HAVANA — You can’t see the secret world of Havana’s rooftops from the street. But get high enough and look out across the skyline and it’s there, a whole other city in the air.
Related: Bo$ton $kyline
UPDATE: Bo$ton is now 3rd as "income disparity is growing nationwide."
It’s a hidden village of makeshift apartments, chicken coops, and tiny vegetable gardens, where boys in flip-flops fly homemade kites and shirtless men play dominoes in the sea breeze, with drying laundry flapping around them.
Street-level Havana can be noisy and smelly, but rooftop Havana is bathed in sunlight and flushed clean by the ocean air. It’s beyond the reach of prying eyes, a place for romantic trysts or solitude.
‘‘Cubans are nosey, man,’’ said Yordan Alonso, 25, father of three, a part-time barber, part-time bicycle taxi driver, and lifelong roof-dweller four stories above San Ignacio Street in Old Havana. ‘‘Up here, nobody bothers you,’’ he said.
Alonso’s building is a half-block from the city’s Plaza Vieja, or Old Plaza, at the unmarked border between cheerful, tourist Havana and crowded, crumbling Havana, into which visitors rarely stray. This part of the city waits more impatiently than any, maybe, for the day the US tourists and investors come rushing back, to catch it before it falls down.
Never has that day seemed closer for Cubans such as Alonso, with the United States and Cuba mending relations.
Built from concrete blocks set on the roof of a ruined colonial-era building, his tiny apartment looks out over the Old Havana skyline to the deep-blue Straits of Florida beyond. Ships and barges eased in and out of the Bay of Havana past the 18th-century San Carlos de la Cabaña citadel, one of the large Spanish colonial fortresses in the Americas.
The population has surged to 2.1 million since Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution, but the housing supply has not kept pace. The communist government consistently falls short of construction goals, and the big, ugly apartment blocks it put up in the Soviet era couldn’t accommodate all the growth.
In overcrowded Central Havana and in the historic quarter, the shortage of places to live and play and find privacy pushed the city upward, spilling onto the rooftops.
The technical term for it is ‘‘parasitic architecture.’’ The Cuban government doesn’t encourage the practice, but in the city’s oldest and most dilapidated neighborhoods, longtime roof-dwelling families like Alonso’s were usually allowed to stay. The parasites became permanent.
Why did Israel and the U.S. government just come to mind?
Cuba is like that — built for one thing and adapted to another. Many of the grand homes of Old Havana were designed for one family, with a business on the ground floor and space for multiple generations and servants’ quarters on the upper levels. Now they are crowded tenements, in varying stages of decay.
Alonso’s building has 36 apartments, including his own and the four others on the roof, accessed by a rickety wooden ladder. Bundled electrical wires and phone lines run up the main staircase and spider web from there. Outside each apartment is an old oil drum or plastic tank for storing water piped up by electrical pumps.
--more--"
Also see: Cuba All About Cargill and Other Food Corporations
NDUs:
"Ex-detainees’ actions may stall Guantanamo closure" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press February 15, 2015
WASHINGTON — During six years behind bars at Guantanamo Bay, Abdul Rauf insisted he was a lowly Taliban foot soldier who delivered bread and tea to combatants, even though he was really a corps commander.
He was obviously not tortured.
He was released in 2007 and sent home to Afghanistan. Until last week, he was working as the top recruiter in Afghanistan for Islamic State militants.
He is obviously an AmeriKan agent and asset -- with six years conditioning (if we are to believe this narrative-promoting, war propaganda pre$$).
Rauf, who was killed along with seven others in a US drone strike, and other detainees like him who have returned to the battlefield are complicating President Obama’s hopes of closing the detention center for terrorism suspects on the US Navy base in Cuba.
Yes, this way they can keep it open and keep those people they never intend to try or release, for various reasons.
The administration says the prison is costly, damages America’s relationship with key allies, and provides extremists a propaganda tool to woo recruits.
Right. First opt all, image already damaged and it has nothing to do with this citizen. I never approved or condoned torture based on lies.
