice 

golf, because golf is not as well known or 

as well publicized as baseball, soccer, or 

other sports. 

So, what’s the biggest challenge to Cuba 

becoming a golf destination? 

Speed. We need to work quickly. H 

The interview, conducted in Spanish, has 

been translated and edited for space and 

clarity. 



29

TRAVEL 

Right: Photos of marine life taken by yacht owners 

Below: Lawyer Michael T. Moore (left) and Commodore Jose Miguel Díaz 

Escrich (right) at the Hemingway Marina in Havana 

Smooth Sailing 

How Florida-based International 

SeaKeepers Society facilitates 

legal travel to Cuba under the 

mantel of ocean conservation 


Photos by International 

SeaKeepers Society 

Marine and aviation lawyer Michael T. 

Moore sits at the conference table of his 

Coral Gables, Fla., law firm, carefully interpreting 

a printout of current regulations 

on U.S. travel to Cuba, issued by the U.S. 

Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign 

Assets Control (OFAC). 

“If you don’t dig deeply enough, you 

won’t understand it. Most people stop 

right after the first paragraph,” he says as 

he reaches the bottom of the document 

and underlines a sentence in the humanitarian 

section authorizing U.S. citizens to 

go to Cuba for “environmental projects” 

and “projects involving formal or non-formal 

educational training.” 

Moore’s 30-year career in maritime 

law and his interest in environmental conservation 

have made him a leading legal 

advisor on yacht travel to Cuba. According 

to him, President Donald Trump’s new 

Cuba directive won’t affect this type of 

travel. In fact, as chairman of the board of 

the International SeaKeepers Society, he 

can create a legal passage. 

Currently headquartered inside 

Moore’s law firm, the International Sea- 

Keepers Society is a nonprofit dedicated to 

supporting marine science and conservation 

by using yachts for maritime research, educational 

outreach, and the deployment of 

oceanographic instruments. It was founded 

in Monaco in 1998 by a half dozen yacht 

owners who were concerned with the 

impact of pollution and ecological damage 

to the waters they sailed. It relocated to 

Moore’s Coral Gables office in 2009 when 

he became chairman of the organization. 

Two years ago, when then President 

Barack Obama began relaxing travel 

restrictions on Cuba, Moore and the Sea- 

Keepers team were inundated with calls 

from American yachters excited by the 

idea of legally sailing into Cuban waters— 

under the OFAC permitted categories for 

humanitarian reasons, as well as professional 

research and the research activities 

of private foundations. Like most U.S. 

travelers, yachters don’t want to be fined 

or jailed for violating the U.S. embargo, 

and they also worry about the government 

confiscating their yachts. 

“We started looking at the law and I 

concluded this was perfect for SeaKeepers. 

It’s right in our wheelhouse. It’s about 

water, marine ecology, and marine environmentalism,” 

says Moore. He consulted 

with OFAC on a legal framework for 

yacht travel to Cuba, and concluded that 

yachters could comply with the guidelines 

by building an appropriate itinerary and 

maintaining records of their activities. 

At the beginning, the yacht owners 

offered to collect data for scientists. They 

still do, but today members also lend 

their yachts to the researchers themselves. 

“Ninety percent of the cost of ocean 

research is the research vessel,” explained 

SeaKeepers’ president and CEO Richard 

Snow. As Moore puts it, “The primary 

mission is to give rides to scientists. We 

are the Uber of the seas for scientists.” 

So, yacht owners, especially those 

who were philanthropically minded, began 

boarding scientific researchers and equipment 

on their vessels. This allowed them 

to enjoy an ocean cruise and contribute 

to marine conservation at the same time. 

And what yachter wouldn’t want that kind 

of an experience with Cuba? 

“(Yachters) will come to us and say, 

‘Here’s what we want to do,” and we say, 

‘Here’s what you can do that fits into what 

you want to do, and the good news is what 

we’re proposing is better than what you 

wanted to do,’” explains Moore, whose law 

firm has facilitated some 230 vessel trips to 

Cuba for everything from sporting events 

and fishing tournaments to university research 

projects. Of those, 60 were scientific 

expeditions conducted with SeaKeepers. 

On the SeaKeepers E3 Cuba 

Experience itinerary, for example, yachters 

can dive along Cuba’s pristine coral 

reefs with U.S. or Cuban scientists, join 

a tour of Cuba’s historic ports, and dine 

in Cuba’s up-and-coming restaurants all 

while complying with the laws of both 

nations. SeaKeepers also encourages them 

to use a special research app where they 

can upload pictures of unique ecological 

findings, or to carry underwater video 

cameras to shoot footage for scientists; 

one yacht owner is photographing a 

one-mile living reef in the Jardines de la 

Reina – the Gardens of the Queen – a 

reef off Cuba's southern coast. The goal 

is to create a baseline to monitor the reef 

system's health. 

SeaKeepers charges about $1,000 

for tailoring a legal itinerary according to 

the timeframe and requests of the client, 

a drop in the bucket for philanthropists 

who are likely to donate much more to 

the organization after an inspiring trip. 

“Participation in a full-time schedule of 

OFAC-approved environmental, educational, 

and ecological activities during the 

trip is what makes the trip compliant with 

U.S. Law,” says Moore. 

Collin Laverty, founder and president 

of the Washington-based Cuba Educational 

Travel, seconds that. “It makes sense 

if they’re traveling under humanitarian 

projects. Where this passes the legitimacy 

test is the purpose of travel,” he says. 

For the standard general license, yachters 

have a maximum of 14 days, including a 

day of sailing into and a day of sailing out of 

Cuban waters. Longer trips, which require 

additional licensing from the Department 

of Commerce, are also available. On these 

trips, it would be common for academics 

and other researchers from around the 

world to fly down and meet up with the 

yacht crew and then utilize the yacht to 

engage in more intensive investigation, 

oftentimes with their Cuban counterparts. 

Even small research contributions 

help raise awareness about preserving the 

ecology of the Cuban coastline. American 

yacht captain Jonathan Kline, for example, 

piloted his vessel for a SeaKeepers excursion. 

He started with a trip from Key West 

across the Gulf Stream, landing at sunrise 

in Marina Hemingway near Havana. He 

then carried a biologist to the Bay of Pigs, 

where in April 1961, Cuban exiles backed 

by the CIA tried to overthrow the newly 

formed government of Fidel Castro. 

“Our biologist and guests found 

some interesting snorkeling spots and 

logged their findings,” he said, noting how 

they were able to document the lion fish 

invasion and deploy a drifter that collects 

scientific data about ocean health. 

“Cuba, is a phenomenal opportunity 

because it hasn’t had any demand on their 

coral reefs whatsoever. So, their coral reefs 

are our coral reefs in 1960, which we love,” 

said Richard Snow. SeaKeepers aims to 

help keep them that way. H 



31

ENVIRONMENT 

Preserving a 

Symbol of 

National Identity 

US and Cuban conservationists 

are reintroducing endangered 

crocodiles to their natural habitat 



Cuba’s Zapata Swamp is a little more 

crowded thanks to U.S. and Cuban conservationists 

who recently reintroduced 

ten critically endangered Cuban crocodiles 

to the ecosystem. 

The release, which happened on June 

8, is promising news for a species whose 

wild population has dwindled to about 

4,000, according to the International 

Union for the Conservation of Nature. It’s 

also a win for partnerships between the 

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) 

and various Cuban environmental organizations, 

which date back to 1999. 

WCS Cuba Program Manager 

Natalia Rossi says Cuban crocodiles are 

particularly important because they only 

naturally occur in small sections of Cuba’s 

Zapata Swamp and Isle of Youth. One of 

their main contributions to these ecosystems 

are caves they build that become 

habitats for fish larvae, shrimp, and small 

fauna. As top predators, they also regulate 

the populations of other species further 

down the food chain. 

However, if conservationists don’t find 

solutions for ongoing issues, such as illegal 

hunting or hybridization with American 

crocodiles, their population will continue 

to decline. 

Rossi says she is grateful to the Cuban 

institutions collaborating with WCS on 

conservation efforts and research. The 

Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment 

oversees all conservation efforts in 

Zapata National Park and provides permits 

and technical expertise on crocodile research 

and monitoring. The Empresa Nacional para 

la Protección de la Flora y la Fauna oversees 

and provides information on captive and re- 

Born to be Wild: A Cuban crocodile is reintroduced to Zapata National Park 

introduced Cuban crocodiles. The Fundacion 

Antonio Nuñez de la Naturaleza helps WCS 

facilitate ground research. 

“I continue to be impressed with the 

sheer level of talent, capacity, and creativity 

in the scientific community, as well the 

highly-committed workforce working on 

protected areas to manage and conserve— 

often times with limited resources—their 

outstanding biodiversity,” Rossi said. 

The partnership understands that 

simply reintroducing Cuban crocodiles 

to their natural habitat is not enough. 

The new additions to the Zapata Swamp 

were released in an area where American 

crocodiles do not exist—a move expected 

to prevent hybridization. WCS’s recovery 

strategy also includes educating a new 

generation of ecologists. That’s why the recent 

release included a workshop attended 

by 30 international experts and 40 Cubans 

who work closely with crocodiles. 

That combination of direct action, research, 

and educational outreach has been 

a consistent theme throughout WCS’s 

history in Cuba. WCS and its partners 

are also involved in protecting raptors in 

the inland forests of eastern Cuba, as well 

as sharks in the underwater Jardines de 

la Reina National Park. WCS has also 

helped train conservation educators and 

decision makers, in addition to developing 

comprehensive management plans for the 

island’s most important protected areas. 

Looking ahead, WCS is preparing 

for upcoming projects focusing on support 

for Caribbean manatees and sea turtles, 

as well as a citizen science monitoring 

project for birds and amphibians in the 

mountains of central Cuba. H 

Photo by WCS 

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ENTREPRENEURS 

Mixology at 

the “Club de 

Cantina” 

Cuba’s storied bartending 

tradition gets a boost from 

an innovative public-private 

partnership 

Story and photo by Ted A. Henken 

Mean Mojitos: Claudia Martínez Romero, 25, graduated from the Club de Cantina bartender school 

Seeking a Settlement continued from page 20 

moves its monetary assets through the 

global financial system “such that they 

remain out of reach.” 

In fact, the Cuban government has 

never defended any of the lawsuits brought 

against it, mostly in sympathetic courts in 

South Florida. Cuba could have claimed 

sovereign immunity from these lawsuits, 

but resisted because it did not want to 

recognize the jurisdiction of a U.S. court. 

In an effort to instead sue U.S. 

companies doing business with Cuba, in 

2015 Hunt filed a Freedom of Information 

Request to the Justice Department and the 

Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign 

Assets Control (OFAC), which issues licenses 

that let U.S. companies do business 

with Cuba. He said he’s particularly interested 

in information about the U.S. cruise 

lines—especially Carnival and Norwegian—that 

are now bringing thousands of 

Americans to Cuba. These companies pay 

the Cuban government tens of thousands 

of dollars in docking fees every time one of 

their ships reaches a Cuban port. 

Hunt said his repeated requests for 

information have been ignored. So, in 

January, he filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania 

federal court to try to force the release 

of information. “Much of the obstruction 

comes from the U.S. government,” Hunt 

said of his efforts to find Cuban assets. 

“They have shielded U.S. companies.” 

OFAC did not respond to questions 

for this story, but in the past it has refrained 

from talking about companies that 

have special licenses to conduct business in 

Cuba, saying it is protected information. 

Hunt is also trying to tap $8 billion 

in penalties from BNP-Paribas Bank 

collected by the federal government after 

the bank was found to have violated U.S. 

sanctions on Sudan, Iran, and Cuba. U.S. 

companies with property claims against 

Cuba are also eyeing that pot of money. 

Feinberg says satisfying judgments 

like the one in the Del Pino case “are a 

long shot,” but that “some of the lawyers 

have made a lot of money on these cases.” 

Washington-based attorney Robert 

Muse said the buildup of civil judgments 

against Cuba, totaling more than $1 billion, 

can “obstruct the full normalization 

of relations” between the United States 

and Cuba. Muse said the U.S. government 

should say it’s in the national interest to 

vacate all “bogus” judgments against Cuba. 

