Thomas Herzfeld's clients may have been the first to profit from President Barack Obama's decision to ease sanctions on Cuba. In the hours after Washington liberalized rules on visits to Cuba and U.S. telecommunications ventures there, investors flocked to Herzfeld's Caribbean Basin Fund, which invests in companies that could gain from a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations, and shares jumped by 41%. "There will be a boom in Cuba and throughout the Caribbean" as Havana opens up, Herzfeld says. "The entire country will have to be rebuilt."
His investors may also be among the few to see any quick benefit from the business opening the White House announced on Apr. 13. The Obama initiative permits only Cuban Americans, and not all U.S. residents, to travel to Cuba; and it welcomes the licensing only of telecommunications and a few other companies, rather than a broader array of businesses that Obama might have included. "I'm sure there was a measure of disappointment" among Cuba's leaders, says Anya Landau French, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute in Washington. "They probably expected more in terms of engagement."
Havana certainly didn't seem to be overwhelmed. "The measure easing restrictions on trips in and of itself is positive, but minimal," longtime leader Fidel Castro wrote on Apr. 14 in Juventud Rebelde, a daily published by the Communist Party's youth wing. "Many others are needed." It remains to be seen whether Castro's brother Raúl—who took over as President last year—will embrace Obama's gesture by issuing licenses now permitted under U.S. rules to U.S. cell-phone, Internet, and satellite-television companies.
The trade embargo, slapped on Cuba in 1962, has long been the most contentious issue between the two neighbors. Washington hoped it would turn the people against Castro, but Cuba muddled through with a helping hand from Moscow. After that aid dried up, many Cubans could barely put dinner on the table. Then in 2000, Washington allowed U.S. companies to sell limited quantities of meat, grain, and medical equipment to Cuba. Over the years, though, Castro has been able to spin the embargo as evidence of "cruel" U.S. policies that use human suffering as a means of political pressure.
Source : www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2009/gb20090414_845484.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+in
His investors may also be among the few to see any quick benefit from the business opening the White House announced on Apr. 13. The Obama initiative permits only Cuban Americans, and not all U.S. residents, to travel to Cuba; and it welcomes the licensing only of telecommunications and a few other companies, rather than a broader array of businesses that Obama might have included. "I'm sure there was a measure of disappointment" among Cuba's leaders, says Anya Landau French, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute in Washington. "They probably expected more in terms of engagement."
Havana certainly didn't seem to be overwhelmed. "The measure easing restrictions on trips in and of itself is positive, but minimal," longtime leader Fidel Castro wrote on Apr. 14 in Juventud Rebelde, a daily published by the Communist Party's youth wing. "Many others are needed." It remains to be seen whether Castro's brother Raúl—who took over as President last year—will embrace Obama's gesture by issuing licenses now permitted under U.S. rules to U.S. cell-phone, Internet, and satellite-television companies.
The trade embargo, slapped on Cuba in 1962, has long been the most contentious issue between the two neighbors. Washington hoped it would turn the people against Castro, but Cuba muddled through with a helping hand from Moscow. After that aid dried up, many Cubans could barely put dinner on the table. Then in 2000, Washington allowed U.S. companies to sell limited quantities of meat, grain, and medical equipment to Cuba. Over the years, though, Castro has been able to spin the embargo as evidence of "cruel" U.S. policies that use human suffering as a means of political pressure.
Source : www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2009/gb20090414_845484.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+in
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