Business & Economy

The US blockade on Cuba continues strong with the latest casualty being the French shipping and transport giant CMA CGM. The firm was fined US $374,400 for doing business with Washington’s eternal Cold War enemy in Havana as well as Iran and Sudan.

A new large-scale corruption scandal involving yet another Cuban government ministry, Informatics and Telecommunictions, is unfolding today in Havana.

A host of executives in Cuba’s government controlled airline and pharmaceutical industries were sentenced to 3 to 13 prison terms for corruption, announced official sources on Friday.

Cuba received more than 1.5 million tourists during the first half of 2011. The goal for the industry is to reach 2.7 million by the end of the year.

A large caravan of humanitarian aid for Cuba crosses over the US-Mexico border at Reynosa on Wednesday en route to the Gulf Port City of Tampico and a boat loading for destination Havana.

A Havana court has found a French businessman guilty of money laundering, trafficking of foreign exchange and tax evasion, and eight Cuban accomplices of falsifying documents and bribery, reports the official Cuban press on Wednesday.

Tomas Benitez Hernandez, 66, is Cuba’s new minister of Basic Industry, a key government post that includes the state controlled oil, gas and mining industries and the electric company.

Long time advocate for restoring the rights of all US Americans to travel to Cuba, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) successfully added an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations bill that would require the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the regulatory body that enforces the Cuba travel ban, to: provide a report on pending license applications related to education exchanges.

Cuban President Raul Castro met on Sunday afternoon with visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinging. “A total of 13 agreements in areas of mutual interest were signed at the conclusion of the official talks,” noted Granma newspaper without giving any details.