Latest news with #Havana-based
Reuters
26-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Cuban domestic freight traffic plummets in sign of deepening crisis
HAVANA, March 26 (Reuters) - Cuban freight traffic plunged 19% in 2024, the government's statistics agency said this week, the latest sign that a grueling economic crisis which began five years ago is growing worse. The statistic measures transportation by ground, sea and air in Cuba, and is sometimes used as a proxy for economic activity. The crisis, triggered by tightened U.S. sanctions during President Donald Trump's first term and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to severe shortages of food, fuel, and other essential goods. Cuba's government has yet to release official figures on gross domestic product in 2024, which since 2019 has declined 12%. The National Statistics and Information Office, opens new tab reported that all forms of freight traffic had fallen to a combined 46.5 million metric tons last year, down from 57.5 million in 2023 and 68 million in 2019. 'Freight transport is the pulse of an economy,' Ricardo Torres, a Cuban-born economist at American University in Washington, said. 'What this tells us is that Cuba is going through a deep economic crisis." Torres said that freight traffic had fallen to levels not seen in 20 years, reflecting a sharp decline in sugar and food production, and more recently, the movement of fuel and construction materials. The Communist-run country is heavily dependent on imports of food, fuel and other goods, but has experienced a precipitous fall in export earnings needed to purchase imports. Meanwhile, the government has acknowledged that its market-oriented reforms have moved too slowly. 'It is evident that an economy suffering fuel shortages and hours-long blackouts all year long will see impacts to commerce,' Havana-based economist Omar Everleny said, referring to the sharp decline in freight traffic. Everleny and other economists are awaiting official statistics on economic output, but say freight traffic tallies paint a dire picture. 'I estimate a decline (in GDP) of at least another 4%,' Everleny said.
Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Vintage cars and vibrant culture: Inside a Cuba tour for US travelers
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Having enjoyed a European tour with the company several years ago, from Prague to Vienna and Budapest, we were eager to try its Havana-based trip. And now, back home in Hingham, we find ourselves happily reliving our Cuban experience. Advertisement Our tour started in Miami. After a night in an airport-area hotel, we got to know others among the two-dozen passport-and-visa-bearing Tauck customers ready to make American Airlines' brief Havana flight. Also on our flight were many Cuban Americans, who can freely visit the island to bring supplies to family members there. (Cuba's economy continues to struggle, for a variety of reasons.) Once on the island, we boarded the coach our group would use throughout our visit, and met Cuban-based guide Hector, who would also serve at times as translator. On the trip's overall agenda were programs with community educational and arts organizations, an architectural walking tour, visits to an art studio, museums, historic sites, and a day-long trip to the island's scenic western province, known especially for its tobacco-growing. (Our Tauck tour director, Laura Nunez, advised that past Tauck trips had included stops in eastern Cuba, and said the company hopes to return there as economic conditions in that region improve.) Day One in Havana featured a delightful lunch at Cocina de Lilliam — a long-established 'paladar,' as the city's privately-owned, family-style restaurants are called. Our tour included nearly all meals, primarily at paladars, where the service is generally family-style. Featured were a variety of local fish and lobster, along with pork, chicken, and beef dishes. A dinner one evening was at La Esperanza paladar, occupying the first floor of a beautiful Cuban home where the owner lives upstairs. In both paladars and restaurants, live music featuring Cuban styles and rhythms kept us immersed in the rich culture of the island nation. Advertisement Roy Harris (green shirt) admiring architecture in Old Havana. Eileen McIntyre As we drove through Havana, heading for the hotel that would be our main base, we were struck by the many buildings with severely deteriorated facades, outnumbering well-kept-up structures on some city streets. (Access to imported materials, along with the economic conditions, make building-maintenance challenging.) Over the next several days we'd visit neighborhoods that included the sites of diplomatic embassies, and the 'Old Havana' historic area. While those areas were very well-maintained — we found them the exception. Our group stayed in Havana's Hotel Parque Central — a Hilton prior to 1959 — which is again privately owned and comfortably met