saludos

The flight from Florida to Cuba is a little over an hour, yet the countries remain a world apart.
Cuba is changing, however, as I learned on my recent fact-finding visit. Cuba has embarked on meaningful economic reforms, which deserve encouragement by the United States, not continued isolation. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have a window of opportunity to engage and encourage reform in Cuba and should act now.
Cuba has instituted significant changes to its economy through decentralization and some private ownership of property and private business, such as restaurants (paladares), private lodging (casas particulares), construction and other self-created small businesses (cuentapropistas). Reforms also are also under way in Cuba’s agricultural sector.
I met with several Cubans who now work for themselves and are creating employment opportunities for other Cubans, which increases autonomy and self-determination. Cuba’s decision to eliminate most travel restrictions is modestly increasing mobility, earning power and the ability to provide financial support for their families.
These developments remind me of the historic economic changes since the 1980s in the former Soviet bloc countries, and in China and Vietnam over the past 25 years. Indeed, I traveled to the former East Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution. The United States was directly engaged with those nations during their transition, and Americans were free to travel and interact with their people. American legal and economic experts and businesses directly aided the transition to greater freedom and personal economic opportunity.
If America officially acknowledged changes under way in Cuba, it would strengthen the hands of Cubans who want these reforms to succeed, and we could encourage Cuba to go further and faster.
America also should capitalize on economic changes occurring outside Cuba. One of Cuba’s primary benefactors, Hugo Chavez, is gone and it is unlikely that Venezuela will have the capacity to continue to provide billions of dollars in economic aid and petroleum products to Cuba. In fact, in the Tampa Bay area, I know of recent immigrants who cite the fear of losing Venezuelan support and returning to another “special period” as their reason for leaving the island.
During my visit, Cuban officials made it clear to me they would like the embargo lifted and that they seek an improved relationship. America’s allies in the Western Hemisphere have encouraged the United States to do so. Cuba and its citizens are more than a decade behind with respect to the Internet and broadband. Expansion of this advanced technology will be slow, but the improvement to human rights and efficiencies to Cuban society could be enormous.
Cuba and other foreign interests continue to prospect for oil in its territorial waters (so close to sensitive environmental resources in the Florida Straits). Despite multilateral discussions among the United States and Caribbean nations, the United States should have a more direct relationship. Cuba and Brazil are making a large investment in the modernization of Cuba’s Port of Mariel in advance of the widening of the Panama Canal. U.S. ports, businesses and environmental concerns would benefit, or at least gain greater influence and understanding, with more direct engagement.
Small businesses, the tourism industry, Tampa International Airport and the Port of Tampa are poised to take advantage of broadening travel and trade to the island nation. Tampa Bay has the opportunity to become a “Gateway to Cuba.” We can market Tampa to families, educational groups and cultural organizations traveling to Cuba as a jumping-off point to the island nation. They can learn about Cuba, participate in language and other immersion courses, eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels. Doing so will create jobs here in travel and tourism, and our small businesses will benefit.

These circumstances provide an opportunity for the United States to engage in a dialogue with Cuba to lift trade restrictions while promoting greater human rights for the Cuban people.
Lifting travel restrictions would not only be consistent with Americans’ constitutional right to travel, it would facilitate greater exchange between the two countries and remove costly regulatory burdens. Americans are free to travel anywhere else in the world, including countries on the State Department’s State Sponsor of Terrorism list. No rationale exists to singularly prohibit travel to Cuba

( Rep. Kathy Castor’s commentary is eloquent, timely and courageous.
Considering Washington’s announcement that Cuba is again going to be kept on the “terrorist list”, the hysterical media campaign around Assata Shakur, who has lived as under political asylum in Cuba for several DECADES, and on and on, Rep. Castor’s comments are thoughtful and should be circulated as widely as they possibly can.
Walter Lippmann )

COMBATE DE JOSÉ MARTÍ PÉREZ”

Cuando me puse a pensar 

la razón me dio a elegir 

entre ser quien soy, o ir 

el ser ajeno a emprestar, 

mas me dije: si el copiar 

fuera ley, no nacería 

hombre alguno, pues haría 

lo que antes de él se ha hecho: 

y dije, llamando al pecho, 

¡sé quién eres, alma mía!

José Martí Pérez

La Habana, Cuba.

N. 28/1/1853

M. 19/5/1895

¡ESTÁ EL MAESTRO EN DOS RÍOS!

Un sendero tempestuoso,

“la razón me dio a elegir”.

Por él tuve que partir

con firmeza y sigiloso.

De misionero juicioso

me vestí ante desafíos.

Contra mafiosos impíos

cuidé al de abajo el derecho

“y dije, llamando al pecho”,

¡está el maestro en Dos Ríos!

Ramón Espino Valdés

Cuba/México.