Cuba Freezes Most Sales at Dollar Stores

emad

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Tue May-11-04 10:38 AM
Original message

Cuba Freezes Most Sales at Dollar Stores

Tuesday May 11, 2004 4:01 PM

By JOHN RICE

Associated Press Writer

<snip>
HAVANA (AP) - Officials suddenly halted most of the dollar sales that Cubans have come to count on and warned of higher dollar prices for food and gasoline. They blamed new U.S. measures meant to undermine the island's communist government.

Dollar stores all across the Cuban capital were closed Tuesday morning, many displaying identical ``closed for inventory'' notices.

Scores of agitated people lined up for last-minute purchases at late-night variety stores after the official declaration was read on Cuban state television shortly before 8 p.m. Monday night.

The measure could have dramatic effect on everyday life in Cuba, where hard-currency stores offer plentiful goods - from soap to spark plugs - that are available in scant quantities, if at all, at highly subsidized prices in Cuban pesos.
<snip>
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4078246,00.html

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Say_What

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Tue May-11-04 11:10 AM
Response to Original message

1. Cuban Dissidents Reject Bush Pro-Democracy Plan

Bush trying to garner votes from Gusanos is gonna backfire bigtime.

<clips>

... The measures include new sanctions to squeeze the island's battered economy and the broadcast of anti-Castro television signals from a military C-130 transport off Cuba.

"This is a total interference that does not benefit the building of democracy in Cuba," said moderate dissident Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, who criticized Bush's policy in a statement he handed in at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana.

"The United States has no right to set the pace of a transition in Cuba. It is humiliating," said Manuel Cuesta Morua, another moderate who accompanied Gutierrez Menoyo.

Cuba's best-known dissident, Oswaldo Paya, winner of the European Parliament's Andrei Sakharov human rights prize, said it was up to Cubans, not the United States or a European government, to design a post-Castro transition for the Caribbean island.

Cuban dissidents also rejected Bush's plan to appoint a "transition coordinator" in the next few weeks to implement the White House's pro-democracy strategy, which aims to undermine the continuation of communism in Cuba under Castro's younger brother and designated successor, Raul Castro.

"The proposals are totally counterproductive," said veteran Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, who warned that opponents receiving U.S. money would be immediately exposed to arrest.

<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5094660>

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Judi Lynn

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Tue May-11-04 12:45 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. It's an important moment, if Cuba's own DISSIDENTS tell Bush to buzz off.

This needs as much publicity as possible.

They want to work WITHIN their system to bring the changes they want, _Bush, in his belief he is indeed master of the universe, wants to sweep away 45 years of hard work in Cuba toward a better state of living for all of them, and replace it with a version of South Florida, with its squalor, with all the people the Revolution drove off right back in the drivers' seats.

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Say_What

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Tue May-11-04 01:48 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. I see that our old friend Menoyo is still alive and active in Havana

always enjoy reading about him. The Miami Herald (aka the Oligarchs Daily) ran an article about him in April that I missed. You may have already seen this.

Former exile criticizes Cuba dissidents, praises Spanish election

ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

Associated Press

HAVANA - Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo, the former exile who last year returned to Cuba to live without government approval, on Monday praised the election of Spain's new prime minister in an unusual political statement.

Gutierrez-Menoyo at the same time criticized dissidents who had admired new President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's more conservative predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar.

Zapatero's electoral victory in March showed "the good sense" of the Spanish people, wrote the 68-year-old Gutierrez-Menoyo, a former rebel commander who fought in the Cuban revolution before falling out with Fidel Castro and spending 22 years in prison on the island.

"For Cuba (the electoral victory) must represent a happy opportunity in which the differing groups can and must be discussed within the confines of mutual respect," the statement read.