But the Obama administration didn’t 

take any steps toward this and the Trump 

administration isn’t expected to, either. 

Meanwhile, controversy surrounds 

Del Pino’s story. 

Del Pino’s family say he was a friend 

of Fidel Castro who became disillusioned 

with the revolution and was captured after 

being enticed to return to Cuba to help 

a family member. They say Del Pino was 

tortured in captivity until his summary 

execution in 1977. But in his book The 

Cuban Revolution, Hugh Thomas writes 

that Del Pino was an informant for 

former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista 

who returned to Cuba to lead an abortive 

expedition against Castro, was jailed and 

died in prison. H 

Cocktails have long been a way of life in 

Cuban culture. Lately, with foreign tourism 

on the rise, they’ve become a life line 

for young Cubans aspiring to work in one 

of the island’s most traditional trades: that 

of the cantinero, or bartender. 

While the production and distribution 

of spirits remains off limits to Cuba’s 

private sector, mixology is not. Beginning 

last year, Havana Club International—a 

joint venture between state enterprise 

Cuba Ron and French multinational 

Pernod Ricard—has helped Cubans 

maintain their tradition of fine spirits 

and hospitality by co-sponsoring Club de 

Cantina, a six-month bartender school, in 

conjunction with private entrepreneurship 

nonprofit Artecorte. 

“It took me out of the world I was 

in,” said Yohan Manuel Sibello Hidalgo, 

28, an ex-convict from Trinidad and a 

recent graduate of Club de Cantina. He’s 

one of several dozen young adults to hone 

their skills with the program’s volunteer 

teachers, all bartenders in Old Havana’s 

private restaurants or paladares. Now, said 

Sibello, “I’ll be able to work with dignity 

in a job I enjoy.” 

Founded in 1999 as a nonprofit 

community outreach project for youth in 

Old Havana’s Santo Angel neighborhood, 

Artecorte is a pioneer in a country better 

known for its strong central government. 

Working alongside Havana’s Office of the 

City Historian, a key economic development 

agency, it began by training youth in 

familiar professions such as hairdressing, 

carpentry, and bartending. Today, its collaboration 

with public-private entities also 

incorporates customer service training. 

“We aim to improve living conditions 

by incentivizing both individual and collective 

neighborhood initiatives, training 

young adults in traditional trades and 

helping them find employment, promoting 

local entrepreneurial solidarity, and 

fomenting public-private partnerships,” 

explained Gilberto “Papito” Valladares, the 

organization’s founder and director. 

Artecorte staffer Camilo Condis, 

currently a student of nonprofit management 

in a U.S. certificate program, said he 

hopes to expand the model to the rest of 

the island. He said positive engagement 

of Cuban entrepreneurs (cuentapropistas) 

with the public sector comes down to 

“developing our neighborhood in every 

way possible.” 

Havana Club International, which 

markets Cuban rum in Cuba and Europe, 

uses its name and a portion of its profits 

to help its local partner Havana Club S.A. 

provide Club de Cantina with student 

uniforms, alcohol, and bartending 

tools. Artecorte meanwhile provides the 

teachers, classrooms, and most of the necessary 

non-alcoholic products like juices, 

fruits, and ice. No money is exchanged, 

but know-how imparted has resulted in 

private-sector jobs for most graduates. 

Four graduates, for example, just got 

jobs as bartenders on the international 

routes of Europe’s MSC Cruise Line, the 

world’s largest privately-owned cruise line. 

Among them is Claudia Martínez Romero, 

25, who can’t wait to set sail. 

“As a woman, I felt I was at a disadvantage 

relative to the men,” she said. “The 

fact is that I’d never even made a drink before. 

However, I gave it my all and was even 

selected as the top graduate of my class!” 

On international cruise ships, she’ll 

have a competitive edge, because in 

addition to her new-found skills in the art 

of mean mojito making, she is fluent in 

English and French. “Our horizons have 

literally expanded,” she said. H 

Funny Money continued from page 27 

All of these programs happened 

during the same Obama administration 

that made the largest strides in normalizing 

relations with the Cuban government. But 

Cuban entrepreneurship was also something 

Obama promoted during his tenure. 

“A central tenant of Obama policy 

was always to help the Cuban people 

increase the flow of contacts, resources, 

and opportunities for the burgeoning 

private sector in Cuba,” Herrero said. 

“What the Obama policy did not do was 

lift the embargo. Only Congress can do 

that since it’s codified into law under the 

Helms-Burton Act.” 

Frank Calzón, executive director 

of Center for a Free Cuba, says that it 

remains to be seen if this grant program 

violates the Helms-Burton Act, since the 

law does not authorize U.S. funds for 

small businesses in Cuba. 

“I do not have any problem with 

any American government initiative that 

is carried out according to the law. The 

problem is that during the last administration, 

a lot of stuff was done in a way to get 

around the law,” said Calzón, adding that 

time will tell if this grant is one of them. 

While Calzón said he works pro-bono, 

and has not received USAID funding for 

eight years, he did say he receives “a small 

amount” of operational support from the 

federally funded National Endowment for 

Democracy (NED). The last NED annual 

report is from 2015, and shows the Center 

for a Free Cuba had received $107,000.) 

Within the pro-engagement camp, 

the general consensus is that U.S. citizens 

and Cubans interested in accepting the 

funds should proceed with caution. They 

say the Cuban government won’t likely 

intervene unless it appears a program is 

focused on regime change. 

Cuban émigré Arturo Lopez Levy, a 

lecturer at University of Texas-Rio 

Grande Valley, says this grant seems to be 

more upfront, and therefore may be seen 

more favorably by Cuban authorities. 

“I think the Cuban government will 

decide on a case-by-case basis because 

most of these programs are already infiltrated 

or run with great incompetence,” 

said Lopez Levy, who worked as a political 

analyst for the Cuban government 

from 1992 to 1994. “They won’t arrest you 

for just one thing. They’ll wait to have a 

good case against you.” 

But hardliners such as Jaime Suchlicki, 

the outgoing director of The Institute 

of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, 

still believe that the covert style was 

better. “Not only that, some of the people 

that could apply would be government 

officials,” he added. 

At least on that latter point, the far 

more progressive Lopez Levy agrees with 

Suchlicki. “This is asymmetric political 

warfare. The Cuban government has always 

said guerrillas get their weapons from 

their enemies’ arsenal,” Lopez Levy said. 

“I think if we have cool heads working 

at the U.S. Embassy and at State, it 

behooves everybody to work with them 

and to get informed as to the real purpose 

of the program,” said Herrero, noting that 

diplomacy grants like the ones currently 

offered in Cuba are bipartisan, and have 

been offered in many countries. Cuba, he 

notes, is simply more contentious. 

“Ultimately if you want to help the 

private sector in Cuba, the best thing to 

do to is further open our private sector to 

them and get our government bureaucrats 

out of the way,” Herrero said. H 



35

WHAT NOW FOR 

U.S. CORPORATIONS? 

Trump’s Cuba policy directives leave 

U.S. businesses with reason to pause 

Corporate Cruising: Many U.S. Companies want to continue engagement 


Photo by Carnival Corp. 

A 

year ago this time, a myriad of U.S. businesses were rushing 

to be the first in their respective industries to pen deals 

with Cuba. With then President Barack Obama loosening 

the U.S. embargo toward Cuba, it appeared trade would soon be 

flowing between the two countries. Then, a surprising November 

victory by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump 

threw those plans into uncertainty. Trump, who originally said 

he was “fine” with Obama’s détente, vowed to roll it back, and for 

more than half a year the U.S. business community awaited word 

of what that meant. 

In June, Trump began to define his Cuba policy, announcing 

he would prohibit U.S. businesses from doing deals with entities 

controlled by the Cuban military, as well as forbid U.S. travelers 

from visiting Cuba on self-directed people-to-people trips. The 

months between Trump’s announcement and the final publication 

of corresponding regulations are still cause for uncertainty— 

but experts say there could still be some silver linings. 

Many sectors of interest to American corporations such as 

biopharmaceuticals, agriculture, and joint ventures in mining and 

manufacturing, do not appear to be under military control, so 

they should not be affected. U.S. transportation companies, i.e. 

airlines and cruise lines, will be allowed to continue. According to 

a frequently asked questions document published July 25 on the 

website of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets 

Control (OFAC), business deals will be permitted "provided 

that those commercial engagements were in place prior to the 

issuance of the forthcoming regulations." 

Trump also made no mention of about two dozen bilateral 

agreements signed since late December 2014 when Obama initially 

began the détente. Those include points of common interest 

such as border security and drug trafficking, as well as scientific, 

educational, and recreational exchanges. 

And, because it will take at least 120 days to publish the new 

regulations, there is also ample opportunity for U.S. businesses to 

lobby for a less severe articulation of the rules. 

“We continue to talk with the government and give them 

examples of the type of opportunities that exist for US manufacturers 

and job growth in the United States by improving the 

relationship,” explained Alexander Russ, director of International 

and Regulatory Affairs at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers 

in Washington. 

Nonetheless, Trump’s announcement has created anxiety in 

some U.S. businesses worried about inadvertently engaging in 

illegal transactions with Cuba’s armed forces, which some media 

suggested could control as much as 60 percent of the Cuban 

economy. Some economists, such as Emilio Morales of the Havana 

Consulting Group, put that number at closer to 20 percent. 

Regardless, it will take many months for the U.S. State Department 

to come up with a list of just who or what is off limits. 

“He [Trump] has not defined the word military. How expansive 

that definition is will have a great effect on whether this will 

severely curtail business or be limited,” said Jason Marczak, director 

of the Latin America Economic Growth Initiative at the Atlantic 

Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center in Washington. 

On the one hand, Marczak says it’s important to publish the 

new regulations as quickly as possible, as “businesses are in limbo 

until they publish them.” On the other hand, he agrees with Russ 

that lobbying is of the essence. “Our focus right now is how we 

can influence the regulatory process,” he said. 

THE CORPORATE LINE 

As far as public statements go, the business community remains 

adamant in their support for continued expansion of commerce 


Alexander Russ, Director of International and Regulatory Affairs, Association 

of Equipment Manufacturers in Washington 

Myron Brilliant, Executive Vice President and Head of International, 

Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 

with Cuba. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Cuba Business 

Council, the membership of which includes such corporate 

heavyweights as American Airlines, Caterpillar, DHL, Dow and 

GE, issued an immediate statement after Trump’s announcement. 

“U.S. private sector engagement can be a positive force for 

the kind of change we all wish to see in Cuba. Unfortunately, 

today’s moves actually limit the possibility for positive change 

on the island and risk ceding growth opportunities to other 

countries…,” said the statement by Myron Brilliant, the Chamber’s 

executive VP and head of international affairs. “We remain 

committed to working with all relevant parties to remove the 

antiquated policies that hinder the empowerment of the American 

and Cuban people.” 

Individual members of the USCBC issued their own 

statements, as well. One of those companies is heavy equipment 

manufacturer Caterpillar. While it has yet to finalize any business 

deals with Cuba—beyond donating $500,000 to restore Hemmingway’s 

house outside of Havana—it has been in exploratory 

phases for some time. 

“Caterpillar believes that engagement with Cuba continues 

to represent a strong opportunity—not just for American business, 

but to serve as a powerful tool for change. We will continue 

to work closely with policymakers on the best way to accomplish 

these goals,” the company said in a statement following Trump’s 

announcement of the rollback. 

Other members are continuing to move forward, albeit 

cautiously. General Electric, for example—which signed memorandums 

of understanding in March 2016 to provide power, 

aviation, and medical equipment to the Cuban government—is 

still advancing its plans. The company recently secured a deal to 

revitalize an existing power plant on the island, said a Washington-based 

industry expert who asked not to be named. That deal 

is expected to be honored since it was made prior to the enactment 

of the new Trump directive. 

CONTINUED TRAVEL 

Although Trump’s new policy intends to change the course of 

self-directed people-to-people trips to Cuba, it has not eliminated 

all forms of travel. U.S. citizens of Cuban origin will 

be allowed to continue their regular familial visits; academics, 

researchers, and business people can continue to board flights; 

and people-to-people group travel, including cruise line tours, 

will keep going. 

