Dollar-seeking Cubans flood Ecuador

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wednesday, 07.14.10
Dollar-seeking Cubans flood Ecuador
By GONZALO SOLANO
Associated Press Writer

QUITO, Ecuador -- A wave of Cuban fortune-seekers is turning to Ecuador as an alternative to United States - creating an anti-immigrant backlash in a small South American country that is itself a major source of migrants abroad. Some 50,000 Cubans have entered the country since its leftist government dropped all visa requirements in 2008 and the sudden proliferation has officials warning that some Cubans are obtaining Ecuadorean citizenship fraudulently.

Some see Ecuador as a stop on their journey to join Cuban-American communities in the United States, and officials say smugglers have carried Cubans up the Pacific coast to Mexico and the United States.

"We are talking about a transnational crime here, the trafficking of human beings," said Col. Edwin Baez, Ecuador's immigration director.

Most of the Cubans come to Ecuador to shop for goods they can sell for higher prices back home. Havana is now awash with black market computer parts, plasma TVs, clothing and MP3 players purchased in Ecuador, where the greenback is the local currency. And many come to stay and earn, creating a small but growing Cuban colony that is making the country an alternative to the U.S., Spain and Caribbean nations for Cubans seeking a better life abroad.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/14/1730321/dollar-seeking-cubans-flood-ecuador.html

[Bacchus39]

1. worth posting the rest of the article

And many come to stay and earn, creating a small but growing Cuban colony that is making the country an alternative to the U.S., Spain and Caribbean nations for Cubans seeking a better life abroad.

More than 7,400 Cubans have stayed, the bulk of them overstaying the 90 days that tourists are permitted to be in the country.

"You come here, basically, for the dollars," said Carlos Diaz, a tall, broad-shouldered 49-year-old Havana native. A port mechanic trained to fix ship engines, he is instead waiting tables in this inland capital nearly two miles (three kilometers) high.

He earns more than 14 times the average salary of $20 a month in Cuba, though most Cubans don't pay rent and get health care and education free.

More than a quarter of Ecuador's 14 million people live abroad because job opportunities at home are so limited. Now many Ecuadoreans resent the Cubans who come to put some dollars in their pockets.

"There is a litany of complaints of crimes of all kinds blamed on the Cubans," Sucesos radio commentator Marcel Dotti said in an interview. "It's irresponsible of the government to have opened this country's doors to all foreigners when it's well known that we have high unemployment and underemployment."

Unemployment is at 9.1 percent - up from 7.3 percent in 2008, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

The lack of a visa requirement makes it relatively simple for a Cuban to get to Ecuador legally - far easier than to the United States or Spain, which have long been Cubans' destinations of choice. That's why Diaz says he chose Ecuador. All that's required is an invitation letter from an Ecuadorean and Cuban government assent.

Baez, the immigration director, said some Ecuadoreans sell invitation letters for $200 to $300 and often offer additional services - such as obtaining the papers required to gain citizenship, often through marriages of convenience.

Ecuadorean marriages involving a Cuban rose from 88 nationwide in 2007 to 1,796 last year, according the Office of Civil Registry.

In mid-June, government officials invalidated marriages involving 195 Cubans and one Chinese man, all of whom had obtained Ecuadorean citizenship through naturalization.

Ecuador's attorney general, Washington Pesantez, has said that though Cubans are "welcome in this country, there are now too many. And if it's tourism they came for, it's time for them to go home."

Among those who have no intention of returning soon is Lina Garcia, a short, slim 29-year-old medical technician who works as a manicurist.

"I wanted to leave Cuba because the economic situation is terrible there," she told a reporter outside the beauty salon where she works. "Work is going well for me. My customers like me and sometimes tip me."

Asked what she will do when her three months are up, Garcia said "a girlfriend knows a lawyer who can fix that. We know how to arrange it."

She would not be more specific, but said, "They are legal mechanisms, nothing strange."

There have been no reports of anti-Cuban violence in neighborhoods where the Caribbean immigration presence is high. But some Ecuadorean landlords grumble that a dozen Cubans often crowd a dwelling meant for half as many.

Despite the complaints, Ecuador is maintaining its 2-year-old no-visa policy.

"It should be evaluated in due course," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters last week. But he added, "We think we should continue to adhere to the principle of the free movement of people."



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/14/1730321/dollar-seeking-cubans-flood-ecuador.html#ixzz0thcBDo9g

[Judi Lynn]

2. There's a small detail in the article I was hoping someone might notice.

Do you remember HOW MANY wingers have argued themselves hoarse here (the typing grew very faint) howling that Cuba doesn't allow Cuban citizens to leave the island, that they are "prisoners" there? They did this even though a Miami resident had told them Cubans used to come to Florida to shop, visit relatives, vacation, etc., and return to Cuba? They did this even though a Canadian DU'er said she met a woman in Cuba who lives in Miami who comes and goes back and forth continually, buying stuff in Miami and selling it in Cuba, and I mentioned I had been on message boards at two different sites where Cuban "exiles" posted, and where they discussed their OWN relatives visiting them from Cuba? Etc., etc., etc.