our needs. (Tauck chose it both because it was not on the blacklist of hotels and other Cuban institutions maintained by the US State Department, and because it had a reliable generator to deal with rolling blackouts that are part of Cuban life — because of challenges in importing fuel for the generation of electricity.) Immediately catching our eye on the streets of Havana — and from our hotel's view — were the many vintage cars, mostly mid-20th-century American models, for which the country is famous. Hector explained that while importing more-modern cars is now allowed, most Cubans cannot yet afford them. An early visit on our tour was to a privately-owned auto-restoration business, where two near-mint-condition old American cars were on display. The owner, Raymond, proudly operates his business in a garage once operated by his grandfather. He also mentors car owners belonging to an antique-auto club. Such cars are often known as 'Frankensteins,' we learned, because of the variety of parts under the hood that keep them running. Advertisement 'We'll take this one!' The authors with a vintage car. Courtesy photo While our trip touched on expected topics associated with Cuba — like cigars, rum, salsa dancing, baseball, and Ernest Hemingway's time on the island — we were most touched by the hours we enjoyed at intimate programs involving community and cultural organizations. Among them: BEYOND ROOTS, a center for the Afro-Cuban community, where we learned about the importance of Santeria, a Cuban form of an African religion, in the country's culture; and HAVANA COMPAS DANCE, a dance company that mixes Cuban and contemporary dance rhythms with flamenco and other Spanish dance styles, and percussion drawing on the island's African traditions. We also came to appreciate important 20th-century Cuban artists at the beautiful galleries of Havana's National Museum of Fine Arts. And history came alive as we walked around Revolutionary Square — imagining the large crowds that once stood for hours to hear Fidel Castro. A walking tour of Old Havana, guided by a local architect, covered key aspects of the island's history as a Spanish colony, as well as the important restoration work on historic structures begun after a 1982 Heritage Law was passed. Because of Roy's ancestral history with tobacco farming in Colonial Virginia, we found our visit to western Cuba's rich agricultural Vinales valley, in the Pinar Del Rio province, of particularly interest. The beautiful valley — a UNESCO World Heritage site — is surrounded by stunning, rounded limestone hills, called mogotes. At a piece-work factory we saw how tobacco leaves are manually sorted, with the most-perfect leaves saved for use as outer wrappers of cigars, while less-perfect leaves are used for inner cigar portions. Broken or partial leaves get set aside for use in cigarettes. From a farm owner who showed us how to hand-roll a cigar, we learned that the tobacco season runs from seedbed in October to harvesting and processing in March. Farmers, we were told, are required to sell 90 percent of the tobacco they grow to the government. Advertisement Ernest Hemingway's Finca Vigia home. Roy Harris and Eileen McIntyre Another highlight: Hemingway's Finca Vigia home, about a half-hour drive from Havana. As the two of us years ago had toured the late author's home in Key West, Fla., we were pleased to learn about his life in Cuba — with rooms on view 'just as Hemingway left them,' the docent told us. Our time in Cuba touched us deeply and taught us much. And it also offered moments of exhilaration — including the fun we had being driven in vintage convertibles through the Havana Forest and along the coastline. If you go . . . Both a Cuban visa, and local medical-insurance, are required — along with a signed US affidavit regarding the 'People to People' nature of your visit. (A tour company like Tauck likely will handle such logistics, along with booking the flights and hotel.) Check on additional vaccinations you may want to get. (We visited a travel clinic for these, though they were not required to enter Cuba.) Depending on the time of year and your itinerary, you may want to bring mosquito spray, as Cuba and some other Caribbean nations have seen an increase in dengue fever. Visitors, as well as the Cuban people, can freely access the internet, but US telecommunications companies do not have direct service in Cuba for phone or text. The all-inclusive Tauck tour we booked has a current price of $5,990 per person. Finally, be aware that Americans are not allowed to bring back any Cuban cigars or rum. Roy Harris, a retired journalist who spent 24 years with The Wall Street Journal, is the author of Pulitzer's Gold: A Century of Public Service Journalism. His wife, Eileen McIntyre, a local history buff, is a retired corporate communications executive.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Western Union suspends money transfers to Cuba