“We can’t speculate as to what if any impact these new 

regulations will have on the number of people traveling. However, 

American is well positioned since Miami-Dade County is home 

to the majority of Cuban-Americans in the U.S., and we are 

the leading carrier from Miami International Airport, where we 

operate nine out of 10 daily frequencies,” American Airlines said 

in a July statement. 

Cruise lines of various sizes, including giants Carnival and 

Norwegian, are not only continuing their existing cruises to 

Cuba, but expanding their itineraries for next year. Norwegian, 

for example, announced a new 2018 cruise to Cuba from Port 

Canaveral nearly a month after Trump’s announcement. Carnival, 

the first cruise company to send vessels to Cuba in 2016, announced 

it was preparing to send its affiliated Holland America 

Line to Cuba, and is waiting to introduce other brands to Cuba, 

pending approval. 

“Travel brings people and cultures together, so we are excited 

about the upcoming cruises to Cuba for our guests,” Carnival 

Corporation said in a statement. 

GOING FORWARD 

AkinGump, the Washington DC-based legal powerhouse, has 

numerous clients interested in opportunities in such Cuban 

sectors as pharmaceuticals, hospitality, agriculture, and financial 

services. Their advice to clients, says Scott Parven, the attorney 

who heads their Cuba practice, is to stay the course. 

“We are advising our clients to lean in—and they are doing 

so—and to lean in with their lawyers by their side, to make sure 

they are clearly understanding the law versus the rhetoric,” says 

Parven. “We are reminding clients that Cuba is always going to be 

a long-term play, that hasn’t changed. This is a speed bump, and we 

will get past it…. For those companies that have considered Cuba 

a market, it’s a just an issue of re-aligning strategies and tactics.” 

Attorney Anya French, another member of the Akin Gump 

Cuba team, says that the firm has also been approached by new 

clients looking for clarification on the Trump policies. “It comes 

down to how the regulations are written,” she says. “There are 

sectors where there doesn’t seem to be an affect, but it’s not 

clear… that is what we are working on in our advocacy effort. The 

military is the primary issue.” 

Charles Serrano, whose consulting firm Antilles Strategy 

Group has led some 200 commercial missions into Cuba, says 

that regardless of particular rules, Trump’s announcement has 

had a chilling effect on corporate interest in Cuba. 

“I don’t think the corporate executives and general counsels 

that I normally deal with are making statements that we should 

Smooth Landing: U.S. commercial airlines can still fly to Cuba 

rush in and get things done before the regulations change,” he 

says. “It’s more like, ‘Let me just see how the regulations turn 

out.’ And that is sad, because any indicator that [some activity] 

might be illegal or might increase the risk—especially for the big 

corporations we are talking to—those people are going to step 

back, not step forward.” 

Included in that risk assessment is whether traditional Republican 

hardliners like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will push to 

make the regulations even more debilitating for U.S. business. 

“Will there be additional announcements if he [Trump] 

doesn’t feel that the Cubans are doing enough, or additional if 

he needs the support of Rubio?” asked Marczak. “There are a 

host of unknowns here that could cause investors to give second 

thoughts… in some cases, there is so much profit potential that 

they will be willing to take the risk.” 

Having said that, the corporate community remains a strong 

champion of improving relations with the Cuban government, 

and will continue to be an advocate of loosening restrictions, right 

up to the point when the new regulations are actually printed. 

“Our companies that go over there and try to understand the 

market always come back to talk about the overwhelming opportunities,” 

said Russ, especially in basic infrastructure. “There’s a lot 

of need over there, and we’d like to have U.S. companies be able to 

fulfill that need.” H 

J.P. Faber also contributed to this report 

Photo by Delta Airlines 



39

SPECIAL TRAVEL SECTION 

Educational 

¨ 

Historic 

G 

Adventure 

P 

Ecotourism 

M 

Music 

Custom VIP 

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The 12 Categories of Authorized Travel to Cuba 

How To Travel 

to Cuba Now 

Trump’s new policies, with the declared intention 

of ending individual people-to-people 

travel, could shake up travel to Cuba. Here’s 

what you should—or should not—worry about 

By Suzette Laboy 

• Family Visits 

• Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, 

and certain intergovernmental organizations 

• Journalistic activities 

• Professional research or professional meetings 

• Educational activities and people-to-people exchanges 

• Religious activities 

• Public performance, clinics, workshops, athletic or other 

competitions and exhibitions 

• Support for the Cuban people 

• Humanitarian projects 

• Activities of private foundations or research or educational 

institutes 

• Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or 

informational materials 

• Travel related to certain authorized export transactions 

Not long ago, Americans traveling to Cuba relied solely on 

specialized travel agents and tour operators for help with 

everything from booking flights to obtaining travel visas. 

Then came President Obama’s loosening of travel restrictions, 

along with an overnight explosion of Airbnb options across the 

island, and Americans could suddenly book their own travel. The 

result was a surge in travel by Americans to Cuba, from a 102,000 

in 2013 to 287,000 last year—a figure that does not include travel 

by 519,000 Cuban-Americans. 

Now that President Donald Trump has announced his 

intended policy to limit individual people-to-people journeys to 

the island, the travel landscape may shift once again. While it is 

unlikely that the numbers of U.S. travelers to Cuba will ever fall 

to pre-Obama levels, the use of what are called Travel Service 

Providers (TSPs)—agencies that hold special U.S. government 

licenses for authorized travel to Cuba—may once again dominant 

the terrain. 

In the meantime, what you need to know is this: Until the 

new regulations are written, published and signed into law, nothing 

has changed. You can still travel to Cuba as an individual in 

the people-to-people category—or any one of 11 other approved 

categories. And those visas are available from airlines or cruise 

ships when you check in, at a cost of between $50 and $100 each. 

That doesn’t mean travel to Cuba is without its challenges. 

Credit cards, except for those issued by Stonegate Bank in Florida, 

or Banco Popular in Puerto Rico, are useless. Instead you need 

to bring cash, which you can change into CUCs once you arrive 

in Cuba. Fortunately, Cuba is one of the safest place to travel 

anywhere in the world, with virtually no violent crime and even 

less against tourists. 

Finding a place to stay in Cuba is another part of the puzzle. 

Thanks to a demand that exceeds the supply, hotel rooms 

are high-priced and hard to come by in season, usually booked 

months in advance. Rooms that would fetch $200 to $300 in 

the U.S. can cost double that in Havana. The good news is that 

the island now has tens of thousands of bed and breakfasts 

that can be booked through Airbnb, and it’s not hard to find 

rooms with showers and air conditioning that cost from $40 

to $60. 

“Cuba is a unique destination, and even with the 2015 

liberalization there are still hoops travelers have to jump through, 

both on the U.S. government side and the Cuban side,” said 

Eben Peck of the American Society of Travel Agents. “The travel 

infrastructure in Cuba (hotels, airports, access to money, etc.) 

has suffered from a historical lack of investment and can present 

challenges to U.S. travelers.” 

If you do want a travel plan that’s a little more structured, 

even thematic, you can take advantage of the approximately 300 

TSPs in the U.S. with a special license from the U.S. Treasury 

Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (or OFAC). 

Using one of these agents, you can turn your random journey into 

an adventure in ecotourism, for example, or a cultural jaunt in 

Havana that mixes art, music and cuisine. 

TSPs come in handy when the traveler doesn’t speak Spanish 

and “is nervous about finding a place to stay and organizing their 

program,” said John McAuliff, executive director of the Fund for 

Reconciliation and Development and himself a coordinator of 

people-to-people trips to Cuba. Airbnb’s English-language site 

may help fill that void, he said, though many travelers still prefer 

to stay in hotels and many online sites may not be as effective in 

Cuba is a unique destination, and 

even with the 2015 liberalization there 

are still hoops travelers have to jump 

through, both on the government side 

and the Cuban side.” 

Eben Peck, American Society of Travel Agents 

terms of price and availability. 

Typically, these TSP agents use a tour guide on the Cuba 

side provided by the government tourism ministry. Sometimes 

the TSPs will have their own representatives on the island as 

well, and travelers can turn to independent tour guides who have 

“found a niche,” though this is a grey area, since they are not 

registered with the government. 

The other big caveat is that tourist travel, per se, remains 

banned under the U.S. embargo. Americans are required to travel 

for other reasons, such as religion, business, or education, and 

they are supposed to keep records of their travel (though no one 

is checking, at this point.) They are not supposed to be relaxing 

on the beach. 

Continued to page 55 



41

SPECIAL REPORT 

ABC Charters 

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Abercrombie & Kent USA 

M 

P 

ABC Charters is one of the oldest travel service providers for 

Cuba, having first established themselves as a charter air 

service to Cuba in 2000. Since then they have evolved into 

a full-service travel and tour operator, flying their clients down 

aboard the major U.S. airlines with scheduled commercial service 

to the island. 

Today ABC can arrange everything the traveler to Cuba 

needs, from transportation to hotel accommodations. Moreover, 

they can also handle corporate travel and events planning, with 

an expertise in educational and cultural trips for clients such as 

Tulane University. The average cost for a group of students for nine 

nights on a people-to-people educational trip is about $2,100 for 

single occupancy and $1,800 for double occupancy, not including 

airfare, staying in three-star hotels. 

At the other end of the spectrum, ABC can book you in a 

top-rated hotel, such as the Melia Cohiba or the Iberstar Parque 

Central, with room prices going for between $400 and $660 a 

night. Like other TSPs, they take blocks of rooms in advance, so 

even if you can’t get a top hotel on your own, you can through 

them. ABC can also accommodate private, high-end travel to 

Cuba from any U.S. international airport to any authorized airport 

in Cuba. Prices on demand. 

Having been involved in Cuba travel for the better part of two 

decades, ABC prides itself on longevity and reliability. Next year, 

2018, will “show who the true experts in the industry are based on 

who will be able to survive the changes,”according to Tessie Aral, 

president of the company. 

Abc-charters.com 

Each itinerary provided by Abercrombie & Kent USA is 

filled with people-to-people educational exchanges that take 

groups to experience the architecture, agriculture, arts, and 

cuisine of Cuba. Their aim is to provide authentic experiences 

buffered by luxury, beginning with a stay at the 5-star Gran 

Hotel Manzana Kempinski in Havana and proceeding to the 

countryside for activities such as making earthenware pots at a 

pottery studio in Camagüey. 

“Our clients tend to be experienced international travelers fascinated 

by emerging destinations where the rapid pace of change 

offers a rare glimpse into a traditional culture,” said Keith Baron, 

President of Abercrombie & Kent. The company began offering 

travel to Cuba in 2013 under an OFAC general license. 

A&K’s guided small group journeys (maximum of 24 guests) 

focus on art, culture, eco-tourism, and adventure. Travelers can cruise 

aboard a boutique sailing yacht and visit Punta Francés, one of the 

most pristine coral reefs in the Caribbean; travel through the colorful 

Cuban countryside from Camagüey to Remedios; meet with 

local fishermen; take a private dance lesson; or stroll through the 

historic streets of Habana Vieja (Old Havana) with a local architect. 

Prices for their people-to-people programs begin at $6,795 per 

person, double occupancy, for their 10-day journey that goes from 

Havana to Camagüey and back. Their 13-day journey that goes 

through Santiago and ends in Hoguín, costs $9,795 per person. 

The cost reflects “the dramatic rise in hotel prices due to the limited 

availability of luxury accommodations on the island,” said Baron. 

Further details for 2018 programs will be announced in the fall. 

Abercrombiekent.com 



AC Journeys (Anthropologie) 

j 

Antilles Strategy Group 

j 

“At AC Journeys, we don’t have fixed itineraries. We 

customize for every single client,” says José Pineda, the 

founder and CEO of a Travel Service Provider that is 

best described as Custom VIP. 

Originally called Anthropologie when launched in 2009 

(thanks to Pena’s background in Academia) AC Journeys has 

since evolved into a kind of Cuba travel-service-for-the-stars, 

with a substantial clientele from Hollywood, California. 

“One of the groups that we did recently was for the families 

of two Hollywood producers, a group of 10 people,” says Pineda. 

