Cuba culture official demoted after NY Times op-ed

HAVANA (AP) — A leading Cuban cultural official said Friday that he has been demoted nearly two weeks after he published an opinion piece in the New York Times that criticized "blatant racism" on the island.

In a phone interview with The Associated Press in Havana, Roberto Zurbano refused to speculate on whether his demotion from publishing director at the influential, government-run Casa de las Americas cultural institute to a lesser role as an analyst was directly linked to the newspaper article, which was harshly criticized by official media.

Zurbano told AP he was angry over his interactions with the Times and accused the paper of "manipulations" of his copy, "inaccuracies in translation" and "ethical violations."

Specifically he complained about the title of the March 23 op-ed: "For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn't Begun." Zurbano said his proposed title suggested rather that the revolution "has not finished."

He said there were other problems with the editing of his piece, but did not give specific instances. And he nonetheless insisted that there was nothing in the article that he wished to retract.

"I continue to think the same ideas. There is still much to discuss about racism," Zurbano said. "That is and will continue to be my battle within and outside of the Casa de las Americas, but always within the revolution."

The last part of that statement echoed Fidel Castro's long-ago admonition on what constitutes acceptable criticism: "Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing."

Contacted by AP, the Times stood by its handling of the article.

"As is the case with all essays we run, we worked very hard to ensure that the wording in the piece was translated properly and accurately reflected the writer's point of view," spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said in a statement. "There were numerous versions of the piece sent back and forth and in the end, Mr. Zurbano, and our contact for him (who speaks fluent English), signed off on the final version.

"We knew that Mr. Zurbano was in a sensitive situation and we are saddened if he has indeed been fired or otherwise faced persecution because of this essay, but we stand by our translation and editing, which was entirely along normal channels," it concluded.

The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the Times essay, Zurbano had harsh words for island authorities' record on race and said that since Afro-Cubans continue to occupy the lower strata of Cuban society, they are least likely to benefit from social and economic reforms being pushed by President Raul Castro.

That surely touched a nerve in the Communist-run government, for which eliminating racism has long been a central tenet. Suggestions of racial inequality are highly sensitive, even if officials up to the president himself have acknowledged that problems remain.

"Raul Castro has recognized the persistence of racism and has been successful in some areas (there are more black teachers and representatives in the National Assembly), but much remains to be done to address the structural inequality and racial prejudice that continue to exclude Afro-Cubans from the benefits of liberalization," Zurbano wrote in his article.

In February, the National Assembly, or parliament, elected an Afro-Cuban president for the first time ever in Esteban Lazo, and officials point to a significant increase in the number of women and Afro-Cubans in leadership positions.

Zurbano told AP that his essay had been attacked by many and touched off "a discussion" about racism in Cuba and the piece itself.

La Jiribilla, Cuba's leading online cultural publication, published a series of critical pieces including one in which historian Silvio Castro accused Zurbano of being misinformed about race relations before the 1959 Cuban Revolution and said his essay appeared "in the wrong publication and with the wrong language."

Others defended Zurbano.

Noted singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez for one, called for "an airing of ideas" without "ganging up" on the author.

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Tough times ahead in post-Chavez Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Doing business in post-Hugo Chavez Venezuela is not for the faint of heart.

Thousands of companies suffer under currency controls that all but deny them the U.S. dollars they need to import vital items into this oil-rich country, from food to cars to spare parts — even gasoline. Venezuelan firms must sell their wares at state-controlled prices that don't reflect the 22 percent inflation rate, the highest in Latin America. Even Venezuela's socialist government admits the controls don't work — but its attention is focused on the April 14 election to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.

It's a largely improvised economic policy that, despite oil earnings, has turned people's lives upside down and produced shortages of flour, coffee, butter and medicines. It's also a mess that will immediately challenge whoever becomes the president of this 28 million-person country.

Jeni Suarez, a 51-year-old Caracas homemaker, experienced the crisis first hand after waiting three months for a colonoscopy at a public hospital. When she got there, doctors told her they needed new parts from abroad to perform the procedure, and the deliveries weren't coming any time soon because the hospital didn't get dollars from Venezuela's government to buy them.

"I have an intense pain, and I don't know what to do," Suarez said after the appointment at Jose Maria Vargas Hospital.

Such economic headaches have, in fact, defined much of the late president's legacy here.

Chavez imposed draconian currency controls a decade ago to punish business leaders who had mounted a crippling opposition strike. He was also trying to stem the flight of dollars abroad as political instability spooked investors.

