>From: Gary Bacon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________ >Cuba to cut phone communications with U.S. > >HAVANA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Cuba will cut all phone ties with the United >States from next week in retaliation for American companies' failure to pay >dues charged by the island, Havana announced on Friday. > >A statement from Cuba's Council of State, read on state TV and radio, said >communications would be suspended from Dec. 15. > >In October, Cuba slapped a 10 percent tax on the cost of telephone calls >between the two countries in retaliation against legislation that would let >the United States use frozen Cuban funds. > >Cuba warned at the time that all phone links could be cut if Washington >resisted the tax. > >Under the October decree, Cuba's national phone company, Empresa de >Telecomunicaciones S.A. (ETECSA), a Cuban-Italian joint venture, was to >retain the additional funds generated by the 10 percent tax, which were to >be charged on every minute of all phone calls between the two countries. > >_______________________________________________________ >Holiday hang-up: Cuba to cut phone connection with U.S. >Decision based on companies' failure to pay 10% surcharge >By YVES COLON >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Fidel Castro's government has delivered a lump of coal to Cuban families on >both sides of the Florida Straits for the Christmas holidays, ordering >phone links between the United States and the island cut by Dec. 16. > >A brief announcement published Friday in the Communist Party daily >newspaper Granma said officials made the decision because U.S. companies >have failed to pay a 10 percent surcharge that became effective at the end >of October. > >Havana imposed the tax at the beginning of October in a transparent attempt >to make up $58 million awarded in damages to the Miami relatives of the >Brothers to the Rescue pilots ambushed by Cuban MiGs in 1996. Cuba had >warned then that it would cut phone service if the tax was not paid. > >'INHUMANE' > >"This is inhumane," said María Darias, who has been in the United States >since February and talks to her daughter Magaly in Havana at least twice a >week. "This is taking away my human connection to my daughter." > >Enrique López, a Cuban American who is president of the Coral Gables >communications consultanting firm, AKL Group International, said Cuban >officials made a conscious decision to cut service during the Christmas >holidays, one of the most important to Cuban families who have been apart >for decades. > >"Obviously, they're playing with people's emotions," said López. "For many >people that phone call makes a difference. I expect they will get a >backlash from their own people." > >The Cuban American National Foundation denounced Cuba's phone-cutoff >decision, calling it a "cynical and extortionate" maneuver that >demonstrates how far apart the two countries are from a normal relationship. > >In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker called Cuba's >action "disappointing" and hoped the Havana government would reconsider. > >"It is unfortunate that while the world continues to open up to the people >of Cuba, the Cuban government is threatening to deny Cuban citizens the >ability to talk with family members," Reeker said. > >YEARLONG CUT > >In February 1999, Cuba made a similar cut in direct service that lasted >more than a year, but had little impact because calls from the United >States were routed through third countries. This time, though, the Cuban >government said it is putting in place mechanisms that will impose the >surcharge on those third countries or order them to hang up on all calls >with a U.S. area code to Cuba. > >Several telephone companies, including AT&T, Sprint, Telefonica of Puerto >Rico, and Worldcom, among others, provide telephone service to Cuba. The >majority of calls to the island originate in the U.S. because of better >technology and lower costs. Under normal conditions, Cuba's >telecommunications department and the companies agree on the rate to charge >callers, now an average of 80 to 90 cents a minute, one of the highest >rates in the region despite the island's proximity to the U.S. > >The companies pay Cuba a maximum of 60 cents a minute for every call, a >rate codified in the telecommunications provision of the Cuban Democracy >Act. The companies collect the fees in the United States and pay Cuba its >share -- 45 percent of the $130 million, or about $80 million, generated >each year by the calls. The surcharge would provide Cuba with an additional >$30 million a year in revenue. > >The companies, however, said they could not pay the surcharge without >violating the laws that regulate all economic transactions between the >United States and Cuba. > >Gus Alfonso of AT&T said phone company executives are still waiting to hear >whether they can pay the surcharge from the Office of Foreign Assets >Control (OFAC), a branch of the U.S. Treasury Dept., which administers and >enforces economic and trade sanctions against targeted foreign countries. >### >Staff writer Elaine DeValle contributed to this report >Copyright 2000 Miami Herald > >________________________________________________ >Havana defends move to cut Cuba-U.S. phone links > >HAVANA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Cuba on Saturday defended a decision to suspend >phone links with the United States beginning next week, calling it an >"absolutely legal" move to recover Cuban state funds frozen by the U.S. >authorities. > >The Caribbean island's communist government also warned those in the United >States who had criticized the announced Dec. 15 phone ties cut-off that it >could take "additional adequate measures" to seek repayment of the frozen >funds. > >Both the U.S. government and a leading Cuban exile group had strongly >condemned Havana's announcement Friday that it would cut direct Cuban-U.S. >phone ties in a week's time because of the failure of American >telecommunications companies to pay a new Cuban tax on these phone services. > >The October 25 tax was a retaliation against recent U.S. Congress >legislation allowing the use of Cuban funds frozen in the United States to >compensate the families of Cuban-American pilots killed when their planes >were shot down by a Cuban MiG fighter in 1996. > >Cuba's official Communist Party daily Granma Saturday slammed the U.S. >Congress allocation of the frozen Cuban funds as "arbitrary and unjustified >robbery." > >"The response which our country has given to such a crime has been careful >and moderate," Granma said in a front-page editorial. > >It added Cuba had given time -- a week -- for U.S. authorities to >reconsider their refusal to allow American phone companies to pay the 10 >per cent Cuban phone tax, which Havana wants to apply to calls in both >directions. > >The threatened phone links cut-off -- the second by Cuba in the last two >years -- would hit communications between Cubans on the island and the >large Cuban American community in Florida and elsewhere in the United >States during the approaching Christmas holiday season. > >HEALTH SERVICES TO BENEFIT FROM PHONE TAX > >Granma said Cuba "seeks compensation through an absolutely legal measure," >adding that proceeds from the Cuban phone tax would go towards financing >public health services. > >It recalled that the proposed suspension was only aimed for the moment at >direct Cuba-U.S. phone services and that U.S. phone companies could still >reroute through third countries, as they had during the last communications >cut-off in 1999. > >But, stressing Cuba's right to recover its frozen funds in the United >States, it added: "We could adopt additional adequate measures until these >funds have been repaid." > >The disputed Cuban funds, estimated by Havana at more than $120 million, >represent Cuba's share of communications services provided between the two >countries between 1966 and 1994. The funds were frozen as a result of >Washington's long-running economic embargo against Cuba. > >Cuba blames the U.S. government for the 1996 shooting down of the two small >U.S. registered planes which killed four pilots from Brothers to the >Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group that searched for Cuban rafters >leaving the island. > >Granma repeated the Cuban government position that the pilots killed >belonged to "terrorist groups which countless times have violated our >sovereignty and committed all kinds of misdeeds against our country." > >It rejected as "ridiculous squealing" criticism from the U.S. government >and Cuban exile groups that the Cuban phone-cut off would disrupt >communications between Cuban families divided across the Florida Straits >during the Christmas period. > >"Now they remember Christmas and families," Granma said. > >The newspaper added that successive U.S. authorities and Cuban exiles had >ignored these considerations during 40 years of hostility against Cuba >which had included a U.S. economic embargo and "sabotage, pirate attacks >and terrorist actions." >### >11:35 12-09-00 > > > * ================= * ================= * ================= * >For a comprehensive treatment of the US Foreign Policy in the Americas with >a Focus on Cuba, see The Learning Community Web site at: ><http://www.la.mvla.net/lc.htm> > >I am distributing an e-newsletter of international articles and of >communiques that I receive from people in Cuba--including journalists, US >expatriates, Cuban citizens, and non-Cuban citizens working in Cuba. This >information, along with information from sources in the US, will be sent to >you unless I receive a request from you to remove your name from this list. > >To unsubscribe, simply place the phrase "Please unsubscribe--Cuba >e-newsletter" on the "Subject" line, and be sure that your e-mail address >is listed on the "From" line. > >If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, send me a >message with "Please subscribe--Cuba e-newsletter" on the "Subject" line >and place their e-mail address in the body of the message. > >Gary Bacon ><mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> >eGroups eLerts >It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! >http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976429481/ >---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> > >Post comments to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Send an email to subscribe: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for geopolitics. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