“They are affluent and have money and like to travel nicely. They 

were paying $7,000 per person, so they had the best that you can 

get in Cuba.” 

Pineda keeps the identity of his travelers confidential unless, 

in the case of client Jerry Springer, they want to make their Cuban 

experiences public. More often than not, clients that range from 

senators to movie stars to industry moguls like to keep their travel 

plans hush-hush. 

On the Cuban side, however, it’s all about exposure to the 

right people. Pineda can put his clients into the studio of a leading 

artist, or into a jam session with accomplished musicians. “I have a 

wide range of contacts in Cuba. We can always have [important] 

guests at lunch…” 

“Right now I am working with a guy who is interested in 

doing a joint venture in the energy industry. So I am researching 

with who in the energy industry in Cuba he can talk with,” he says. 

“I can connect people at the higher levels.” 

www.acjourneys.com 

While others bring tourists to Cuba, Charles Serrano, CEO 

of Antilles Consulting Service, specializes in executives 

and university brass. In the last decade, he has led some 

200 missions to Cuba, mostly business leaders interested in exploring 

investment and trade opportunities on the island. 

“We sell the whole package, getting the visa and the airline,” 

says Serrano. “Other travel companies don’t necessarily do that, but 

instead advise you where to get your flight and visas.” 

Serrano also operates as a consultant to U.S. companies looking 

to do business in Cuba, which gives him an advantage when 

dealing with these clients when it comes time to travel. 

While the final rules implementing Trump’s announced Cuba 

policies are many months off, Serrano says he is already holding 

the hands of business clients worried that it will be impossible to 

move forward. “You have to be able to explain [the new policies] 

well to corporations,” he says. “Those that are seriously engaged 

in Cuba have some understanding, and realize that even after the 

regulations are published there will still be a lot of opportunities in 

biotech, research, agricultural, and other areas.” 

Serrano says he has already devised a variety of solutions that 

will permit his clients to travel as individuals to Cuba, including 

memberships in such organizations as the Council on Latin 

American Relations. “If you go to non-profit, non-government 

events, with artists or various foundations, that will suffice… the 

only control mechanism is when you return to the U.S. If you lie, 

then you’re in trouble. If you say Cuba, then you’ll have to have 

documents for that.” 

Antillesstrategygroup.com 



Bespoke Custom Cuba Travel 

G 

Carlson Maritime Travel 

G 

Your Full Service Cuba Connection: SEA, AIR, LAND, 

CARLSON MARITIME TRAVEL 

Your Full Service Cuba Connection: SEA, AIR, LAND 

BOATING TO CUBA FROM U.S. 

YACHTS, SPORT FISHERMEN, SAILBOATS 

Suzanne Carlson, 

President 

Soon after Trump’s policy was announced, New York Citybased 

Bespoke Custom Cuba Travel began providing clients 

a set of documents to have on hand when they re-enter the 

U.S. It includes their full itinerary, travel affidavit and more. 

“As soon as the announcement was made, the public at large 

thought this would be immediate and did not realize that there is 

always a lag,” said president Myriam Castillo. “To ease our clients 

fears, we said ‘OK we are going to give you this, you can show 

them this, that legitimately lays out you are not doing anything 

that is against the current policy, or whatever the future policy may 

be.’” 

About 45 percent of their business focuses on art and architecture, 

Castillo said. The rest is a mixture of travelers interested in 

dance, music, history and more. They have infrastructure in Cuba, 

relying on their own drivers and guides. Trips are broken down 

into the focus categories of history, music/art, and museums; they 

have also provided tours for foodies, and for private schools in 

New York City. 

Bespoke is now booking clients who want to travel to Cuba 

in the late fall and end of the year. They organize entire itineraries 

and prepare all documents or visas required to travel to Cuba. They 

can also organize the use of commercial airlines, private jets, or 

chartered yachts. 

Depending on time of year and length of time, trips that average 

four to five nights cost $3,500 to $4,300, with all services, docs 

and visas included. 

Find Bespoke Custom Cuba Travel on Facebook 


Carlson Maritime has been around since 2009, and as a boutique 

travel agency, it specializes in Cuba, Greece, and the 

Mediterranean. “Most agencies just do Cuba,” says CEO 

Suzanne Carlson. “But we do the world as well.” 

Like their name suggests, Carlson Maritime specializes in 

waterborne journeys to Cuba, namely trips taken by yachts into 

Cuban waters and marinas. 

“Or maritime packages for all types of vessels include the 

components required for safe and legal maritime travel to Cuba,” 

says Carlson. These services include all documentation for entering 

Cuban territorial waters, securing marina slips, and U.S. re-entry 

information. Once these arrangements have been secured, clients 

are handed over to Havana Tours, with which Carlson has a direct 

contract. 

The aim, says Carlson, is to ensure that her clients experience 

the real Cuba. “They have done ‘shiny and pretty,’ and they want 

authentic. They want to do homestays, they want to go to a rooftop 

to get lessons in making mojitos in someone’s home.” 

Carlson cut her teeth on Cuba sea travel in 2010, when she 

got an OFAC license to set up a terminal on the Miami River for a 

commercial ferry service to Cuba. That proved to be an uphill battle, 

but what she learned “worked quite well for sending yachts to 

Cuba,” she says. Prices depend on the budget and taste of the client. 

“For a variety of reasons, boating to Cuba is different from 

any other Caribbean island and requires a significant amount of 

planning,” says Carlson. “That’s what we do.” 

www.scarlsontvl.com 

CARLSON MARITIME 

FULL MARITIME SERVICES TO CUBA 

Education Tours Historical Tours Maritime Services Art and Museum Tours Affinity Grou 

Education Tours Historical Tours Maritime Services Art and Museum Tours Affinity Groups Cultural Tours 

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to sail to Cuba In addition to sending bespoke travel groups to Cuba for years, Carlson Maritime Travel assists yacht and boat owners, their captains and crew 

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clearance travel to crew Cuba groups clearance legally. permit, Carlson to Cuba Maritime marina for years, permit, is your permit, Carlson U.S. “go-to” re-entry Maritime company U.S. 

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While managing your maritime services, we create exclusive cultural and meaningful land package for you and your guests based on length 

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727-945-1930 • email: Phone: info@scarlsontvl.com • www.scarlsontvl.com 

Phone: 727.945.1930 727.945.1930 

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email: info@scarlsontvl.com www.scarlsontvl.com 

CLUB NAUTICO


Cuba Road Trip 

M 

Cuba Tours and Travel 

G 

Departures from Miami, Tampa and Key West. 

Operated by 

When Presidents Obama and Raul Castro announced the 

normalization of diplomatic relations in December 2014, 

photojournalist and Cuban-American Alfredo De Lara 

began receiving requests from friends and family wishing to visit 

the island “before Cuba was ruined forever.” By early 2016, he 

turned his passion into a small business—CubaRoadTrip.org—as 

a side gig to his usual reporting assignments. 

CubaRoadTrip.org offers intimate, privately guided tours for 

five people or less, with guests staying with a Cuban host family. 

The tours are specifically tailored to the travelers’ interests, with 

custom itineraries in all the categories listed for travel authorized 

by U.S. law. His clients include U.S. media companies as well as 

scientific and humanitarian NGO’s. 

“I very much go after the niche adventure travel market,” said 

De Lara, adding that the tours include local guides for rock climbing, 

hiking, and traveling in classic 1950s cars across the Cuban 

countryside. 

De Lara said he aims “to facilitate an experience as authentic 

as if you were visiting your own Cuban family on the island.” The 

six-day, five-night tours run under $2,000. De Lara is required to 

keep detailed records on file for five years showing that the trip 

had a full-time schedule of activities that produced a meaningful 

interaction between the traveler and individuals in Cuba. 

“This is a personal thing close to my soul,” he said. 

Price: Between $1,750-1,950 per person depending on the 

season. Ask about any special offers he may have at the time of 

booking. 

CubaRoadTrip.org 

has lost a little of its cache,” says Peter Sanchez. 

“Back when it was illegal, you had friends coming back 

“Cuba 

and bragging that they went to Cuba.” 

If anyone can recapture that cache, it is Sanchez, the founder 

and CEO of Cuba Tours and Travel. He is one of the true pioneers 

in cultural travel to Cuba, having been at it for 16 years. “You have 

to be agile, you have to be small, and you have to work within the 

law,” he says. “For me it is a 30-year commitment.” 

One of his early specialties was connecting artists with potential 

collectors from North America. Among the artists he has dealt 

with, a half dozen sold their first paintings to his clients. “Now 

some are famous artists, working for Citigroup.” 

While Cuba Tours and Travel can take you most anywhere on 

the island—they have tours to Cuba’s eastern, central and western 

regions—where CT&T shines is in the arts, including the visual 

arts, dance, music and even film. 

Among the special trips they have organized is a Jewish Cultural 

and Musical Weekend in Havana last March, and an upcoming 

“Havana Spice” tour where you can cook and eat with James 

Beard Awarded Chef Douglas Rodriguez. The price for that weeklong 

journey: $4,695, not including air flight. 

And as far as music goes, it was Sanchez who brought the 

Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans to Havana in 

2015—along with 200 of their fans. Need we say more? Expect 

the documentary soon. 

Cubatoursandtravel.com 

Phone: 305-615-4151 



Friendly Planet Travel 

G 

Havana Air/ViajaHoy 

Wholesale operator Friendly Planet Travel sells tours to 45 

different countries, including some exotic locations. But 

since 2012, Cuba has been one of their top sellers. 

The company, based in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, specializes 

in small group tours and custom packages. It was also one of the 

first American tour companies to be awarded a people-to-people 

license for travel to Cuba in September 2011. 

What distinguishes Friendly Planet is their affordability. Their 

five-day tour of “Authentic Havana” is priced at $1,899, and includes 

airfare as well as all the fixin’s. Their eight-day Captivating 

Cuba tour, which takes you to Havana, Cojimar, Varadero, Trinidad, 

Santa Clara and Sancti Spirtus, runs $3,599, with everything 

included. Groups max out at 24 people. 

By 2012, the company sent more than 1,500 travelers to 

Cuba. And the numbers kept growing throughout the years until 

2016, when the number dropped because so many travelers were 

choosing to go individually instead of with a tour operator. 

Founder and president Peggy Goldman predicts that her 

company will see a decline in tours to Cuba again this year because 

of Trump’s announcement. “Trump gave the impression: travel to 

Cuba at your own risk,” she said, “making American travelers nervous 

about paying deposits on tours.” 

“We don’t anticipate any problems,” she said of the basic outline 

of the travel rules. “We just have to convince people that isn’t 

the case.” Those who aren’t afraid to book trips now will want to 

reserve their seven-day Havana Jazz tour 2018, for a mere $3,999 

per person. 

Friendlyplanet.com 

Few travel providers are as in touch with the best places to 

visit as are the people at Havana Air and their tour division 

ViajaHoy. Just a visit to their web site will tell you that these 

folks know how to have a good time. What other travel agency 

has 15 restaurant reviews on their web site? These are places that 

the owners of Havana Air personally visit and vouch for. 

As a full-service travel service provider, Havana Air also 

brings into play the fact that they also own a charter airline. Or, 

if you prefer, they can fly you down in a private aircraft. 

That same sort of range applies to their various tours. You can 

book seven-day trips starting at $3,799, with pre-arranged dates 

and itineraries in Havana or beyond, similar to other journeys that 

explore the culture of Cuba. But then they have trips that go beyond 

such family-oriented vacations, such as their Havana Nights 

tour, or their Culinary Expedition. 

“We can have an entire program planned just for you, for a 

group of two or three or four,” says Mark Elias, president of Havana 

Air. “On the other hand, we are bringing in an LGBT group of 

160, flying into Key West and then into Havana.” Their art tours 

include visits to the top private art galleries, and taking it down 

to the minutia, they can also arrange a car rental for your touring 

pleasure, or a boat ride around the island. 

Regardless of the itinerary, or size of the group, Havana Air/ 

ViajeHoy are true insiders that deliver the best of contemporary 

Cuba in a way that few others can match. 

www.havanaair.com 



Why Us? Simple…Flexibility! 

insightCuba 

¨ 

G 

Letty’s Cuba Travel Agency 

¨ 

Prior to 2000 the only visitors to Cuba were Cuban Americans 

on family travel, journalists and government officials. 