"The policy of currency controls is very negative for the country and hasn't met any of its objectives," said Alejandro Grisanti, an analyst at investment bank Barclays Capital. "It hasn't stopped capital flight. It hasn't stopped inflation, (and) it has been very costly for the treasury."

Neither Chavez successor Nicolas Maduro nor opposition candidate Gov. Henrique Capriles has delivered specific proposals to address the crisis, said Alejandro Gutierrez, an economics professor at the University of the Andes. The most effective solution would likely involve unpopular measures such as a mass devaluation of the currency to spur exports, or an end to price controls.

Capriles has spent much of the campaign trying to assure Chavistas he will not take away their government-funded social programs, while Maduro vows to continue the late leader's legacy, which would include the controls.

"We are facing a transition situation, and they are going to wait until this situation is cleared up," Gutierrez said Monday.

Only Capriles has suggested a possible way of injecting more dollars into the economy: Ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba that began under Chavez.

The late leader had aided his allies by providing oil at preferential terms to more than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuba receives Venezuelan oil worth around $3.2 billion a year, estimates Jorge Pinon, a University of Texas energy analyst. Nicaragua gets about $1.2 billion worth of oil, according to economist Nestor Avendano.

Yet whoever wins the vote won't be able to put off action indefinitely. The wave of national mourning for Chavez and the heated campaign have so far masked the plight of dollar-poor food makers, dairy farmers, ranchers and auto manufacturers. But consumers are feeling the shortages of appliances, automobiles and staples such as flour, coffee, butter and medicines.

Venezuela's automakers are operating at 50 percent capacity because they don't have dollars needed for auto parts made abroad, according to Omar Bautista, president of a national carmakers group that includes Ford, General Motors and Mitsubishi. And foreign suppliers are hesitant to sell to Venezuela because they don't know when or if they'll be paid, Bautista said in remarks reported by Caracas' El Universal newspaper.

"New (parts) shipments are being held back as long as we cannot honor these contracts," Bautista said.

Even as Venezuelans fight for dollars, the country sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, with those exports delivering nearly $1 trillion in revenues to the country since Chavez was elected in 1999.

Thanks to oil, Chavez's government had invested $500 billion on social programs since 1999, according to Planning Minister Jorge Giordani. Venezuela's poverty rate fell from 50 percent in 1999 to 32 percent in 2011 while unemployment dropped from 13 to 8 percent.

After the 2002-03 strike, Chavez began using the enormous influx of dollars as a political weapon, with the government selling businesses limited quantities of dollars at a rate that didn't reflect the bolivar's real black market value. The official rate is now about a quarter of what the dollar sells for on the black market.

At the same time, the government's own dollar supply may be diminishing. Oil income trailed off from $5.6 billion in 2008 to $3.8 billion in 2012, partly because of slumps in production and refining. The government also spent heavily to re-elect Chavez in October and help Maduro's candidacy after the president's March 5 death, further squeezing the dollar supply to private businesses.

As long as government dollar sales are frozen, "foreign exporters are not going to start selling to us," said Carlos Larrazabal, president of one of Venezuela's largest business chambers. "We cannot understand how it can be that we have a country with an oil price of more than 100 dollars per barrel and we have this scarcity of currency."

In a bid to inject some liquidity into the economy — and a tacit admission that the currency controls aren't working — Maduro's interim government held a one-day auction of $200 million last week.

Jorge Roig, vice president of the Fedecamaras business chamber, said the rules for bidders were late in coming, overly complicated and discouraged small and medium-size firms from participating. At least $1 billion more is needed to keep companies rolling, Roig told Caracas' Union Radio on Wednesday.

The Venezuelan Association of Medical, Dental and Laboratory Equipment says its members collectively owe $300 million for past imports, which were suspended in November because they couldn't pay.

"There are no test tubes to collect blood samples. There are no colostomy bags. No electrocardiogram paper. No X-ray plates," said Anerlin Garcia, the group's executive director.

Simon Nobile, president of the Venezuelan Association of Pasta Foods, says more dollars alone won't help. The government also must raise its official prices on hundreds of products because they don't reflect the effects of inflation, he said.

Eleven manufacturers in Nobile's association employ 5,000 people but are close to shutting down because the price of pasta has been frozen for two years. The official selling price of 68 U.S. cents per kilogram (2.2 pounds) makes up only half the production cost, Nobile said. He said firings could happen at his company as early as April.

"If the government doesn't make a decision," he said, "this is the end."

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AP writers James Anderson and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.

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