You can be sure it killed them at the Miami Herald, which whores itself to Cuban "exile" interests, to have to publish this part of the article, but they may be thinking people are going to probably be learning these details for themselves once the Cuban travel ban is lifted, anyway, and that looks very possible!

In the original Miami Herald article it also says, later in the story:

Most of the Cubans come to Ecuador to shop for goods they can sell for higher prices back home. Havana is now awash with black market computer parts, plasma TVs, clothing and MP3 players purchased in Ecuador, where the greenback is the local currency.

And many come to stay and earn, creating a small but growing Cuban colony that is making the country an alternative to the U.S., Spain and Caribbean nations for Cubans seeking a better life abroad.

More than 7,400 Cubans have stayed, the bulk of them overstaying the 90 days that tourists are permitted to be in the country.

That's straight from a high-spinning right-wing pandering source in Miami.

In time these wild whoppers are going to be illuminated for everyone to see. We have ALL been reading pure spin from our corporate media from the first on Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Cuba redux: Pressure builds to change a failed U.S. policy

Cuba redux: Pressure builds to change a failed U.S. policy
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An interesting confluence of developments has put the spotlight again on President Barack Obama's Cuba policy, an area where his performance has not yet lived up to expectations.

There was thought during the 2008 presidential campaign, based on some of Mr. Obama's statements, that if he won, the stale 50-year-old U.S. policy of waiting until now former Cuban President Fidel Castro died would open up. In the event, he has made a few changes, relaxing rules on Cuban-Americans' travel to the island and the sending of funds there, but little else.

In June, a bill was approved by the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture removing restrictions on U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba and eliminating the travel ban currently in effect on most U.S. citizens' travel to Cuba. The bill, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act is supported strongly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Farmers' Union and even the Texas Farm Bureau.

Their support reflects what they see as strong potential for increasing U.S. agricultural and other exports to Cuba. The United States in May showed an overall foreign trade deficit of $12.3 billion, up 5 percent from April. Improved exports to Cuba could help erase the gap.

Another new development could enhance prospects for full congressional approval of the Cuba bill. One of the most prominent points of opposition to improved relations with Cuba is the approach of the Raul Castro government to political prisoners. The government of Spain, the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba led by Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana, and the Cuban government last week announced agreement on the release of 52 of them. The first seven were freed and sent to Spain on Monday. It is expected that more will follow.

In a curious footnote, Fidel Castro, 83, appeared on Cuban television Monday night, his first such interview since 2007, and made no comment on the important prisoner release. His silence has been interpreted as tacit approval.

The usual opposition in the United States to improving relations with Cuba remains in place among some Cuban exiles and their descendants, concentrated in South Florida. They still use their votes and campaign contributions to seek to block any movement by Mr. Obama in that policy area. At the same time, overwhelming logic continues to support action -- such as the travel and export bill -- to improve U.S. relations with its tiny offshore neighbor. Mr. Obama should be in a position to make this an area of positive change, to America's advantage, if he has the intestinal fortitude to pursue the matter.

More:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10196/1072850-192.stm

Editorials:
Cuba redux: Pressure builds to change a failed U.S. policy
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An interesting confluence of developments has put the spotlight again on President Barack Obama's Cuba policy, an area where his performance has not yet lived up to expectations.

There was thought during the 2008 presidential campaign, based on some of Mr. Obama's statements, that if he won, the stale 50-year-old U.S. policy of waiting until now former Cuban President Fidel Castro died would open up. In the event, he has made a few changes, relaxing rules on Cuban-Americans' travel to the island and the sending of funds there, but little else.

In June, a bill was approved by the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture removing restrictions on U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba and eliminating the travel ban currently in effect on most U.S. citizens' travel to Cuba. The bill, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act is supported strongly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Farmers' Union and even the Texas Farm Bureau.

Their support reflects what they see as strong potential for increasing U.S. agricultural and other exports to Cuba. The United States in May showed an overall foreign trade deficit of $12.3 billion, up 5 percent from April. Improved exports to Cuba could help erase the gap.

Another new development could enhance prospects for full congressional approval of the Cuba bill. One of the most prominent points of opposition to improved relations with Cuba is the approach of the Raul Castro government to political prisoners. The government of Spain, the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba led by Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana, and the Cuban government last week announced agreement on the release of 52 of them. The first seven were freed and sent to Spain on Monday. It is expected that more will follow.

In a curious footnote, Fidel Castro, 83, appeared on Cuban television Monday night, his first such interview since 2007, and made no comment on the important prisoner release. His silence has been interpreted as tacit approval.

The usual opposition in the United States to improving relations with Cuba remains in place among some Cuban exiles and their descendants, concentrated in South Florida. They still use their votes and campaign contributions to seek to block any movement by Mr. Obama in that policy area. At the same time, overwhelming logic continues to support action -- such as the travel and export bill -- to improve U.S. relations with its tiny offshore neighbor. Mr. Obama should be in a position to make this an area of positive change, to America's advantage, if he has the intestinal fortitude to pursue the matter.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10196/1072850-192.stm

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x548228