When insightCuba started doing tours, most people in 

the U.S. thought travel was off limits. Few knew that the restrictions 

allowed some travel, however limited. 

That’s when insightCuba jumped in, as one of the first licensed 

travel service providers for Cuba. It remains one of the largest providers 

today, specializing solely in legal people-to-people travel to 

Cuba for Americans. 

“Cuba isn’t just one or two pages in our travel catalog. It is our 

travel catalog,” said marketing manager Lauren Vikander. 

When the company won approval to travel to Cuba in 2000, it 

sent 30 Americans to the Caribbean island at a time when little was 

known about Cuba—and even less about how to visit. Since then, 

they have sent more than 20,000 Americans to Cuba under the 

people-to-people category. Last year, they sent close to 3,500 guests 

to Cuba and will likely exceed that number by the end of 2017. 

InsightCuba offers fully-escorted, small group travel through 

their Cuba Tours, Cruises and Getaways with over 250 departure 

days spread out over 14 tours. 

“We really cover the length of the country,” Vikander said. 

“Because we’ve been there for so long, we are treated like family.” 

Among the trips offered by insightCuba is their eight-day/ 

seven-night Classic Cuba Tour which includes Havana, Cienfuegos 

and Trinidad, for $4,695 to $5,395, depending on time of 

year. Their 12-day Undiscovered Cuba Tour, which takes you from 

urban Havana to tiny Baracoa, runs between $5,895 and $6,495. 


InsightCuba.com 

Leticia Annett began Letty’s Cuba Travel Agency in 2015, 

offering an authentic Cuban experience through the use of 

private cars and private houses in her customized university 

groups, business research, humanitarian work, and more. 

But, what makes Annett unique among the dozens of other 

travel agents is her collaboration with Cuba’s favorite pastime: 

baseball. 

“We wanted something nice to happen between the two 

countries,” she said. “I think that Fidel’s passion for baseball motivated 

the new generations of kids to love the game. It also helped 

that because you don’t need specialized equipment, kids could play 

anytime on empty fields or on the streets just with a ball and stick.” 

The idea for the Baseball Friendship Cup came to her when 

she returned to her childhood neighborhood in Cuba (Lawton, 

in Havana) after nearly three decades. She reconnected with her 

childhood friends as they watched Cuban youth playing ball. 

The first game took place in August 2015, just a few months 

after she started the company. Annett is constantly looking for 

participants ages nine to 18 (full teams preferable). If coaches 

want to coordinate a game, they can go through Leticia who has 

the approval from the Cuban government agency that takes care 

of sports on the island. 

Despite its baseball specialty, Letty’s can also handle any level 

of budget, from single weekends in three-star hotels with visits to 

rum and tobacco factories, to week long stays in many of Havana’s 

top hotels, from the iconic Nacional to the Saratoga, where Madonna, 

Jay-Z and Beyoncé stayed on their trips to the island. 

www.lettycuba.com 

You choose! Small or large groups, B&B or hotel, private cars or tour bus, 

full package including airfare and visa, or just a land package. An authentic Cuban 

experience based on personal knowledge and relationships your way! 

• Cultural People-to-People • Youth/Adults Sports Competitions & Friendly Exchanges 

• Business Research/Corporate Incentive Travel • Cruises • Customized/Special Events 

• Religious or Humanitarian • Educational Institutions 

LETTY’S CUBA TRAVEL AGENCY 

1545 North Park Dr. Suite 102, Weston, FL 33326 

954-368-0546 • www.lettycuba.com 

letty@lettycuba.com


Oceans For Youth Foundation 

M 

P 

Xael Charters 

G P M 

¨ 

Travelers can see one of the healthiest marine ecosystems 

in the Caribbean with packages offered by the Oceans for 

Youth Foundation. 

Its week-long trips to the Gardens of the Queen National 

Park in the southern coast of Cuba are unique because no other 

organization operates an eco-exploration vessel in the park. 

Voyages on the 100-foot boat emphasize marine science and 

fall under the group “people-to-people” category of authorized 

travel to Cuba, making it especially appealing to high school and 

university students. 

“It’s not until you see what a healthy Caribbean marine 

ecosystem from 50 to 100 years ago looks like, that you realize 

what needs to happen in terms of conservation,” said Samantha 

Whitcraft, Director of Conservation and Outreach. “There’s no 

place in the Caribbean like this anymore.” Oceans for Youth 

Foundation offers two different eight-day, seven-night itineraries 

that are loaded with snorkeling and scuba diving opportunities. 

Both itineraries cost $2520 per person, which includes accommodations, 

activities, transportation, and meals. 

The EcoExploration Program focuses on exploration and natural 

history. Marine scientists who know the area intimately have 

daily discussions with participants about their field observations. 

There are also optional evening natural history presentations. 

The Classroom-at-Sea Program emphasizes marine ecology 

and conservation. Participants learn about proper conservation 

practices and species identification by attending daily lessons and 

seminars led by marine scientists. 

www.oceansforyouth.com 

The moment you enter the Xael Charters Inc. website, you feel 

the jazzy Cuban vibe. Between the nostaligic photos and the 

music that flows through your computer speakers, it's hard 

not to. That tropical hospitality is exactly what Xael wants clients 

to know they’ll receive when they sign up for the company's curated 

travel programs. 

Xael is both a Charter and Travel Agency. They can accommodate 

all travel services directly or through organizations which 

do their own groups and require certain services such as hotels, 

transportation, or reservations on charter flights, as well as on conventional 

airlines. 

Whether it’s a Cuban family visit, a cultural exchange exploring 

Havana’s art, a bicycling event in the countryside, a religious 

pilgrimage to the island’s sacred sites, or snorkeling along a coral 

reef, Xael knows clients come to Cuba looking for an otherworldly 

yet down home experience. Xael’s trips bring the thrill of a new 

destination and the comforts of places that feel familiar. 

“Xael prides itself on its professionalism. We treat our customers 

with courtesy and respect, and consider them part of the 

Xael family,” says Xiomara Almaguer-Levy, chairperson, president 

and CEO of Xael Charters Inc. 

It’s nice to know your travel company comes with a wealth of 

cultural and logistical wisdom. That matters in a place as unique 

and beautiful as Cuba. Xael is well-prepared to handle the details 

that can make a trip anything less than superb. 

“We’ve been working on these kinds of exchanges for 19 

years,” adds Xael Vice President Mercy Casals, “We come with a 

lot of experience in navigating the various rules and regulations on 

both sides, and we firmly believe in family and cultural exchange.” 

www.xaeltocuba.com 

Continued from page 41 

This is a missed opportunity, according to Peck of ASTA. 

“At least two million additional Americans would visit Cuba by 

2019 if the tourism ban were to be lifted this year,” he said. The 

organization has 92 members who self-identify as Cuba specialists 

and 320 who mention Cuba somewhere in their profile 

on the consumer-facing website TravelSense.org. Two ASTA 

members, Cuba Select Travel and Marysol Travel Cuba, are also 

based in Havana. 

If the travel agents and their leaders have anything to do with 

it, any and all prohibitions against travel to Cuba would be lifted. 

“ASTA continues to believe that the American people 

are the best ambassadors of U.S. values abroad, and should be 

allowed to freely travel to any destination they wish without 

restriction from their own government,” said ASTA president 

and CEO Zane Kerby in a statement after Trump announced his 

policy changes. “Rather than shutting the door to this market 90 

miles off our shores, we call on policymakers to enact legislation 

to do away with the statutory Cuba travel ban once and for all.” 

According to the society, there was a slight uptick in inquires 

from people interested in going before the rules change. But no 

huge swings have occurred one way or the other. Cruise bookings 

remain solid (as evidenced by the fact that the cruise lines keep 

adding ships to Cuba) and cruises appears to be entirely unaffect 

ed by the new rules. 

In terms of U.S. travelers booking directly with AirBnBs 

themselves, however, there has been an immediate—and negative—impact. 

“The overall aggressive tone of the announcement and 

subsequent mixed messages from Washington to would-be 

American travellers has already had a very disheartening effect on 

people considering a visit to the island,” says Alfredo De Lara of 

CubaRoadTrip.com. 

Speaking from Cuba, De Lara said many of the private 

family homes he uses in his tours “have reported a devastating 

number of cancellations from American travellers that had already 

booked with them via AirBnB. They say they are confused 

and worried about what happens next after having made such big 

investments improving their homes,” he said. “They say they will 

make due as they have for many years accommodating European 

and Canadian visitors, but many high hopes were hung on the 

promise of more American visitors.” 

For at least the next three or four months, however, all 

options remain open to Americans, from large tour agencies to ad 

hoc individual journeys, with plenty of advice on how to enhance 

their Cuban experience. H 



55

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TIMELY 

TARGETED 

EFFECTIVE 

Mobile: 

Havana’s 

Sister City 

Alabama’s port city has a relationship 

with Havana that goes back three 

centuries, right to the port of Havana, 

where a statue of Mobile’s founder 

looks homeward. Today it is a large 

shipper of U.S. goods to Cuba. 

By Doreen Hemlock 

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Energy Manufacturing And much more ….. 

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Mobile – Fast Facts 

Population: 193,000 city, 414,000 metro area 

Major Industries: Port of Mobile, Aerospace manufacturing 

Major Employers: Port of Mobile, Austal, Airbus, ThyssenKrupp 

Ground Transportation: 2 Interstate Highways, 5 Class 1 Railroads 

Water Transportation: Port of Mobile (54 million+ tons annually) 

Airports: Mobile Regional (AA, United, Delta); Brookley (Air Cargo) 

Port of Mobile: Economic Impact of $22.8 billion 

City Fathers: Mobile’s mayor William S. “Sandy” Stimpson poses with the Statue of French naval hero Pierre Le Moyne 

Deep Water: Aerial view of Mobile's docks and harbor 

At the entrance to Havana harbor stands an eight-foot 

statue of French naval hero Pierre Le Moyne, dressed 

in an elegant overcoat, a sword at his side. Le Moyne is 

known for founding the capital of French Louisiana in 1702. Havana 

was a lifeline to the city near the Gulf of Mexico, supplying 

the settlers with building materials, weapons, and even French 

women who transited through Cuba. LeMoyne died in Havana 

and was buried there. 

An identical statue now graces the waterfront of the city 

LeMoyne founded: Mobile, in today's Alabama. The bronze 

figure looks toward its Cuba counterpart just over 600 miles away 

across the Gulf. Leaders of Mobile had the replica made and 

installed in 2002 to honor the city’s three centuries of ties with 

Cuba, a relationship that continues strong to this day. 

Mobile might not come first to mind when considering 

U.S.-Cuba relations, but there are plenty of reasons to put Alabama’s 

only seaport city high on the list––even baseball. 

For 315 years, the port city—alternately French, Spanish, 

British, and finally American—has been trading with Cuba. In 

the past it imported sugar, tobacco, coffee, and rum while sending 

down rice, cotton, timber, and paper. Today, Mobile ships tons 

of U.S. chicken to Cuba monthly, ranking among the top U.S. 

export hubs to the island. 

When the Soviet Union dissolved, Mobile was the first U.S. 

town to develop a Sister City link with the communist island. 

Since 1993, its nonprofit Society Mobile-La Habana has been 

organizing trips, conferences and other exchanges, long before 

engagement with Cuba became popular. 

Perhaps most startling, Mobile stands out as the place that 

gave Cuba its beloved sport of baseball. Two Cuban brothers who 

attended Mobile’s Spring Hill College learned the sport and returned 

home to start Havana’s first baseball team some 150 years 

ago, building an enduring cultural bond. 

To be sure, Mobile lacks the big Cuban-American community 

that ensures links to the island for other U.S. cities such 

as Miami. But that may be an advantage for the coastal town 

that combines the Old South charm of Savannah with the 

French-Spanish flair of New Orleans. 

“We don’t have the political biases in our community that 

some of the southern cities in Florida have in their population,” 

said William S. “Sandy” Stimpson, Mobile’s mayor since 2013. 

