Cuba-U.S. Trade

Another Historic Step Forward!

     This AP photo was taken yesterday -- Tuesday, Jan. 24-2017 -- at Florida's Port Everglades. The Crowley Maritime Ship K-Storm had just arrived from Cuba with two containers each loaded with 20 tons of charcoal made from the island's Marabu weed. It is the first legal shipment from Cuba to the United States in 55 years. The long-burning, sweet-smelling Cuban charcoal is considered among the world's best and it is made from a woody plant once considered a nuisance but now as charcoal it's a saleable product.

       Port Everglades is located on Florida's southeast coast just north of Miami. This last week of January-2017 it has become a vocal point to test how the new Donald Trump administration in Washington will deal with former President Barack Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Yesterday's delivery of the Cuban charcoal to Port Everglades reflects one of Obama's last major attempts at re-establishing trade between Cuba and the U. S., which had -- prior to Obama -- been totally illegal because of the U. S. embargo against Cuba that has existed since 1962. Later this week, a top-level Cuban trade delegation will be at Port Everglades eager to sign more agreements with the nearby Florida port.

       The Director of Business Development for Broward County, Jim Pyburn, is typical of business leaders in South Florida begging the Trump administration not to end the commercial ties with Cuba that President Obama so bravely and historically forged. Jim Pyburn hailed yesterday's shipment of Cuban charcoal to Port Everglades. He said, "It's an opportunity for new jobs all down the road. It's something we can enjoy and build on, and hopefully help the Cuban people as well as South Florida workers." Jim Pyburn also looks forward to welcoming the Cuban delegation to Port Everglades this week. He said, "We are very excited for such a high-level trade group to come here. They will find us eager to discuss mutually beneficial commerce." 

      The Cuban delegation at Port Everglades is led by Ana Teresa Igarza. She is the General Director of Cuba's most important commercial enterprise, the refurbished Mariel Port Development Zone that comprises the island's most modern deep-water port and 11,367 acres of commercial land 28 miles southwest of Havana. Ana said, "If we can get past blockade restrictions that have existed for five decades, the Cuban people and the American people, especially in close-by Florida, will be so much better off." 

       Another fast-rising female star in Cuba, Tania Vazquez Garcia, is also a key member of the Cuban trade delegation now on U. S. soil and eagerly anticipating successful meetings with Port Everglades' officials. Tania is Cuba's Minister of Foreign Trade and Investments. She said, "The Obama officials I have worked with influenced me greatly by displaying sincere interest in helping everyday Cubans. I hope that sincerity continues beyond Mr. Obama to benefit Cubans, Floridians and other Americans. With trade and commerce, we can help each other but with Cold War animosity we can be hurtful to each other too." 

     South Florida has hundreds of Cuban-American business executives, such as Manny Almira, who agree wholeheartedly with Ana and Tania, the two key Cuban trade officials visiting Port Everglades this week. Manny, born 59-years-ago in Cuba, is the Executive Director at the Florida Port of Palm Beach and he savors commerce with Cuba. He says, "Trade and friendly relations between neighboring nations is far better than embargoes and hostilities. Most Cuban-Americans in South Florida want an end to the embargo. All business people I know want it to end. Workers in Cuba and in South Florida need commerce, not embargoes." 

       This photo shows four key officials in the two-term Obama administration that worked tirelessly to bring sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy, a right-wing Batistiano-directed policy that on Oct. 26-2016 attained a 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations. Right to left above are: President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. But this Democratic quartet of democracy-loving Americans left office on January 20th and their Republican replacements are...in a word...scary. And that is particularly true for Cuba.

      Newly installed United States President Donald Trump and his most important cabinet pick, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have both vowed to reverse President Obama's monumental steps toward normalizing relations with Cuba. In other words, Trump and Tillerson apparently intend to put U.S.-Cuban relations back in the hands of a few hardline Cuban-Americans and their self-serving sycophants, much to the dismay of most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, all nations in the world, and particularly to the chagrin of almost all Cuban-American business leaders, such as Manny Almira. Not only has Trump replaced John Kerry with Rex Tillerson but he has replaced people like Susan Rice and Samantha Power with extreme anti-Cuban zealots like Mauricio Claver-Carone and Nikki Haley. But it is now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who might loom as the biggest threat to sane and decent relations between the United States and Cuba.

         Rex Tillerson was the ultra-rich CEO-Chairman of the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, and now he is one of the most controversial and most powerful figures in the new Trump administration.

       Americans are aware of Rex Tillerson's abiding friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but probably not as aware as they should be. This week the London-based The Guardian newspaper blared this headline: "LEAK REVEALS REX TILLERSON WAS DIRECTOR OF BAHAMAS-BASED U.S.-RUSSIAN OIL FIRM." The sub-headline was: "Documents from Tax-Haven Will Raise More Questions Over Suitability of Donald Trump's Pick for U. S. Secretary of State." So, going from Obama-to-Trump also means going from...Kerry to Tillerson, Rice to Claver-Carone, Power to Haley, etc. What all that means for Cuba, South Florida, America, Russia, and the world remains to be seen. But if the handshake above is as deeply embedded in the newly configured White House as it seems to be, and in the future of the already fragile relations between Cuba and the U. S., it might be time to at least start to batten down the hatches.

&*************************&