Saturday, June 17, 2017

CUBA & OTHER NOTES


I do not post much anymore because I find ALL "news" reported utterly nauseating, disgusting, sickening, repulsive, in the gutter FASCIST DRIVEL, A NATION, GLOBE, OF LIES, A GLOBAL NAZI CARTEL AND RECIDIVIST EMPIRE OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, it simply becomes too depressing.

Life being short, there is NOTHING positive, uplifting, about ANY of these developments.

One has only so much limited time, energy, resources, on Planet Earth.

I can't clone myself, much as I might try.

But, I will make an exception at the moment.

Amongst other items, CUBA resounds lately in OUR so-called CRAPPY COMMERCIAL FAKE NEWS, ESTABLISHMENT, MEDIA, INSTITUTIONS, ALL PART OF A VAST NAZI PROPAGANDA MACHINE, GARBAGE, ECHO CHAMBER of revisionist historical whitewash, so, I decided SIMPLY extracting A LITTLE FACTUAL counter information from ONLY 2 WALL ST. JOURNAL, WSJ, articles I happen to retain from 1993 and 1994, respectively, about Cuba, in my personal files.

REMEMBER, THIS EXERCISE IN FUTILITY BEING TEMPLATE, not totally, completely, comprehensive, exhaustive, but, certainly, emblematic of the REAL REASONS, economic motives, behind EVERYTHING happening everywhere.

I can NOT link directly to the articles nor can I reproduce them for this post without going thru an old fashioned effort simply TYPING copy directly on the computer which is very time consuming.

So, FIRST one.

BOLD FACE BEING MY EMPHASIS, NOT IN ARTICLES below:

FROM OCTOBER 21, 1993
BY JOSE DE CORDOBA

"CUBA IS SELLLING WHAT IT USURPED AND ORIGINAL OWNERS ARE FUMING"
Subheading: "US Cables Global Warning to Dissuade Investment in Confiscated Properties"


"Cuba's ...attempts to attract foreign investment are running into flak from the US Government as well as from BACARDI CORP, the rum giant whose first distillery was confiscated by Castro's government in 1960.

Prompted by reports that Cuba is selling or leasing to foreign partners properties confiscated  from US companies years ago, the US government sent a cable last month titled 'Buyer Beware,' to all its embassies and consulates.
The cable orders US diplomats worldwide to inform host governments that the US 'strongly urges' them to dissuade their nationals from investing in Cuban properties that could be part of the $1.8 billion in US claims for assets expropriated by the Castro gov't.
TOTAL US CLAIMS OF $5 BILLION
It is the 2nd time the US sent out a warning since 1991. 
Cuba has intensified its search for foreign investment after losing subsidies that disappeared with the collapse of its trade ties to the former Soviet bloc...
....Including interest, the US claims are now estimated to total about $5 BILLION.
Cuban officials say that Havana has settled claims made by Spanish, Canadian, Swiss, English and French firms.  
They say Havana is ready to negotiate US claims if they are balanced against Cuban claims of economic damage caused by the US trade embargo of the island which Havana estimates at $40 BILLION....
....Meanwhile, Bacardi, which had properties including 3 breweries and a distillery seized by Cuban government is angry over reports that Cuba is searching for joint venture partners for the businesses...
....Bacardi's Cuban properties were worth about $70 million when they were confiscated in 1960...The 3 breweries, which used to produce Hatuey, prerevolutionary Cuba's largest selling beer, are on a list of 131 properties that Cuban officials circulated at a conference on foreign investment in Cuba that was held in CANCUN, MEXICO AND HAVANA LAST JULY.
Mr. Cutillas [chief executive officer of the closely held Bermuda based company] says Bacardi is limiting its efforts to confiscated businesses and would not touch the emotional issue of the return of private residences confiscated by Cuba.
He is a member of the family that founded Bacardi in the city of Santiago de Cuba in 1862.  Industry analysts place Bacardi's annual sales at $2.7 BILLION.
Another company, Lone Star Industries, Inc. of Stamford, Conn., is worried that Cemex SA of MEXICO,the 4th largest cement company in the world, might acquire Lone Star's old cement plant in Cuba as part of a debt swap.  Lone Star, emerging from a Chapter 11 reorganization, has a $24.9 Million claim for its cement plant registered with the US Foreign Claims Settlement Commission...
...Lone Star Chairman David Wallace....is also Chairman of the Joint Corporate Committee on Cuban Claims, a group formed in 1974 representing about 50 US corporations....

END OF EXCERPTS BUT following addition.

The article ALSO has a CHART which I cannot reproduce exactly, however, here is the information below.

"SOME of the US companies that have filed claims for properties confiscated by Cuba in the MILLIONS:

Boise Cascade  $279.3;  ITT 130.7; Borden 97.4; United Brands 85.1; Amstar 81; EXXON 71.6; Texaco 50.1; Freeport Minerals 33; Coca-Cola 27.5; Lone Star Industries 24.9; Colgate-Palmolive 14.5; Atlantic Richfield 10.2


ALSO, I note, MORE land issues exist around FORMER LARGE AGRICULTURAL PLANTATIONS, POSSIBLY, SUGAR production, not sure, not to mention exploitation and slavery.


The 2nd WSJ article I will ONLY EXCERPT in SMALL part essentially being a followup to above.

FROM DECEMBER 23, 1994


"GROWING NUMBER OF US COMPANIES PREPARE FOR FUTURE BUSINESS WITH CUBA"
BY MARY ROMANO

"....The US-Cuba Business Council--with a roster that includes American International Group, Anheuser-Busch Cos., Chrysler Corp., Coca-Cola, Colgate Palmolive Co, Dow Chemical  and Honeywell--was formed in April to support the embargo until a free-market system is installed in Cuba and to plan for possible renewed access to the Cuban market...
...Cuba lost its main trading partner when the Soviet Union collapsed.  
Agricultural production is down and industrial plants are not fully operational.
But, in the first year  of a free market economy US trade with Cuba could reach $1 BILLION and after 5 years it could reach $7 BILLION....

END OF BRIEF EXCERPT

Of course, monetary figures above now much higher, INFLATED.