When it comes to Cuba, Mobile is pragmatic. Business-minded 

Stimpson even visited Cuba last year, looking to expand trade. 

Indeed, it was the Alabama State Port Authority that filled 

the void this winter when Florida seaports decided not to sign 

cooperation agreements with Cuba amid new political pressures. 

Port leaders from Mobile traveled to Florida to sign their own 

cooperation pact with Cuban port officials who were visiting 

Tampa. “With that signing, we made a very public statement 

that we’re very much in favor of trade with Cuba,” said James 

K. Lyons, CEO of the state agency based in Mobile. The city’s 

decades-long engagement encouraged Alabama’s governor and 

state legislature to recently call for lifting the U.S. embargo on 

Cuba, a move that state officials said would help boost Alabama 

and U.S. business. 

“Mobile really stepped out before anyone else did in trying 

to develop the Cuba relationship,” said attorney Grey Redditt Jr., 

president of the Society Mobile-La Habana and a frequent visitor 

to the island. “As a result, the Cubans view Mobile as a close 

friend, more so than South Florida cities where there is a lot of 

pushback for opening up.” 

Why Mobile (and Alabama) back Cuba trade 

It might seem strange that Alabama, a Republican-led state, 

would be so keen to engage with Cuba. But Alabama counts 

agriculture among its largest industries, and that’s where Cuba 

offers opportunity now. 

Since Congress passed an embargo waiver in 2000 allowing 

sales of U.S. farm goods to Cuba, poultry has been the biggest 

U.S. export to the island. Alabama is second in the nation in 

producing broiler chickens after Georgia, and Mobile is key to 

shipping that chicken to Cuba. The city’s port lately has been 

sending one or two ships of frozen chicken parts to Cuba per 

month, typically with some 4,500 tons per load. Shipments 

neared 50,000 tons last year, U.S. government data shows. 

“From the standpoint of costs, it’s a benefit for Cuba to ship 

poultry from Mobile. It’s a straight shot from Alabama” near U.S. 

chicken production sites and roughly a day-and-a-half sail away, 

said Dan Autrey, chief of staff and legal adviser at the Alabama 

Department of Agriculture and Industries. Autrey has visited 

Cuba three times on official missions, twice with the state’s agriculture 

commissioner. 

Still, some shipments now go first to Kingston, Jamaica, and 

then to Cuba’s Mariel port. Volume remains limited by U.S. rules 

that require Cuba to pay cash in advance for farm products. If 

sales to Cuba were allowed on credit, “we could potentially triple 

the business that we’re doing,” said Lyons, eager to establish regularly 

scheduled service directly to Cuba’s leading port. 

Financing for sales would be welcomed by the Alabama 

Poultry and Egg Association, which says their industry provides 

a $15 billion impact and 86,000 jobs in the state. “When we visit 

Cuba, Commerce and Agriculture people always tell us, 'Other 

countries sell us on credit. You don’t,’” said Ray Hilburn, an 

associate director, who has visited the island twice. “We want to 

increase demand for our product.” 

Beyond poultry: Manufacturing, tourism and imports 

Of course, Mobile has lots more to offer Cuba than chicken. The 

coastal city of some 200,000 people is part of a metro area of 

nearly 1 million residents, Alabama’s third largest. While its port 

and trade have long been its main economic engine, the city has 

recently been attracting foreign investment to major manufacturing 

operations, including the first U.S. aircraft assembly plant by 

Europe’s Airbus, a $1 billion-plus steel mill owned by Luxembourg’s 

ArcelorMittal, and shipbuilding by Australian contractor 

Austal. Just Austal’s naval shipyard alone employs more than 

4,000 people. 

“We’re the only place in North America where big airplanes 

and ships are being built. There are ship-builders around, and 

Seattle and Charleston build airplanes, but no one else is doing 



61

The Sister City 

Link 

Soon to be 25 years old, the Society 

Mobile-La Habana forged the first 

U.S.-Cuba sister city, and has since 

encouraged other U.S. cities to 

follow suit 

As a young lawyer trained in Cuba, 

Giselle G. San Roman never imagined 

that one day she’d be working in Alabama. 

Now the 25-year-old is learning 

the ins-and-outs of U.S. law, thanks to the 

Society Mobile-La Habana, a nonprofit 

developing Sister City links between the 

towns. 

San Roman entered the picture 

through an aunt in Cuba, who had met 

a visiting member of the Society and 

married him. When a fellow Society 

member traveled to Havana, he reached 

out to his colleague’s Cuban family. Over 

a home-cooked dinner, the visiting lawyer 

met Giselle, talked shop and invited her 

for an internship. She liked the experience 

so much that she earned a master’s in U.S. 

law at Loyola University in New Orleans 

(magna cum laude) and now works as a 

paralegal in Moble. She aims to take the 

Alabama bar exam soon. 

The Mobile lawyer who showed her 

such southern hospitality: Grey Redditt Jr., 

the current president of Society Mobile-La 

Habana. “Life takes unexpected turns,” said 

San Roman, dressed in a black pants suit, 

the attire typical in U.S. law offices. “Grey 

is an example for me in every way,” said the 

University of Havana Law School graduate. 

“He and his wife have always treated 

me like family.” 

Over 24 years, the Society has 

forged wide-ranging Mobile-Cuba 

links from law and diplomacy to historic 

preservation, business and music. It 

has hosted top-level Cubans in Mobile 

such as Havana’s historian, Havana’s city 

Grey Redditt Jr., president of 

Society Mobile-La Habana 

planner, Cuba’s Methodist archbishop, 

the president of Cuba’s largest Jewish 

synagogue, physicians, environmental 

specialists, and Cuba’s ecumenical choir. 

Recent Cuban guests include diplomat 

Carlos Alzugaray, TV anchor Cristina 

Escobar, and economist Juan Triana. 

Hundreds of Americans have also visited 

Cuba through the Society, some bringing 

medical supplies. 

The Mobile nonprofit helped create 

the U.S.-Cuba Sister City Association, 

which now includes such partnerships as 

Pittsburgh-Matanzas, Oakland-Santiago, 

and Madison-Camagüey, among others. 

Today, the Society Mobile-La Habana 

has more than 50 active members, with 

a board of directors that meets monthly 

and activities that are usually offered each 

quarter. Redditt said he joined, “because 

it’s fun to be exposed to different cultures, 

economic systems, and ways of thinking.” 

Redditt developed an interest in 

Latin America as a child, when his father 

traveled the region for work and “would 

send back cases of pineapple.” Visiting 

Cuba for many years, he’s most impressed 

by the people: “I’ve been all over the world, 

and I’ve never met anyone so universally 

friendly, open, and accepting.” 

Long-time member and port official 

Maria Conchita Mendez appreciates how 

the Society takes its mission personally 

and to heart—the way Redditt did with 

Giselle. “We’re a living, breathing organization,” 

said Mendez. “We’re always trying 

to bring knowledge and friendship and to 

build bonds.” 

both,” said Mayor Stimpson proudly. 

City leaders have been reaching out 

to manufacturers touting relatively low 

costs, favorable taxes, and connectivity by 

sea, rail, air, and road. Another major offering: 

long runways and ample land at the 

former U.S. Air Force Base at Brookley, 

where Airbus now builds its A320s and 

flies them out. 

“It’s an old Air Force base, under-utilized 

for the past 30 or 40 years, and Airbus 

is bringing new life to it,” said Mark 

McVay, director of finance and administration 

at the Mobile Airport Authority. 

“We’re creating an aerospace cluster, 

starting with Airbus service providers.” 

Mobile is also hot on expanding tourism, 

highlighting its restored colonial fort, 

antebellum homes, and fun-packed Mardi 

Gras celebrations that began years before 

the famous fetes in New Orleans. The notto-be-missed 

Mobile Carnival Museum 

displays over-the-top gowns and jewels 

worn by local Mardi Gras nobility. 

Recently, Mobile scored big in tourism 

when cruise giant Carnival Cruise 

Line added cruises to Mexico. “What we 

would love to see is a cruise to Cuba,” 

said Redditt of the Society Mobile-La 

Habana. 

Longer term, there’s also potential 

for two-way trade with Cuba. Mobile 

could bring in Cuban nickel, possibly for 

its stainless-steel mill, and import Cuba’s 

tropical fruits and vegetables. It could 

send down Alabama-made cars, steel, and 

building materials that include lumber 

produced from nearby forests. “I like to 

say we have more pine trees than people 

in Alabama,” a state of nearly 5 million 

residents, joked port leader Lyons. 

In the past decade, Alabama has 

emerged as one of the top five U.S. states 

for producing cars, hosting large factories 

for Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, and 

Toyota. Autos now rank as the state’s No. 

1 export by value. They helped push total 

state exports beyond $20 billion for the 

first time in 2016, a whopping 48 percent 

jump from 2006 levels. 

“We built more than one million 

cars in Alabama last year, and with some 

modifications at the port, I think we’d certainly 

have the ability to export transport 

vehicles to Cuba,” said Mayor Stimpson. 


They sell the greatest T-shirt on the base, 

It says Guantanamo: Close but No Cigar 

In Guantanamo: Jerry Lathan, a long-time 

Republican leader in Alabama, sits on the 

Alabama state council of Engage Cuba 

Today, Cuba represents just a tiny fraction of Mobile’s port 

activity. With more than $850 million in improvements since 

2000, the seaport now handles more than 54 million tons of yearly 

cargo at its public and private terminals, including petroleum 

products bound for refineries. That hefty volume typically ranks 

the seaport among the top dozen or so nationwide by tonnage. 

But when two-way trade with Cuba starts, Mobile could 

have an edge over U.S. rivals. “We’ve built relations over the years 

with different people in Cuba that put Mobile in a favorable 

light, so if there’s contestable cargo where it can go to this port or 

that port, maybe Mobile could garner a position of some favor,” 

Lyons told Cuba Trade. 

Small business interest: From construction services to farm 

equipment and mangoes 


Owners of small businesses in Mobile see Cuban opportunities 

too, including Jerry Lathan, who founded The Lathan Company 

36 years ago. His firm started out doing roofing and branched 

out to historic restoration. It now employs about 40 people and 

brings in $8 million-plus a year, he said. 

Lathan sits on the Alabama state council of Engage Cuba, a 

group lobbying for greater ties with the island. He sees engagement 

helping draw Cuba into the global commercial system. 

“Being involved with trade that promotes agricultural goods 

and helps relations with our port is a better path than abject 

isolationism,” said Lathan, a long-time Republican leader in Alabama. 

“Staring contests usually don’t get you anywhere. Engagement 

is different than surrender. We need to find a way to make a 

difference and change.” 

Lathan recently visited the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo 

in eastern Cuba to explore a possible roofing contract and wondered 

when Washington will let U.S. contractors work in the rest 

of the island. “They sell the greatest T-shirt on the base,” Lathan 

recalled. “It says: Guantanamo: Close but No Cigar.” 

Already building Cuba ties is The Woerner Companies, a 

fourth-generation family farming business based near Mobile 

that employs some 300 people, operates nationwide, and brings 

in more than $40 million a year in revenues. The family started 

out farming potatoes and other vegetables in Alabama, but 

now mainly grows and sells turf grass for homes and real-estate 

developments. It’s also building a factory to dehydrate fruits and 

vegetables into flour and, maybe later, for healthy snacks. 

Christina Woerner McInnis first visited Cuba several years 

ago with an Alabama agricultural exchange mission and got 

hooked, returning several times since. “You get where everyone 

has their set ways of doing things. It’s real hard to change. But 

when you go to Cuba, you get a totally fresh perspective,” she 

said. That includes growing food without chemicals and using 

limited machinery, often producing fruits little known in Alabama, 

like the creamy tropical mamey. “They have ingenuity to 

think outside the box. It’s all natural,” she said. “And they are 

willing to share everything they do.” 

To reciprocate the hospitality, the Woerners welcomed a 

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Man with a Mission 

As mayor for 16 years, Michael 

C. Dow spearheaded Mobile's 

engagement with Cuba 

Then-Mobile Mayor Michael C. Dow (center) with Cuban officials and others in a 1999 photo. 