The second thing, and more than striking, is the pre$$ disregarding the war crimes of torture and focusing on its use as propaganda for the "terrorists."
If that ain't pos pot hollering kettle.... sigh.
Obama has vowed since he was a presidential candidate to close the detention center, but members of Congress have thwarted that plan, saying detainees would return to the fight.
Nice little game they have, blame the other guy and the status quo stays before the agenda is advanced again later.
They also have argued that governments to which the detainees would be released couldn’t be expected to keep track of them and prevent them from becoming active again.
And yet the NSA and its allies can scoop up all worldwide communications, satellites are watching the planet, cameras are everywhere -- but they can't find 'em!
C'mon!!!
Besides Rauf, one or more of the five Taliban detainees swapped for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl may have already been in touch with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
This whole thing with Bowe and the Haqqanis is no longer funny!
Qatari officials promised to monitor the five former Taliban officials’ activities and keep them from traveling outside Qatar for a year. That year ends May 31 and lawmakers are wondering what will happen to them.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest has said the five are still in Qatar, but he says efforts to keep them from working with terror organizations ‘‘have been updated’’ to reflect concerns about their contacts. Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said at an event in Washington that the five continue to be closely monitored.
Those reassurances have not satisfied Republican lawmakers, especially in light of confirmation of Rauf’s death.
‘‘The fact that Abdul Rauf, a former Guantanamo detainee, was acting as a recruiter for IS in Afghanistan underscores the danger of releasing detainees without sufficient assurances that they won’t reengage in terrorism,’’ said Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican. ‘‘I am deeply concerned that if hard-core Guantanamo detainees continue to be released, our service members or our allies may confront them again on the battlefield. One former Guantanamo detainee returning to the fight is one too many.’’
Related:
"Harvard officials said they have notified members of the university community that an unidentified man came to the Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday and said he was soliciting donations for a charity connected to the Islamic State militant group. “At this time there does not appear to be a threat to the community, but we felt that it was important to notify members of our community. We have also notified the Harvard University Police Department,” the university said Friday in an e-mailed statement. The dean of the Kennedy School sent out an e-mail Thursday notifying members of the school community. The FBI is assessing the incident."
What a fantastic and smelly psyop!!
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby, said Rauf’s death by an American drone shows that detainees ‘‘return to the battlefield and to the fight at their own peril.’’
Another complication is the situation in Yemen. Some detainees who won release were sent to Yemen, but the friendly government has been replaced by Iran-backed Shi’ite rebels, meaning detainees could not be sent there any time soon. Last week the United States closed its embassy in Yemen, which also is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Yeah, Al-CIA-Duh has a base there.
Shouldn't the U.S. be happy Iran has routed ISIS in Iraq (or not?) and Al-CIA-Duh (oops!)?
Who is enabling them anyway!
Ayotte and three other Republican senators have introduced legislation that the Obama administration says will effectively ban most transfers from Guantanamo for Obama’s remaining two years in office.
Brian McKeon, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told Congress that scores of military leaders have called for its closure.
He defended the procedures used to review detainees who have been transferred back to their homelands or third countries. Each transfer is subject to the unanimous agreement of six officials — the secretaries of defense, state, and homeland security, the director of national intelligence, the attorney general, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
‘‘Of the detainees transferred during this administration, over 90 percent are neither confirmed nor suspected of having reengaged,’’ he said.
When Obama took office, there were 242 detainees at Guantanamo Bay — down from a high of nearly 800. Fifty-four of the 122 detainees still being held are eligible for transfer to other countries.
Rauf was released into the custody of the Afghan government in December 2007. After spending time in an Afghan prison, he was freed in 2009 and later rejoined the Taliban.
--more--"
"Poland to pay $262,000 to inmates held at secret CIA prison" New York Times February 19, 2015
WARSAW — Poland will abide by a European court ruling that ordered it to pay a total of $262,000 in reparations to two former inmates of a “black site” prison run by the CIA, the minister of foreign affairs said Wednesday.
“We have to do it,” Grzegorz Schetyna said on state-owned Polish Radio. “We are a law-abiding country.”
