China Grants Credit to Cuba to Build Port Terminal in Santiago
HAVANA TIMES — China granted Cuba several new loans on Tuesday, including one for the construction of a port terminal in Santiago de Cuba, according to the agreements signed during the visit to the island by Chinese President Xi Jinping, reported dpa news.
The loans from Peking are interest-free, while there are also new trade agreements and donations. The official Cuban media did not disclose the amounts involved.
The new lines of credit for Cuba add to the loans and investment agreements granted by China to Venezuela and Argentina during the earlier legs of the trip of President Xi Jinping to the region. Havana and Santiago de Cuba are his last stops before returning to China later Wednesday.
The governments of Beijing and Havana signed a total of 29 agreements to enhance cooperation and economic relations, according to information released by the state television.
The first “concessional credit line” will be aimed at “building a multipurpose terminal in the port of Santiago de Cuba,” states the text of the agreement.
Other loans are meant to postpone payment of the Cuban debt with Beijing and make possible the installing of digital television on the island, which is being carried out with Chinese technology.
Other contracts provide for cooperation in the sugar and oil industries as well as Cuba’s sale to China of nickel derivatives.
Xi took part in official talks in the afternoon on Tuesday with his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro. In the morning he visited former President Fidel Castro, active in recent days with foreign policy matters.
Xi gave Fidel Castro a bronze bust of 175 kilograms depicting the Cuban revolutionary in his youth.
In his first visit to Cuba as head of state, Xi was granted the Jose Marti order, the highest distinction awarded by the Cuban state.
The Chinese leader travels on Wednesday to Santiago de Cuba, from where he will return to his country. Cuba’s second largest city, located in the east of the country, is still recovering from the devastating hurricane “Sandy” in October 2012.
Before reaching Cuba, the Chinese leader was in Venezuela and Argentina. Last week he also participated in the summit of the emerging group of BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) held in Fortaleza and Brasilia.
The BRICS group approved the creation of two alternative institutions to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), focused on their interests.
In Venezuela, Xi and President Maduro signed 38 agreements that include the sharp increase in the South American country’s oil sales to China.
Caracas will go from providing the current amount of 524,000 barrels per day to nearly double. The increase will be covered by a new line of Chinese credit of US $4 billion, which should ensure the supply of one million barrels of oil per day through 2016.
Xi also announced in Buenos Aires investments of almost $7 billion for the construction of two hydroelectric dams and the modernization of the railway.
Do you really think Mr. Downey that the Castro regime would change it’s policies even if the embargo was lifted? I oppose the embargo because it is in my view counter-productive to US interests, but unlike Mr. Goodrich, I do not think that the people of Cuba would have a better life. The embargo does not result in the Castro regime opposing purchases from the US by the Universal Trade Management Corporation SA – Visit any of the shops including those owned by Gaviota (Cuban military owned) and you will find shelves bearing US products. IF I were the Castros I would forbid purchases by government agencies of US products. “Reason” does not apply in Cuba – and it is necessary to visit there to know the truth.
China does not have friends it has supplicants. The objective is clearly power and any “help” it offers comes with strings atttached. If you doubt that, ask the “partners” in the ASEAN group. Ask Vietnam about the Chinese drilling for oil in Vietnames waters! Like all bullies, China is agreeable as long as it gets it’s way!
Mr. Downey, you insult Cuba by describing it as “defenseless”. With over 35,000 currently serving in the military, with a record of military involvement in 13 other countries and including participating in the Yum Kippur war, with a history of intervention in Angola for 13 years it is grossly inaccurate to describe Cuba as defenseless. Yes, the military is an outstanding example of Parkinson’s Law – with a multitude of high ranking officers – many of them as old as President Raul Castro Ruz and with uniforms bearing almost as many medals as Breschnev. Also there are the commercial activities of Gaviota to consider. It is managed by Colonel Luis Alberto Rodriguez, the son-in-law of the President. Gaviota is a holding company for the Cuban Defense Ministry and owns almost 25% of the hotel rooms in Cuba. It also owns Aerogaviota and operates civilian aircraft.
Get with the facts Mr. Downey.
“And America wonders why no one in the world likes them??” No we don’t. In fact, I think the US still does OK in the popularity contest department. At least it would seem so based on the immigration requests we receive.(#1 in the world) The Castro regime, despite the subsidies from only a handful of countries, forgiven loans, and various and sundry freebies, continues to decline economically, socially, and demographically. |Do the work and check recent declines in GDP, population growth, agricultural output, and even sports. Lefties like you refuse to see the hard facts that belie these truths and appear to prefer to foist Cuba upon some pedestal of hope for a world that has never existed. Your blind loyalty to the socialist utopia, the New Man and all the other bullsh*t that goes along with it is admirable. Little by little Cuba is transforming into a society much like what exists in eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. A small group of “Haves” and a large group of “Have-nots”. Worse yet, these economic demarcations are occurring along racial lines in Cuba. Cuba is NOT becoming more socialist, more equal, more color-blind and less capitalistic. On the contrary, the opposite is happening. No one wants Cuba to “bend over” for the US. Yes, Cuba is going to “take it in the shorts” but they are going to do it to themselves.