If one man can be credited with leading 

Mobile's engagement with Cuba, it's Michael 

C. Dow. A Vietnam veteran who lost 

his best friend in the war, Dow believes that 

dialogue can reduce conflict. 

Dow was mayor of Mobile for 16 

years until 2005, serving without party 

affiliation and working to bring consensus 

behind common goals such as economic 

development. He ran for office, after 

co-developing Mobile-based tech startup 

QMS (Quality Micro Systems) with his 

brother-in-law into a global competitor 

listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

The spark for Dow’s Cuba engagement 

came from Mobile’s historian Jay 

Higginbotham. The scholar had asked the 

previous mayor to form a Sister City link 

with Russia’s seaport Rostov-on-Don, 

which he did. Dow, as a private citizen, 

agreed to pick up Rostov’s mayor when he 

visited. Flying into Mobile over water, the 

visitor joked: “To an alligator, an American 

and Russian taste the same,” and the two 

became friendly. When Higginbotham in 

1993 suggested a similar Cuba link, Dow 

as mayor agreed. 

“I love people. I always felt that we 

have more in common than we do differences, 

and if you can find that commonality, 

you can solve a lot of problems,” Dow 

told Cuba Trade over breakfast on the 

terrace of Spot of Tea café in downtown 

Mobile, an area he helped revitalize. 

But opposition flared to the Havana 

link, especially from Cuban circles in 


Photo courtesy Mobile Press-Register 

South Florida. Dow said even the FBI 

came to see him and warn him to be 

careful. He persisted, convinced that the 

U.S. Cold War policy towards Cuba had 

not been working and that dialogue could 

build bridges. With the Society Mobile-La 

Habana group, Dow repeatedly visited 

Cuba with delegations, brought Cuban 

groups to his city, and in 2005, helped 

organize a two-day National Summit on 

Cuba in Mobile. 

Dow was used to challenges. His 

father, a military man, abandoned the 

family when Dow was nine. His mom 

suffered a breakdown soon after and ended 

up institutionalized. Dow was shuttled 

between foster homes before being adopted 

by his grandfather. As a teen, When he 

was old enough, he headed off to war. He 

had visited Mobile to see an uncle and 

there met the love of his life, married her, 

and made the city his home. 

Reading up on the Vietnam conflict, 

Dow concluded: “We made some miscues 

on dialogue, more people became our 

enemies, and we spent years fighting wars 

that could have been avoided.” 

Since finishing four terms as mayor, 

the hard-working Dow has continued 

to focus on Mobile’s economic development 

and its ties with Cuba. He’s 

currently helping the nonprofit Alabama 

Contemporary Art Center organize a 

Cuban art exhibit. Said Dow, “We are 

trying to show culturally who the Cuban 

people are.” 

Cuban group from the Indio Hatuey 

Research station in Cuba’s Matanzas 

province. The Cubans were impressed by 

U.S.-made spriggers and harvesters that 

together plant, cut and harvest grass turf. 

Through an affiliate called Gulfwise 

Commerce, Woerner received a license last 

year from the U.S. Department of Commerce 

to export the machinery to Cuba at 

a price of around $100,000, a first for U.S. 

agriculture, according to the U.S.-Cuba 

Trade and Economic Council. 

But the shipment from Mobile has 

yet to be completed, partly because of 

problems with logistics, said McInnis. One 

headache: Ships bound from the U.S. to 

Cuba typically come back empty, because 

nearly all imports from Cuba are off-limits 

under terms of the U.S. embargo. 

McInnis hopes face-to-face talks with 

Cubans during her visit in November for 

the annual International Trade Fair in 

Havana can help speed the delivery. “I’d 

love to see a bilateral agricultural relationship,” 

she said. While Alabama sells Cuba 

poultry and other farm goods, “we’d like to 

ship back organic produce and other farm 

products for our supply. That would be a 

win-win for both countries.” She’s already 

received requests from buyers for organic 

mango powder that could potentially be 

made from Cuban fruit. 

Think long-term and differentiate 

yourself 

Attorneys at Maynard Cooper & Gale, 

one of Alabama’s largest law firms, understand 

such complexities. Their clients 

exploring Cuba business include not only 

agriculture companies but also a shipyard 

looking to open a repair operation 

in Mariel, Indian-American hoteliers 

interested in Cuba’s booming hospitality 

sector, as well as suppliers of infrastructure 

services and consumer goods. 

Alan Ensler, who leads the firm’s 

international division from Birmingham, 

advises clients to think long-term on 

Cuba—but build relations now. “It doesn’t 

happen overnight, and it takes tailoring, 

so that you are offering something unique” 

not already provided by Europeans or others 

in Cuba, he said. Still, one big obstacle, 

especially for smaller companies, remains 

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No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

B O R N T O C E L E B R A T E 

Field Research: Christina Woerner McInnis of The Woerner Companies visiting Cuba 

“the regulatory unknown. Obviously, no one wants to invest 

significant time and resources on something on potentially shaky 

ground,” said Ensler. 

At Woerner, McInnis definitely takes the long view, focusing 

on what Cuba and the U.S. have in common. She laughs out 

loud about the time her uncle Eddie met a farmer in Cuba who 

looked like his double and was equally hyperactive. “They said, 

“Mi hermano,” [My brother],” recalled McInnis, as she snapped a 

photograph of the burly, gray-haired, mustached duo. “It was the 

funniest picture you ever did see.” 

Long-term interest in Cuba extends even to the state’s 

visionary business leader David G. Bronner, who took the 

Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) from a $500 million 

fund in 1973 to top $34 billion today, partly by investing in real 

estate from golf resorts to office buildings. In Mobile, the pension 

fund built the RSA Battle House Tower, described as the tallest 

building on the U.S. Gulf Coast outside Houston. The spired 

tower rising 745 feet takes its name from the adjacent, historic 

Battle House hotel, which was elegantly renovated as part of the 

complex opened in 2007. Montgomery-based RSA also owns or 

developed other key buildings and hotels in greater Mobile. 

“I’m totally fascinated by Cuba. It’s really the island of the 

whole Caribbean that everyone looks to,” Bronner said. He visited 

with former Mobile Mayor Mike Dow, who spearheaded the 

city’s push for Cuba engagement starting in the 1990s and remains 

a friend. Bronner has seen how Cuba is opening its market 

and would like Washington to let U.S. business in. “There will be 

big changes in the next decade. Everyone in the world recognizes 

Cuba. We’re the last country that doesn’t,” said Bronner. 

Building links through exchanges in education, 

research and art 

With the embargo limiting U.S. business, many exchanges with 

Cuba now focus on education and culture. Especially active is the 

long-established University of Alabama, whose Cuba Initiative 

kicked off in 2002 and grew into a Center for Cuba Collaboration 

and Scholarship. The Center has sent more than 100 faculty 

members and at least 80 students to Cuba, some for repeated 

visits, from its base in Tuscaloosa in west-central Alabama. It’s 

been organizing semester-abroad programs in Cuba since 2009, 

some involving classes at the University of Havana, said co-director 

Steve Miller, who first visited in 2002. 

In Mobile, the Center has been helping with varied Cuba 

projects, recently linking local curators with artists in Cuba for 

an upcoming exhibit at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center. 

“Cuba is our closest foreign country. We don’t operate in a vacuum, 

and we need to connect with people near us,” said curator 

Amanda Solley, 30, a painter who visited Havana in April to help 

organize the Mobile show. 

Solley first met artists from the island at the University 

of Alabama’s third annual Cuba Week held last October in 

Mobile has a certain magic that keeps you on your toes. 

Where a melting pot of people, flavors, cultures and traditions 

become one voice to lead all of life’s celebrations. Join the 

jubilee and welcome every day with an enduring passion and a 

little soulful hospitality, because life is the ultimate gift. This 

is the spirit of living. This is what we’re born to do. 

Back To Havana 

ART EXHIBITION 

Alabama Contemporary Art Center 

September 1, 2017 — June 1, 2018 

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Play Ball: Founded in 1830, Spring 

Hill College, has strong Cuban ties 

On the outskirts of Mobile, up a quiet 

oak-lined avenue, past a lane of azalea 

bushes, you’ll find the birthplace of Cuban 

baseball: Spring Hill College. 

The oldest institution of higher learning 

in Alabama, Spring Hill was founded 

in 1830 by the area’s Catholic bishop. It set 

up its first baseball field in 1839. From early 

on, administrators reached out to recruit 

students from areas with large Catholic 

populations, including nearby Cuba. 

Two Cuban brothers, Nemesio and 

Ernesto Guillo, attended with a friend in 

the 1860s. Nemesio returned to the island 

in 1864 with a baseball and bat. By 1868, 

the duo and pals formed Cuba’s first baseball 

team, the Havana Baseball Club. The 

team gained attention by allegedly winning 

a game against the crew of a U.S. schooner 

that had anchored in Matanzas for repairs, 

according to “The Pride of Havana: A History 

of Cuban Baseball” by Yale University 

professor Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria. 

Spanish leaders disliked the spread of 

the U.S. sport in their colony, and in 1869 

during Cuba’s Ten Years War for independence, 

they banned the game. But islanders 

later brought it back and further developed 

their skills. Today, Cuban players are mainstays 

of U.S. Major League Baseball. 

At Spring Hill, students still love the 

sport. The leafy campus boasts the oldest 

Batter Up! 

One of the deep links between 

Mobile and Alabama is baseball 

U.S. college baseball field in continuous 

use for inter-collegiate games: the Stan 

Galle Field, active since 1889. Fans for the 

visiting team sit on a small set of bleachers, 

but home-team fans to this day sit 

above and near the dugout. Many revel in 

the intimacy of being so close to the field 

and players. 

Frank Sims, head baseball coach for 

Spring Hill’s Badgers team for 32 years, 

takes pride in the rich baseball heritage 

and the startling Cuba connection. “I 

think the importance of baseball in Cuba 

is huge,” Sims told Cuba Trade. “To know 

we were the school where these young 

men learned baseball, then took it back to 

Cuba and started a game that is now part 

of the culture there, I must say is a very 

proud moment in Spring Hill College 

history.” 

Spring Hill now hosts some 1,500 

students, who mostly live on campus. Yet 

at its veteran field, the Cuba link remains 

news to some. On a recent weekday, art 

teacher Jason Outlaw, 36, was coaching 

a children’s baseball camp when he 

learned that fellow alum from Cuba had 

brought baseball to their homeland. “I got 

chill-bumps now seriously,” said Outlaw, 

curious to know more about the Guillos. 

“I had no idea that connection was there. 

That’s crazy.” 

Tuscaloosa. The event featured 25 visiting 

Cubans in varied disciplines. “We had a 

whole crew come up from Mobile. It was 

so exciting,” said Miller, calling Mobile Alabama’s 

most engaged city on Cuba affairs. 

The newer University of South Alabama, 

based in Mobile and founded in 

1963, also is revving up on Cuba, looking 

for exchanges in fields from eco-tourism 

to coastal engineering. “The strongest 

collaboration we have now is in health 

sciences, in diabetes research with the University 

of Havana,” said Lynne Chronister, 

vice president for research and economic 

development. 

Those growing links have stimulated 

Cuba-themed business inside Mobile 

too. Restauranteur Bob Baumhower, a 

former football player with the University 

of Alabama and the Miami Dolphins, is 

planning to open a Cuban-style piano bar 

in downtown Mobile soon. The speak-easy 

will be a tribute to the El Floridita bar in 

Havana frequented by American novelist 

Ernest Hemingway. 

Baumhower fell in love with all things 

Cuban during his time in Miami, partly by 

reading Hemingway. He’s since visited the 

island three times with Alabama missions—once 

with a chef who prepared such 

Alabama specialties as shrimp and grits, as 

well as chicken with white barbecue sauce. 

“The more people hear about relations 

with Cuba, the more they’ll come out,” said 

Baumhower of the speakeasy, which will 

join 11 other locales in his Aloha Hospitality 

Group. His Dauphin’s restaurant on 

the 34th floor of the Battle House Tower 

already offers such Cuban cuisine as mojo-marinated 

meats and flan dessert. 