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that Poland had violated the rights of the two terrorism suspects by handing them over to the CIA in 2002 at a secret facility, which is now closed. While there, the court said, the men suffered “torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.”
The men — Abu Zubaydah, charged with running an Al Qaeda site in Pakistan; and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole — are being held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
I get tired of droning on about certain things.
Poland requested an appeal in October, but it was denied.
The money will be paid within a month, Schetyna said. Marcin Wojciechowski, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said Poland would try to avoid paying the money directly to the two men.
--more--"
At least someone has a solution:
WASHINGTON — During six years behind bars at Guantanamo Bay, Abdul Rauf insisted he was a lowly Taliban foot soldier who delivered bread and tea to combatants, even though he was really a corps commander.
He was obviously not tortured.
He was released in 2007 and sent home to Afghanistan. Until last week, he was working as the top recruiter in Afghanistan for Islamic State militants.
He is obviously an AmeriKan agent and asset -- with six years conditioning (if we are to believe this narrative-promoting, war propaganda pre$$).
Rauf, who was killed along with seven others in a US drone strike, and other detainees like him who have returned to the battlefield are complicating President Obama’s hopes of closing the detention center for terrorism suspects on the US Navy base in Cuba.
Yes, this way they can keep it open and keep those people they never intend to try or release, for various reasons.
The administration says the prison is costly, damages America’s relationship with key allies, and provides extremists a propaganda tool to woo recruits.
Right. First opt all, image already damaged and it has nothing to do with this citizen. I never approved or condoned torture based on lies.
The second thing, and more than striking, is the pre$$ disregarding the war crimes of torture and focusing on its use as propaganda for the "terrorists."
If that ain't pos pot hollering kettle.... sigh.
Obama has vowed since he was a presidential candidate to close the detention center, but members of Congress have thwarted that plan, saying detainees would return to the fight.
Nice little game they have, blame the other guy and the status quo stays before the agenda is advanced again later.
They also have argued that governments to which the detainees would be released couldn’t be expected to keep track of them and prevent them from becoming active again.
And yet the NSA and its allies can scoop up all worldwide communications, satellites are watching the planet, cameras are everywhere -- but they can't find 'em!
C'mon!!!
Besides Rauf, one or more of the five Taliban detainees swapped for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl may have already been in touch with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
This whole thing with Bowe and the Haqqanis is no longer funny!
Qatari officials promised to monitor the five former Taliban officials’ activities and keep them from traveling outside Qatar for a year. That year ends May 31 and lawmakers are wondering what will happen to them.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest has said the five are still in Qatar, but he says efforts to keep them from working with terror organizations ‘‘have been updated’’ to reflect concerns about their contacts. Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said at an event in Washington that the five continue to be closely monitored.
Those reassurances have not satisfied Republican lawmakers, especially in light of confirmation of Rauf’s death.
‘‘The fact that Abdul Rauf, a former Guantanamo detainee, was acting as a recruiter for IS in Afghanistan underscores the danger of releasing detainees without sufficient assurances that they won’t reengage in terrorism,’’ said Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican. ‘‘I am deeply concerned that if hard-core Guantanamo detainees continue to be released, our service members or our allies may confront them again on the battlefield. One former Guantanamo detainee returning to the fight is one too many.’’
Related:
"Harvard officials said they have notified members of the university community that an unidentified man came to the Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday and said he was soliciting donations for a charity connected to the Islamic State militant group. “At this time there does not appear to be a threat to the community, but we felt that it was important to notify members of our community. We have also notified the Harvard University Police Department,” the university said Friday in an e-mailed statement. The dean of the Kennedy School sent out an e-mail Thursday notifying members of the school community. The FBI is assessing the incident."
What a fantastic and smelly psyop!!
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby, said Rauf’s death by an American drone shows that detainees ‘‘return to the battlefield and to the fight at their own peril.’’
Another complication is the situation in Yemen. Some detainees who won release were sent to Yemen, but the friendly government has been replaced by Iran-backed Shi’ite rebels, meaning detainees could not be sent there any time soon. Last week the United States closed its embassy in Yemen, which also is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Yeah, Al-CIA-Duh has a base there.