MIAMI - Financial services company Western Union has suspended money transfers to Cuba after the U.S. State Department reinstated sanctions on Cuban military-run businesses, a move that is already affecting Cuban American families who send financial support to relatives on the island. Impact on Cuban families For Carolina Yarini, who regularly sends money to her aunts in Cuba, the decision is personal. "I feel bad for me and I feel bad for everybody else that sends money to their family," Yarini told CBS News Miami. Her relatives in Cuba typically receive at least $100 per month from family in South Florida, money that many rely on for basic necessities. Despite the hardship, Yarini supports the policy change. "I think this is the beginning of a big step that our President Trump is doing to bring freedom to Cuba," she said. Policy reversal and sanctions U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently reversed a decision made by former President Joe Biden to lift sanctions on Cuban military-controlled businesses. Among the affected entities is FINCIMEX, the Havana-based financial company that processes money transfers to the island, the Miami Herald reported. "Western Union closes its doors because they cannot deal with that corporation anymore," said Orlando Gutierrez, leader of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, a South Florida-based anti-communist organization. Gutierrez argued that blocking money flow to the Cuban government weakens the regime. "The weaker that regime is, the stronger the Cuban people will be in regaining their freedom so they have a better life," he said. Western Union's response Western Union acknowledged the policy change in a statement to CBS News Miami's partner, the Miami Herald. "The company is aware of the U.S. State Department's plans to reissue and update the Cuba Restricted List. We will comply with all applicable laws and regulations as it pertains to this list," Brad Jones, Western Union spokesperson, said as part of a written statement. Mixed reactions in South Florida While many Cuban Americans depend on remittances to support their families, some agreed with the restrictions. Yarini believes the Cuban government profits too much from the money sent by exiles. "Most of the money goes to the dictatorship," she said. "There's a certain percentage, so it's like you're feeding a system and it's okay." Breaking down the best commercials from the Super Bowl Here's what could be behind surging flu cases, plus symptoms to watch New poll on Trump approval rating as steel, aluminum tariffs set
CBS News
11-02-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Western Union suspends money transfers to Cuba following U.S. sanctions
MIAMI - Western Union has suspended money transfers to Cuba after the U.S. State Department reinstated sanctions on Cuban military-run businesses, a move that is already affecting Cuban American families who send financial support to relatives on the island. Impact on Cuban families For Carolina Yarini, who regularly sends money to her aunts in Cuba, the decision is personal. "I feel bad for me and I feel bad for everybody else that sends money to their family," Yarini told CBS News Miami. Her relatives in Cuba typically receive at least $100 per month from family in South Florida, money that many rely on for basic necessities. Despite the hardship, Yarini supports the policy change. "I think this is the beginning of a big step that our President Trump is doing to bring freedom to Cuba," she said. Policy reversal and sanctions U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently reversed a decision made by former President Joe Biden to lift sanctions on Cuban military-controlled businesses. Among the affected entities is FINCIMEX, the Havana-based financial company that processes money transfers to the island. "Western Union closes its doors because they cannot deal with that corporation anymore," said Orlando Gutierrez, leader of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, a South Florida-based anti-communist organization. Gutierrez argues that blocking money flow to the Cuban government weakens the regime. "The weaker that regime is, the stronger the Cuban people will be in regaining their freedom so they have a better life," he said. Western Union's response Western Union acknowledged the policy change in a statement to CBS News Miami's partner, the Miami Herald: "The company is aware of the U.S. State Department's plans to reissue and update the Cuba Restricted List. We will comply with all applicable laws and regulations as it pertains to this list." -- Brad Jones, Western Union Spokesperson. Mixed reactions in South Florida While many Cuban Americans depend on remittances to support their families, some agree with the restrictions. Yarini believes the Cuban government profits too much from the money sent by exiles. "Most of the money goes to the dictatorship," she said. "There's a certain percentage, so it's like you're feeding a system and it's okay."