Indeed
The Revolution was NOT a failure…..the fat AZZ corrupt Batista was forced out….along with his rich American THUGS…..Mafia????……and never returned…..it has been difficult…still difficult……the USA and the embargo hasn’t helped….not sure Russia helped either….maybe??? China is smarter and will help….we will see….sure taking a long time though….
Common sense dictates otherwise. I don’t think anyone needs to travel to Cuba to know that, without America’s interventionist and restrictive economic policies aimed at destablizing their economy, the island would be in much better shape economically. That only stands to reason, regardless if someone has been there or not.
Moses, you kill me! Time to call it? In your dreams. Cuba will never bend over for the US again. Never! The rest of the world is willing to do all they can to make sure that doesn’t happen too. The number of countries and individuals who support Cuba and the Cuban people is only surpassed by the number who can’t stand America’s arrogant determination to inflict spiteful cruelty on a defenseless nation. And America wonders why no one in the world likes them?? Give your head a shake as you continue to gloat in your delusion of grandeur.
Do any of you realize that this port property in Santiago was confiscated from an entity with American owners and has a certified US claim? That is, it is legally claimed by an American entity. Obviously, the Chinese didn’t… wait ’til they find out.
Was this relevent to the article? Are the books you recommend available in the libraries of Cuba?
You say Mr. Goodrich that:
: “Were the USG to call off its war on the people of Cuba, THEN you’d see a much better Cuba.”
You of all people would be unable to confirm any difference as you have never been there. I again suggest that you pay a visit, stay in casa particulars (Reservations on cubaparticular.com) instead of blethering on about what for you is currently the unknown.
This is Mr. Goodrich’s comment upon China providing loans of credit to Cuba! What is the relevance?
You’re kidding right? In 1962, Che Guevara predicted that Cubans would soon have a standard of living even higher than Americans. How did that work out? But for the Soviet handouts and now the lifeline from Venezuela, Cuba would have collapsed. As it is, even with remittances from the US exceeding 10% of the Cuban GDP, the Cuban economy continues to circle the drain. Face it Wayne, the patient is flatlining. Time to call it.
Nay, not so sayeth the angel to Abou ben Adem .
If you’d like an uplifting view of the future just 20 years from now , try reading “Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think”. Peter Diamantis and Robert Kotler.and the scientific back-up for it found in Ray Kurzweil’s ( head of engineering at Google ) “The Singularity Is Near ”
The ongoing and rapidly accelerating explosion of super-human AI and computing capacity will lead us to a golden age of humanity and in what will seem an impossibly short time to those who fail to grasp the exponential nature of the technological advances that will take us there.
I have found that very few people can grasp this vision without reading at least ” The Singularity….” and being able to wrap their heads around Moore’s Law and how it guarantees this golden future of plenty.
SO….if you’re depressed or feeling like your future and that of your children and grandchildren will be grim, that humanity is about to go off into extinction as have some 99% of all things that have ever lived on this planet, take a step in the right direction and look into these books .
It changed my perspective on the future-already one of democratic hopes – to one that is very secure in its optimism
but one in which the time frame for the necessary underlying developments is drastically shortened by the dead-on reliability of Moore’s Law .
Both books explain how capitalism will be affected by these sci-fi like technological advances but as all the authors are stone capitalists and multi-millionaire geniuses, it is only by reading between their lines that the end of capitalism can be seen happening in about 20 years at the latest.
You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Cheer up.
The USG’s policy in Latin America remains in attempting to prevent and /or overthrow democratic and leftist/socialist movements which are antithetical to preserving the totalitarianism of capitalism in the region.
That there are presently bigger fish to fry in no way ends this century old foreign policy mandate that began with the U.S./European invasion and attempted overthrow of the just-born Soviet Union.
That said, the decidedly leftward swing of Latin American elections has been met with only the usual propaganda ( lies) in the corporate media and the support for dictatorial military coups in Venezuela ( failed ) and Honduras ( succeeded and Honduras is now the murder capitol of the region with people /children fleeing the resulting violence and poverty).
The long -held policies of the U.S.G in Latin America and the Caribbean of enforcing dictatorships, enforcing neo-liberal capitalism and crushing human rights movements has resulted in the tidal wave of refugees on the U.S. southwestern borders that the news is so full of.
So.. U.S. foreign policies of the past and the present are what have created the conditions we now see.
IMO, those policies will continue in one way or another, until the death of capitalism some 15 years hence.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Cuban revolution has survived some 54 years of U.S. government attempts to crush it.
This is something none of the other 60 or so countries into which the USG has intervened to overthrow democratic processes since WWII has been able to do.
The only reason it has survived is specifically because of its autochthonous economy and government structures.
Were the USG to call off its war on the people of Cuba, THEN you’d see a much better Cuba.
Having the world’s most powerful and mean-spirited empire war upon any country creates totalitarian steps necessary to counter the tactics used by this existential threat to the Cuban (and any) movement .
Maintaining a friendly relationship with China is necessary for survival.
When and if Chinese aid is no longer necessary for survival, we shall see how China ( the best friend of the USG) fits into Cuba’s future .
“Failed revolution”….says who?…..the Corrupt a Yanks were thrown out…and are still out……it ain’t over yet
Well now its China’s turn to prop up this failed revolution in Cuba.
the US has no real policy in latin america. all is being concentrated on the middle east and ukraine.
But surely everything is doom and gloom. Isn’t it?