Shouldn't the U.S. be happy Iran has routed ISIS in Iraq (or not?) and Al-CIA-Duh (oops!)?
Who is enabling them anyway!
Ayotte and three other Republican senators have introduced legislation that the Obama administration says will effectively ban most transfers from Guantanamo for Obama’s remaining two years in office.
Brian McKeon, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told Congress that scores of military leaders have called for its closure.
He defended the procedures used to review detainees who have been transferred back to their homelands or third countries. Each transfer is subject to the unanimous agreement of six officials — the secretaries of defense, state, and homeland security, the director of national intelligence, the attorney general, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
‘‘Of the detainees transferred during this administration, over 90 percent are neither confirmed nor suspected of having reengaged,’’ he said.
When Obama took office, there were 242 detainees at Guantanamo Bay — down from a high of nearly 800. Fifty-four of the 122 detainees still being held are eligible for transfer to other countries.
Rauf was released into the custody of the Afghan government in December 2007. After spending time in an Afghan prison, he was freed in 2009 and later rejoined the Taliban.
--more--"
"Poland to pay $262,000 to inmates held at secret CIA prison" New York Times February 19, 2015
WARSAW — Poland will abide by a European court ruling that ordered it to pay a total of $262,000 in reparations to two former inmates of a “black site” prison run by the CIA, the minister of foreign affairs said Wednesday.
“We have to do it,” Grzegorz Schetyna said on state-owned Polish Radio. “We are a law-abiding country.”
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that Poland had violated the rights of the two terrorism suspects by handing them over to the CIA in 2002 at a secret facility, which is now closed. While there, the court said, the men suffered “torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.”
The men — Abu Zubaydah, charged with running an Al Qaeda site in Pakistan; and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole — are being held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
I get tired of droning on about certain things.
Poland requested an appeal in October, but it was denied.
The money will be paid within a month, Schetyna said. Marcin Wojciechowski, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said Poland would try to avoid paying the money directly to the two men.
--more--"
At least someone has a solution:
"A Devil’s Island solution to Guantanamo" by H.D.S. Greenway February 20, 2015
President Obama would love to close the Guantanamo prison. The very name symbolizes America’s abuse of its own ideals in the minds of many around the world. It is no coincidence that ISIS dresses those whom it is about to behead in Guantanamo orange.
I'll bet it isn't, all those fake propaganda productions.
Yet with opposition in Congress, and foreign governments unwilling to resettle them, even those prisoners we would like to release remain incarcerated. What to do?
Why not take a leaf from history’s other infamous prison, Devil’s Island, that lies just a few hundred miles to the southeast? The French prison colony in Guiana, on the shoulder of South America, had as evil a reputation in the 19th and early 20th century as Guantanamo does today.
Much deserved, too. Why is he minimizing it?
Devil’s Island is only the smallest of three prison islands of the coast, reserved mostly for political prisoners, the best known of whom was Alfred Dreyfus, the French army officer unjustly accused and unfairly imprisoned for treason in the 19th century.
Another case of persecution against Jews, or so I am told by the history books and ejewkhazional $y$tem.
The great mass of prisoners were kept on the other two islands and in prison colonies on the mainland. The most infamous was the island of St. Joseph, reserved for incorrigibles kept in solitary confinement.
The French had previously held prisoners in domestic jails, or on surplus navy ships called “hulks” moored in French harbors.
Obama has them, too.
As the prison population grew, France looked abroad. They considered Algeria, and even Texas, but settled on their South American colony as a place to warehouse their criminals and political prisoners in 1852.
So evil was the reputation of these prison colonies, colloquially lumped together as “Devil’s Island,” that France started winding them down in the 1930s, and closed them altogether in 1953.
But before that, some prisoners were not allowed back in France, even after they had served their sentences, and had to remain in Guiana. These released yet exiled prisoners made their living on small plots of land, could have jobs, and marry into the local population if they chose. For a while, French women could sign up to go to Guiana if they were willing to marry prisoners.