Building on travel ties forged before the 

Revolution 

Mobile’s Cuba buzz seems natural to the 

city’s elders, such as Sally Tonsmeire Morrissette, 

a vivacious 82-year-old active with 

the carnival museum. She was queen of the 

Mobile Carnival Association in 1955. 

Morrissette recalls that her parents 

were in Cuba when the U.S. entered World 

War II in 1941, and how as a child, she was 

frightened and wanted them home sooner. 

Her husband partied with friends in Havana 

before the couple’s 1955 wedding. “They 

had such a good time the groomsmen went 


Ready for Takeoff: Brookley Airport has runways in excess of 9,000 feet that can handle direct flights to Cuba 

back the next year,” said Morrissette. When a friend visited Cuba 

this spring, she found it a welcome revival of the travel link. 

Still, there’s no direct commercial flights from Mobile to 

Cuba at present. The city airport is regional, not international, 

and travelers now fly to Cuba through Tampa, Houston or other 

airports. That may change at some point, however. 

Both Brookley Airport, where Airbus is located, and Mobile 

Regional Airport, which serves the flying public, have runways 

longer than 9,000 feet that can handle the largest international 

aircraft, including direct flights to Cuba. Mobile Regional is 

currently served by American, Delta and United, which all offer 

Cuba flights from other U.S. cities. 

“We are always looking for routes that the citizens are interested 

in,” says airport director McVay. “If Cuba is on the radar 

and something the citizens are interested in, then it’s something 

we are interested in,” he says, though “ultimately it’s up to the 

airlines to make that decision.” 

Direct air links would help Cuban-Americans visiting their 

homeland, including Maria Conchita Mendez, who leads trade 

development with Latin America for Alabama’s port authority. 

A long-time advocate for engagement with Cuba and frequent 

visitor to the island for decades, she left work at Florida ports 14 

years ago to help Mobile build ties with Cuba and other Latin 

American nations. 

Some call Mendez the resident ambassador for Mobile’s 

small Cuban-American community. On a recent weekday, she 

paid a visit to 77-year-old Josefina Pacheco, who came from the 

rural Cuban town of Manicaragua in Villa Clara province 17 

years ago. Pacheco is happy in Mobile, preferring its slower pace 

to noisier, more urban Miami or Tampa. “Everyone greets me 

here. They say, “Hola Josefina,” she said, with fresh coffee on the 

stove. “It’s so friendly and peaceful.” 

Committed to Cuba for the long-run, beyond Trump 

President Donald Trump’s announcement this June that he will 

tighten U.S. restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba hasn’t 

chilled Mobile’s decades-long push for engagement with the 

island. 

“I think people are cautiously optimistic,” said Bill Sisson, 

president and CEO of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, 

who visited Cuba last year with the mayor and other local leaders. 

“They are watching and waiting for normalization of relations, so 

they can open up trade – the same with the entire state. They are 

eager to participate in the economic development of Cuba.” 

Like the Le Moyne, depicted in statues on the waterfronts of 

Mobile and Havana, the city’s leaders want to build two-way ties 

with Cuba. 

“The biggest challenge for Cuba will be competition, if they 

do open up,” says Sisson. “Every port city is going to want to do 

business there. But we have had this long-term relationship and 

connectivity.” H 

J.P. Faber contributed to this report. 


With the support of 

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Official Media Partner 

Bringing insight into the 

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opportunities ahead 

27–29 September 2017 

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ART 

Sebastien Laboureau, curator 

THE '80s 

GENERATION 

A South Beach hotel puts on a curated show of Cuban 

artists born after the Revolution, who came of age in 

the ’80s, and who are collectable now 

By J.P. Faber 

Imagine a museum-quality exhibition where, at the end of the 

show, you can buy any of the pieces displayed. 

That is the idea behind “Cuban Artists: The Prodigious 

Decade,” a curated exhibit at the Sagamore Hotel in Miami 

Beach with more than 100 works by 25 Cuban artists born at the 

time of the Cuban Revolution or shortly afterwards. 

The show was crafted by Sebastien Laboureau, who first began 

curating exhibits at the hotel in the summer of 2016. He calls 

the Sagamore “one of the first art hotels in the world;” it began 

exhibiting the private collection of its owners in the late 1990s. 

When new owners purchased the Sagamore two years ago 

they engaged Laboureau as the property’s official art advisor. Laboureau, 

an avid art lover, had been counseling private collectors 

for nearly a decade after leaving his job as an investment banker 

at Goldman Sacks. 

That investment perspective brings a unique element to the 

exhibit. “We do museum-like exhibits, but everything is for sale,” 

says Laboureau. And, as a South Beach gallery-cum-museum, the 

Babel C 

by Consuelo Castañeda 



77

La Diaspora 

by Leandro Soto 

Better Days Ahead 

by Ruben Torres Llorca 

Sagamore brings its own twist. “We are the only art institution open 

twenty-four-seven to the public—plus you can have a drink,” he says. 

Laboureau says he wanted to create a show that also contributed 

to the understanding of Cuban art. “Cuban art has become 

some kind of a fashion statement, with everyone talking about 

it since Obama’s attempts to open relations. The reality is that 

Cuban art is something that has been very special for centuries. I 

came to [the Hotel’s owners] and said we want to do an exhibit 

about this generation [the ’80s], the ones who led the effort for 

Cuban contemporary art. 

“All of them were born right after the Revolution, and knew 

no Cuba outside of the Revolution. In the ’80s, they started creating 

very innovative art that was also controversial in its commentary.” 

Among the more notable of the 24 artists, some of whom 

now live in U.S. and some in Cuba, are names such as José Bedia, 

Arturo Cuenca, Ruben Torres Llorca, Glexis Novoa, and José 

Toirac. To celebrate the show, 14 of them came to Sagamore for 

the opening. “It was an emotional moment, a historical moment, 

to bring them all together,” says Laboureau. 

In addition to hotel’s art advisor, the show was co-curated by 

Dr. Adriana Herrera and Willy Castellanos from Aluna Curatorial 

Collective. “The term ‘Prodigious Decade’ is the designation 

given to a turning point in the history of Cuban art,” says 

Herrera. “It was a time of aesthetic divergences that questioned 

the relation of the artists with official institutions.” 

What impresses Herrera is how the artists “through various 

forms of aesthetic ruptures, disrupted the limits of what was 

permitted,” despite being “formed” at the Instituto Superior de Arte 

(ISA) school in Havana. At the time these artists came of age, she 

says, the iconic imagery of Cuba’s revolutionaries (think Che Guevara) 

and its workers “was what the art had to be.” The new generation 

began to work instead with other types of images, such as those 

from forgotten or prohibited religious practices, or from classic art. 

“It was not abajo [down with] the Revolution or abajo Cuba, but 

Art Soiree: 14 artists attended the opening at the Sagamore Hotel 

rather saying they could embrace another type of aesthetics.” 

The result is a fascinating array of paintings, with a handful 

of video installations and sculptures added to give the exhibit dimension. 

One of the more arresting is Jose Bedia’s “Killing in the 

name of…”, an eight-by-seven-foot canvas with a massive aircraft 

carrier surging toward the viewer. On its deck is a military jet, 

as well as a tiny sacrificial scene. “If you see the details, you see 

iconic references to certain [religious] practices. But Bedia is not 

alluding to Havana issues. It’s about the violence in the world, 

which could be created by the U.S., for example.” 

Other works are more specifically Cuban referenced, such as 

Leandro Soto’s 1998 “La Diaspora,” which shows an abandoned 

rowboat in what are presumably Caribbean waters, or Ruben 

Torres Llorca’s “Surrealismo Socialista,” a play on Social Realism: 

a pencil on paper image of a female Cuban factory worker (think 

Rosie the Riveter) whose lower half is the tail of a genie. 

More than political commentary, however, the ’80s generation 

was one that explored the visual space in an exuberant 

fashion, almost restlessly breaking out of the mold of social 

realism (think propaganda art). Those same artists have continued 

their playful use of images they literally turn on their heads—like 

Consuelo Castañeda’s “Babel C,” a 2012 canvas on three panels 

that flips a classic Tower of Babel upside down. Or Ruben Torres 

Llorca’s 2015 “Better Days Ahead,” which makes pop art from 

the paranoid imagery of the Cold War. 

As for the prices, they range from $4,000 to $50,000: 

“Surrealismo Socialista” is priced at $6,000; “Babel C” at $7,500; 

“La Diaspora” at $9,000; “Better Days Ahead” at $26,000; and 

“Killing in the name of…” at $44,000. 

“We have sold a few already. It’s very important for the artists,” 

says Laboureau. “In terms of prices, I do believe as a finance 

guy and an art advisor, that there is an investment opportunity 

for investors to enrich their collections. I believe that Cuban art is 

still undervalued.” H 

Killing in the Name of 

by Jose Bedia 



79

in closing 

Mark Your Calendar 

The Harm 

Behind Trump’s 

Restrictions on 

US Travel to Cuba 

By Collin Laverty 

President, Cuba Educational Travel 

The US Cuba 

Agriculture Forum 

Chicago, Illinois October 18, 2017 

An all-day forum on the opportunities for 

agriculture and food product trade with Cuba 

Millions of Cubans on the island watched President Donald 

Trump’s June 16 announcement with a feeling of sadness, disbelief 

and a sense of Déjà vu. Once again, political theater in Miami 

and Washington was filled with false rhetoric about helping the 

Cuban people, while simultaneously sweeping the rug out from 

under their feet. It is clear the Trump administration’s new policy 

will not help Cubans or the Cuban economy. What is left to be 

seen is exactly how much damage it will cause. 

In terms of the new travel restrictions, Cubans across the 

board are bound to suffer. The growing private sector in Cuba has 

seen incredible growth as a result of internal reforms and increased 

U.S. visits, with bed and breakfasts, restaurants, car services, and 

independent travel guides popping up left and right. Knowing 

that visiting Americans must take part in people-to-people 

activities, many Cuban entrepreneurs even adapted their business 

models to individual U.S. travelers seeking those types of experiences. 

Many businesses not in the hospitality sector cater mainly 

to Cuban entrepreneurs and state workers in that space, meaning 

they will also be hit by the decline in visitors. 

Cubans working for the state, who depend on tips to survive, 

are very nervous about the potential dwindling number of Americans, 

commonly referred to as most generous visitor. Moreover, 

tourism earnings, whether through taxes on the private sector 

or direct payments to the state sector, are redistributed through 

the federal budget and used for education, health care, and other 

government spending, affecting all 11 million Cubans. Nobody in 

Cuba is excited about the new policy. 

Between January and June 2017, 346,000 Americans visited 

Cuba, a 149 percent increase from the same period in 2016. This 

is in addition to 207,000 Cuban Americans, putting the U.S on 

pace to soon surpass Canada as the largest source of visitors to 

the island. Americans finally felt like it was okay, normal, and 

legal to book a flight with a major airline and head off to Cuba. 

That psychological element has had a tremendous impact on how 

many people visit, and we were finally making progress. President 

Obama led by example, traveling with his whole family, sending a 

message that we should visit, engage, and make friends. 

The new restrictions will certainly reduce the number of 

visiting Americans. The rhetoric surrounding the announcement 

about audits, fines, and banned hotels scares law-abiding Americans 

who don’t want to look over their shoulder while planning a 

holiday. Confusion over what you can and can’t do, and what the 

requirements are, will deter many would-be travelers. 

Expect increased complications for companies working in 

the space as well. Internal compliance departments at banks will 

get tougher with companies doing business with Cuba, making 

transactions more costly and complicated. Cuban entrepreneurs 

can expect challenges visiting the U.S., opening bank accounts, 

and processing transactions. 

Despite the obstacles, Americans will continue to visit and 

Cubans will continue to welcome them with open arms. Many will 

visit on cruises, tours, study trips, conferences, and other approved 

categories of travel. Dozens of highly specialized organizations like 

my own Cuba Educational Travel will continue to offer experiences 

for small groups that want flexibility, intimacy, and color not obtainable 

with larger, more generic experiences. And the Cuban people 

will do what they have done for decades: open up their homes, 

offer unique experiences, and build long-lasting friendships. H 

Brought to you by the 

U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba 

and 

Cuba Trade Magazine 

Go to USCubaAgForum.com for further information 



81

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