A Cuban wakes up facing only two problems every day: lunch and dinner

Remittances help undermine U.S. sanctions intended to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. They also help create inequality in Cuba, a communist country Castro tried to design as free of socioeconomic classes. .....But inequality seems to reign on the island, with whites more likely to receive remittance checks than blacks and those of mixed race, even though today blacks and mixed-race persons make up 62 percent of the island's 11 million people, according to the U.S. Department of State. Afro-Cubans tend to be more impoverished, said de Salas-del Valle, an issue the government glosses over.

HAVANA, Cuba -- Anthia Marquetty's son left this island for the Bronx more than 20 years ago.

But like many Cuban-Americans, he's never forgotten his family struggling to make ends meet back home.

For years, William Allende, 39, has sent $200 every three months to Marquetty, who earns her living singing sentimental songs in Havana bars.

Every time Allende called to let his mother know money was waiting for her at Western Union, she rushed to an office to pick it up. In this country, these 100 branches with the yellow and black signs represent a world of difference in many lives.

Although Marquetty lives in a dreary Old Havana building, these gifts mean she can sometimes afford to eat at a restaurant.

With the global economic crunch hurting tourism, Cuba's main industry, remittances take on a far greater importance than ever before.

Yet these remittances create ironies for Cuba and the United States -- longtime foes.

Remittances help undermine U.S. sanctions intended to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

They also help create inequality in Cuba, a communist country Castro tried to design as free of socioeconomic classes.

However, for Marquetty and an estimated 60 percent of the Cuban population who receive money from relatives living in other countries, these payments boost them into a higher social class.

"They realize that in Cuba, to make life easier, if you've got an extra $400 or $500 in your pocket, you can put a lot more good food on the table," said Enzo Ruberto, president of ICC Corp., a Canadian-based company.

Through its subsidiary Cash2Cuba.com, the company provides money transfers to the island nation.

Neither he nor officials from Western Union would disclose how much money is sent to Cuba, but both said transactions had increased every year.

Some experts say it may be as high as $800 million to $1 billion annually in the past few years.

The impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could have created a drop in remittances to between $500 million and $650 million last year, estimates Hans de Salas-del Valle, a research associate at the University of Miami's Cuba Transition Project Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

"These payments mean so much because in socialist Cuba, workers earn such paltry salaries. Cuban doctors, for example, earn as little as $20 to $30 a month," said Luis Locay, economist at the University of Miami.

Remittances also include the money Cuban-Americans stash in suitcases and deliver to their family members during trips home or money sent via mules, hired cash carriers.

With remittances, Cubans can afford to eat much more than their monthly government rations.

The ration list is meager, with each person allotted six eggs, six pounds of rice and a quarter pound of ground beef mixed with soy.

Plenty of sugar and 12 ounces of coffee are included on the list, as those are two of the few items Cuba produces in abundance.

Those monthly rations can get a person through 10 days of the month, said de Salas-del Valle, adding, "What do you do for the other 20 days of the month?"

They helped make up for the financial aid lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

"They were on a life-support system with Moscow holding the plug," said Larry Pascal, a partner with Haynes and Boone, a Dallas law firm.

When the money stopped flowing from the Soviets, the Cuban economy went into a tailspin.

Many people lost their jobs, and everyone received even smaller rations. In 1993, Castro legalized the use of the U.S. dollar, thus encouraging Cuban exiles to send their families money.

The money Cubans receive now can be spent in the black market or at state-owned grocery stores, which garner most of the cash.

That is a source of controversy for many Cuban-American exiles who don't want to see any financial support flowing to the Castro regime.

"The notion is that with the desire of helping their own relatives, they're also giving aid and help and support to the Castro regime," said Locay, whose family escaped Cuba when he was 6.

That's why bumper stickers saying "Don't support the regime. Stop sending money to Cuba" are common in Miami, where 840,000 Cuban-Americans live.

But many Cubans continue to send money because every U.S. dollar eases the daily burden of survival.

A common joke on the island is that a Cuban wakes up facing only two problems every day: lunch and dinner.

John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, doubts estimates of $1 billion sent last year from Cubans living abroad to their homeland is correct.

After all, the majority of Cubans living abroad reside in the United States. And these 1.2 million Cuban-Americans can only send $300 every three months to Cuba, according to a law passed under President Clinton's administration in 1999.

Regardless of how much is sent, it creates a social divide between the haves and have-nots of Cuba. And that division is often along racial lines.

When Castro took control of Cuba in 1959, promising equality, more than half of the population was white. Many fled to the United States, and about 90 percent of Cuban-Americans are white.

But inequality seems to reign on the island, with whites more likely to receive remittance checks than blacks and those of mixed race, even though today blacks and mixed-race persons make up 62 percent of the island's 11 million people, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Afro-Cubans tend to be more impoverished, said de Salas-del Valle, an issue the government glosses over.

Outside a Western Union branch in Havana, the few people who picked up money from their relatives in Miami or New Jersey were white.

Marquetty is one of the small group of blacks who receive money from the United States. But these days, she's receiving less money. Last year her son had to tighten his belt because of the weakening U.S. economy.

In October, Allende could only send his mother $50, so she did what little she could. This practicer of the Afro-Cuban religion of Yoruba spent the money on religious items to help pray for her son to earn more.

