Cuba Seeks Investors with an Old Publicity Strategy

Cuba Seeks Investors with an Old Publicity Strategy / Juan Juan Almeida

Posted on March 26, 2014



In 1989, Cuba concentrated 85 per cent of its trade relations on the

USSR and the rest of the socialist camp. Thus it assured the supply of

components, raw materials, technology and satisfactory loans in terms of

due date and interest. With the collapse of European socialism and the

disintegration of the USSR, Cuba in short order found itself with

substantially diminished purchasing capacity and economic-financial reality.



Havana was going close-hauled in a scene as uncertain as that of a

refugee on the high seas. It was then that Fidel, expert in navigating

crises and very irresponsible about costs, laid out his directives for

confronting the debacle as if it were a slip up. Internally he kept the

nation entertained with the sadly famous "Special Period and War of All

the People;" not abroad where he launched messages that assured of

control and security, effective hooks for finding new trading partners

and markets.



So there appeared on the island a nephew of Saddam Hussein who built the

first plant for the canned soft drink "Tropicola;" and a known arms

trafficker (sought on a worldwide level) interested in financing the

national production of cane sugar and citrus fruits.



After such illustrious personages disguised as entrepreneurs, there

arrived other such relatives of famed dictators, market opportunists,

refined bandits, vulgar robbers, men of decorum, and Cuban exiles with

suitcases full of hope.



As was expected, many entrepreneurs, those who the government rejected

for various reasons, were on a long road of unbearable defaults; but

others received, besides their temporary residence, the right to possess

a "foreign firm" that today they trade on the island at low cost and

high value.



This quasi-dishonesty where the foreign and national converge, unleashed

a kind of euphoria; on one hand, many Cuban citizens trying to escape

from economic suffocation managed to work for foreign businesses; on the

other, relatives of and individuals close to high Cuban leaders, because

of feeling they were not employed, left Cuba and founded companies with

which they then bought another and another until hiding the original

identity in order to then enroll in the commercial registry of the

Chamber of Commerce for the Republic of Cuba and make it function.



Of course, not all the children of the elite wanted to become prosperous

businessmen; the exalted Alejandro Castro Espin decided to reach high

and under the pseudonym of Ariel was named chief of the section of the

4th department of State Security in charge of investigating, approving,

recruiting and bribing all the businessmen, investors, entrepreneurs,

foreign company workers, and Cuban stockholders in foreign businesses.

Come on, it's the same as printing money.



In such circumstances, in 1995 he approved the first legislation (No.

77) that regulates foreign investment and continues in force today. At

the end of 2000 there were 392 economic partnerships with foreign

capital located for the most part in mining, prospecting–extraction of

petroleum, tourism, light industry, metallurgy and construction; several

of them, property of a few Cubans (relatives and people close to the

high Cuban leadership) resident on the island.



The newspaper Granma reports that as provided, the State Council for the

Republic of Cuba calls a special session of the National Assembly of

Popular Power for Saturday, March 29 this year for the purpose of

analyzing the proposed Law of Foreign Investment.



I see the answer clearly, there are political realities that cannot

wait. Alliances like ALBA and CARICOM smell redirection; Venezuela, for

now, I do not believe loses Maduro as President but his regional

leadership. Cuba returns to old ways, approaches Brazil and the European

Economic Community reaching for its old but effective publicity strategy

to attract investors.



I would like to know if this new legal proposal will open new liberties

for those Cuban exiles that currently can only carry out — from across

the border — buying and selling activities; and if finally they will

decide to legislate in favor of or against those Cuban entrepreneurs

resident on the island who for a long time have invested in Cuba in and

need to enjoy a protective legal framework.



I believe that if I ask any Cuban official, he will invoke a 5th

Amendment that does not exist in our constitution. For all the rest,

we'll have to wait.



Translated by mlk.



24 March 2014



Source: Cuba Seeks Investors with an Old Publicity Strategy / Juan Juan

Almeida | Translating Cuba -

http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-seeks-investors-with-an-old-publicity-strategy-juan-juan-almeida/