Some released prisoners made a living trapping exotic butterflies for the French market. Indeed, Guinea’s most famous prisoner other then Dreyfus, Henri Charrieres, was known as Papillon, “butterfly” in French, for his tattoo. His semi-fictitious book of the same name became a best-seller and film starring Steve McQueen.
Why couldn’t Obama follow suit, close Guantanamo prison, and release the remaining prisoners to live on the 45 square mile American navy base until their repatriation or re-settlement can be arranged? Guantanamo was acquired in a 1903 treaty with Cuba, which the Castro regime has never recognized but tolerates. There the prisoners could lead useful lives living off the local economy. They would remain under military supervision, and like Devil’s Island, escape would be very difficult and rare because of the surrounding sea, and the heavily guarded fences that separate the base from the Cuban mainland. Until other arrangements could be made, the families of prisoners could be allowed to join them in base housing. Maybe one or two would never be allowed to go home, but at least they would be semi-free, no longer dressed in orange prison garb, but most importantly no longer in Guantanamo prison, which could then officially close its doors.
The cavalierness about the whole thing is astounding.
It’s not an ideal solution, but those considered non-violent or a threat to America could be living in semi-freedom, getting jobs, not unlike the former Guantanamo prisoners on the island of Bermuda who are no longer prisoners, but are not free to leave the island. And it would serve the purpose of fulfilling Obama’s promise to close the prison, and end the open wound on America’s reputation that Guantanamo represents. Best of all: Congressional permission would not be required.
But what of those few incorrigibles who really are too dangerous to be released, even on the enclosed and guarded base? Obama could go back to a previous chapter in French prison history, the “hulks,” and place those few in the brigs of navy ships anchored in the bay.
(Blog editor is speechless with mouth open)
It’s not an ideal solution, but neither is keeping the Guantanamo prison open.
--more--"
And just when you think the agenda-pushing narrative and propaganda can not get any worse:
"Progress cited toward closing Guantanamo" Associated Press February 24, 2015
The devil, you say.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Despite the fiery rhetoric over Guantanamo in Congress, President Obama has been making progress toward his goal of closing the US detention center there, reaching some notable milestones.
A surge of releases in recent months has lowered the number of men in custody to 122, less than half the number when Obama took office and the fewest since 10 days after the United States began shipping Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, shackled and clad in orange jumpsuits, to the base on Jan. 11, 2002.
The number of prisoners cleared for transfer is now 54, with the remainder still facing indefinite detention. One result of these efforts, according to military officials, is that Guantanamo is a quieter, more manageable detention center.
I $uppo$e the elite jew$papers are no longer hiding their function as agenda-pushing a$$ wipes.
Army Colonel David Heath, who runs day-to-day operations inside the camps, says about 80 percent of the men are now deemed ‘‘highly compliant’’ with the rules to the point that they can live in communal conditions, confined in their cells for only two hours a day. The rest of the time they can eat together, pray, play soccer and computer games, and watch satellite TV.
Yeah, it's like a BIG VACATION and GREAT LIFE, yup!
Doncha just wanna puke?
The surge of releases didn’t begin until in November, when Obama directed officials to pick up the pace.
Why Hagel quit?
--more--"
So when do George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al, get a room at the Cuban Club-Med?
"US, Cuba advance diplomatic thaw, but Havana's place on US terrorism list remains a hurdle" Associated Press Feb. 27, 2015
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Cuba claimed progress Friday toward ending a half-century diplomatic freeze, suggesting they could clear some of the biggest obstacles to their new relationship within weeks.
After Friday's talks in Washington, the second round of U.S.-Cuban discussions in the last month, diplomats of both countries spoke positively about fulfilling the promise made by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro in December to restore embassies in each other's capitals.
The U.S. even held out hope of clinching a deal in time for April's summit of North and South American leaders, which Obama and Castro are expected to attend, however unlikely that appeared.
If you could eat gas-bag propaganda I'd be full.
"We made meaningful progress," Roberta Jacobson, the State Department's senior envoy to Latin America, told reporters, calling the negotiations "open, honest and sometimes challenging, but always respectful."