Cuba - Saddam and Fidel are birds of a feather*** Despite existing half a world apart, Iraqis and Cubans have many things in common. Both are ruled by autocratic tyrants, both are poor and hungry, both must watch what they say about their leaders and both are denied ordinary human rights.

With the world's attention focused on the war in Iraq, Fidel Castro appears to be taking the opportunity to make life even more difficult for Cubans who don't agree with him. In recent days he has been clamping down on their activities and making dozens of nighttime arrests on trumped-up charges.

Pro-democracy dissidents, journalists and intellectuals are being seized at gunpoint and their homes searched. Some face 20-year sentences for their alleged crimes. Castro has also forbidden U.S. diplomats to travel freely about the island. ***

To her communism is just another political party and desperate people dream of eating in resturants

Actually, my post was a bit tongue in cheek, as I am sure you recognized.

Truthfully, (and I will catch hell for this) I think we should end the blockade against Cuba.

It has been over 40 years, castro is not going away. Why not open up the island to all and allow Cubans to have the money to allow them to taste freedom?

I also have a bigger philosophical problem, which is: I do not feel that the government has any right to tell me where, or where not, I can choose to go.

If I wish to visit Cuba (mind you, under Castro, I would choose to boycott Cuba, but that is MY choice) then I should have the right to do so.

Actually, my post was a bit tongue in cheek, as I am sure you recognized.

Yes.

When a country is bent on our destruction, I tend to error on the side of caution. Sent and spent dollars in Cuba go directly into Castro's pocket, freeing him up to support terrorism and oppression around the world. Our government has an obligation to protect us from these actions. The world is free to trade with Castro, most choose not to after accepting so many bad debts. The man owns a slave state. He turns a profit and the people scavenge to live.

Free education (Castro boasts that even Cuba's prostitutes are educated) and free health care (if you have dollars for medicine) in Cuba is a sick joke. He censors what people can read, jails people who want some hint of change. He restricts travel. Why can't people be allowed to travel? Castro sends doctors, teachers, trainers to third world countries to expand his reach. The people of Cuba are his to barter. They live or die on his order.

Members of the Monroe County Swat team arrest a man believed to be the hijacker of a Cuban Airliner at the Monroe County Airport in Key West, Fla., Tuesday, April 1, 2003. The plane was jijacked as it was leaving the Isle of Youth in Cuba, Monday. After stopping to refuel in Havana, the plane landed in Key West with all 32 passengers and crew aboard. (AP Photo/Monroe County Sheriff's Dept., Becky Harris)

Hijacked Cuban plane lands safely in Florida AP - 4/2/2003 - [Full Text] KEY WEST, Fla. -- A Cuban Airlines plane hijacked by a man claiming to have two grenades landed safely at Key West International Airport yesterday and the man then surrendered, officials said.

The hijacker was carrying a small boy when he left the plane, Key West police spokesman Steve Torrence said. The man, wearing a red jacket with ''America'' stitched in white on the back, was taken into FBI custody.

A bomb squad removed what appeared to be two grenades from the plane and officers were attempting to determine if they were genuine, he said.

The AN-24 plane landed at 11:34 a.m., about 50 minutes after it took off from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. Some passengers had safely left the aircraft in Havana, but FAA spokesman Christopher White said 25 passengers and six crew members were still on board when the plane landed in Florida. The crew had been in contact with air traffic controllers in Miami during the flight, White said.

Major Ed Thomas of the North American Aerospace Defense Command said earlier that the Air Force had scrambled two F-15 Eagles from Homestead Air Force Reserve Base to escort the plane to Key West. It was the second hijacking from Cuba to Florida in less than a month. The plane was hijacked late Monday on a flight from Cuba's small Isle of Youth to Havana. Cuban authorities originally reported six children among the 46 people aboard the hijacked craft.

The hijacker demanded to be flown to Florida, but the plane first went to Havana because it didn't have enough fuel to make it to the United States, Cuban authorities had said. Some passengers left the plane at Havana nearly 12 hours after the man seized control. Two separate groups of as many as two dozen passengers, including a woman holding a small child, jumped from an open rear hatch into the arms of emergency workers.

Shortly after daybreak, a tank truck appeared to be refueling the craft. It would be extremely difficult for an average Cuban to get access to grenades in communist-run Cuba, where such weapons are heavily guarded by the military. It was also unclear how anyone would get a pair of grenades through the heavy security checks at Cuba's airports, especially in light of last month's hijacking on the same route. A government statement blamed the hijacking on what Havana says is the lax treatment that six other suspected hijackers received last month after forcing a twin-engine DC-3 from Cuba to Key West at knifepoint March 19.

The suspects in the earlier hijack were charged with conspiracy to seize an aircraft by force and violence and face a minimum of up to 20 years in federal prison. A judge granted them bail -- which is what angered the Cuban government -- but they remain behind bars because they have been unable to come up with the money.

The DC-3 carried 25 passengers and a crew of six. Sixteen of those aboard later opted to return to Cuba and the only non-Cuban on the flight, an Italian, was released in the United States. The rest of the passengers and crew members opted to stay in the United States under a US immigration policy that allows Cubans who reach American soil to stay and seek legal residency after a year. [End]

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