<http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8526092.htm?ERIGHTS>

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Judi Lynn

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Thu May-13-04 11:19 AM
Response to Reply #3

4. Just found your article on Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo. Didn't see it earlier.

That guy has real strength. His life has been something worthy of a great movie. He's simply amazing, and god only knows what can happen if he is allowed to live out a natural life without fear of getting whacked by Miami Cuban hardline "exiles," who want to control Cuba's history.

It's cool he called Oswaldo Payá on his politics as being much farther to the right than the man probably wants to be highlighted. He did it in a fairly subtle way, too, all things considered. Very, very interesting.

Really got Payá's nose out of joint, didn't it? Good one.

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Judi Lynn

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Thu May-13-04 11:22 AM
Response to Original message

5. Hundreds march in Mexico City in support of Cuba

Hundreds march in Mexico City in support of Cuba

ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:51 p.m. May 12, 2004

Associated Press
Hundreds of protesters march through downtown Mexico City to show support for the Cuban government, one week after President Vicente Fox told the Cuban ambassador to leave and withdrew Mexico's top representative in Havana.

Associated Press
Hundreds of protesters march through downtown Mexico City to show support for the Cuban government, one week after President Vicente Fox told the Cuban ambassador to leave and withdrew Mexico's top representative in Havana.

MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Mexico City to show support for the Cuban government, one week after President Vicente Fox told the Cuban ambassador to leave and withdrew Mexico's top representative in Havana.

The demonstrators condemned Fox's decision to downgrade diplomatic relations, and also protested U.S. measures to tighten the embargo on cash transfers to the island.

Chanting "Cuba yes, Yankee no," the demonstrators, mainly from leftist and student groups, marched past the U.S. Embassy but did not attack it.

Mexican officials have justified the cooling of relations, saying that Cuba had interfered in Mexican affairs through a recent series of statements.
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20040512-1651-mexico-cubaprotest.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Really chokes me up to see them demonstrating against _Bush's Mexican lap dog gigante.

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Mika

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Thu May-13-04 03:53 PM
Response to Original message

6. Here's the official announcement

Since most of the western press simply fabricates news about Cuba, let's see the official announcement......

-OFFICIAL NOTE
-Cuba announces measures in response to aggressive actions by the Bush administration
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/mayo/mar11/nota.html
Until further notice, sales are suspended in stores offering products in hard currency, with the exception of foodstuffs, cleaning and personal hygiene items. Top priority will be guaranteed for all those goods and services received by the population in its entirety, without privileges of any kind.

Prices will not change in the least for the regulated and subsidized goods allocated to the population.

Public health programs underway will not be affected in any way.

Education projects that are underway will not be changed nor hindered in the least, including the snacks and meals for students, which will continue being extended.

As an essential part of the quality of life of our people, culture will continue its current exceptional development, and the formation of a general integral culture for all citizens will not be stopped for one second.

The programs for universalizing higher education will continue moving forward to reach every corner of the country.

Unemployment will remain at under 2.5% of the active working population.

The exchange bureaus within the Cuban banking system (CADECAS) will continue to function with their habitual responsibility and efficiency.

The current exchange rates for the Cuban peso, the convertible peso and the dollar will remain unchanged.

All funds in Cuban pesos, convertible pesos and dollars deposited in banks by citizens and their corresponding interests, will be absolutely guaranteed.

The farmers’ markets where campesinos offer their products on a demand and supply basis, and the state-run agricultural markets will continue to function under the established regulations.

In the mining sector, production of nickel and cobalt is to be increased, as are oil and gas exploration in locations most researched and secure, with the application of new extraction techniques, until self-sufficiency is attained.

In terms of economic investment, the guiding principle is to be one of total priority for the most rapid returns and largest immediate benefits.

In agriculture, priorities are to be export lines and the orderly production of food, with an increased utilization of working animals, lower costs for imported supplies and less spending on fuel.

The rational and optimal use of land liberated from cane cultivation with the restructuring of the sugar industry.

Notice that unlike the government of Bush* Crime Inc., the emphasis of the Cuban government is the maintainance of the social infrastructure - health, edu, etc.

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