Now I'm overeating.
Her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal, indicated she received assurances that the U.S. would move on two of the biggest hurdles remaining: Cuba's inclusion on the U.S. state sponsor of terrorism blacklist and its inability to conduct normal banking operations in the United States. She expressed confidence of progress on both priorities "within the following weeks."
You might want to avoid the banking $y$tem.
Cuba's 33-year status on the terrorism list appeared the biggest hurdle, with Vidal saying the issue needed to be resolved if the Cold War foes were to improve ties.
How odd considering the Washington is the hub of terrorism?
Washington is reviewing the designation, which stems from Havana's support decades ago for the Basque separatist group ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, Latin America's oldest and strongest rebel group.
The U.S. has yet to make a decision, but all signs point toward Cuba being taken off the list. American officials say they should make their recommendation ahead of the six-month schedule set out by Obama in December. And the administration has supported Cuba's hosting of peace efforts between the FARC and Colombia's government.
Related: Deal will cut Colombian land mines
A one-day explosion that blew up on me.
At a news conference earlier Friday with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized his government's position that the discussions on re-establishing embassies were technical and distinct from the U.S. legal examination of Cuba's record on terrorism.
"That's one set of fairly normal negotiations with respect to movement of diplomats, access, travel, different things," Kerry told reporters. "The state sponsorship of terrorism designation is a separate process. It is not a negotiation. It is an evaluation that is made under a very strict set of requirements."
If the State Department recommends removal and Obama sends such a decision to Congress, the communist country would only come off after a 45-day waiting period. That makes it practically impossible for the embassies to be reconstituted in Havana and Washington in time for the Summit of the Americas in Panama, if Cuba sticks to its position.
Who cares about the agenda-pushing imagery?
--more--"
"Cuba, US hold new round of talks on diplomatic ties" Associated Press March 17, 2015
HAVANA — US and Cuban diplomats talked behind closed doors Monday in a last-minute round of negotiations aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations before a key regional summit in less than a month.
A small team of negotiators led by Roberta S. Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, met with Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s top diplomat for US affairs, in open-ended talks announced less than 48 hours before Jacobson flew to Havana on Sunday.
The United States and Cuba held their first round of talks in Havana in January, about a month after President Obama and President Raul Castro announced that they would reopen embassies in each other’s countries and try to move toward a broader normalization.
The second round was held in Washington last month and both sides were optimistic that they would be able to resolve a series of sticking points before Obama and Castro attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April 10-11.
The State Department says topics being discussed include lifting caps on Cuban and US diplomatic staff and limits on their movements outside Havana and Washington.
--more--"
Meanwhile, down in Cuba:
"Purebred horses becoming a luxury niche for Cuba
HAVANA — Already renowned for fine rum and fancy cigars, Cuba is carving out a new luxury niche that is attracting Latin American elites to the communist-run island: elite jumping horses. By importing colts and fillies from the Netherlands, Cuban trainers are creating prized competitors capable of fetching more than $40,000 from buyers at private auctions, with much of the proceeds going back to the government-led equine enterprise. At an auction last month at the National Equestrian Club, well-heeled horse collectors gathered in the tropical air to sip wine and raise their bidding paddles, hoping to find a champion among the Dutch Warmbloods paraded before them. By evening’s end, 31 horses sold for a total of about $435,000 to buyers from Brazil, Canada, Guatemala, the Netherlands, and Mexico."
What a bunch of horse $hit.
"US allows imports of privately produced Cuban products
HAVANA — The Obama administration says it will allow Cuba’s small private business sector to sell goods to the United States in a potentially important loosening of the half-century trade embargo on the communist island. A list published by the US State Department Friday said Americans will be allowed to import anything produced by Cuban entrepreneurs with the exception of food and agricultural products, alcohol, minerals, chemicals, textiles, machinery, vehicles, arms, and ammunition. The imports would have to be produced by a Cuban operating in one of the dozens of categories of private business allowed by the Cuban government."
And look at what is being imported.
