We Have to Go Back, Kate

We went back to America today. More correctly, we went to Switzerland. That is, we visited the American Interests Section in Cuba, which is formally a part of the Swiss Embassy here. The US doesn't have an actually embassy because we don't have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba. It was a terrific visit (MUCH better than the Egyptian embassy visit where we just got the party line), and I wanted to share with you all some edifying bits of information. This photo is our professor Dr. Brown getting us into the building.


-First of all, the purpose of the US interest section is A) to help US citizens living here; B) to help Cubans who want to visit the US or receive asylum there; C) gather as much information as possible to send to US for analysis, this is especially important right now because Obama is reviewing our policy on Cuba so all the information they can send at this point in time is good. Their job with C, however, is made difficult by the fact that the Cuban government is very closed and cautious, and although the US FSOs try to arrange meetings with people in the Cuban government, the Cubans are slow to do this, try to avoid it, and failing that, the meetings are often denied by the Cuban government anyway. So the US often has to go through third party countries like Spain or Mexico, although they don't get a whole lot more information that we do either.
-The US interest section actually runs an internet cafe in order to give Cubans better access to the internet, and specifically, to international news. They have between 40-45 computers and get 100s of people each day who come in to use them. The one downside for the Cubans is that having visited the American Interest Section can have a negative effect on career mobility; depending on your job, you might have a harder time getting promoted if you've used the internet.
-Also regarding giving Cubans access to news, there's a scrolling news bulletin on the side of the building (although the Cuban gov't erected about 50 flags in front of it in an attempt to block the news. This originally started because the US wanted to use Jose Marti (Cuban national her0) quotes which would improve the US in Cuban eyes. Nowadays, on 4 days of the week, they choose different national or international news stories to scroll on the board just so Cubans know what's going on. One of the most recent and most interesting examples was the murder of a priest in the Villa Clara province about a month ago, which was never reported in the Cuban press (Dale, this is a somewhat roundabout answer to what you asked me about the press before- they just don't bother with the things they don't want to report).
-Very interesting tidbit, which corrects some erroneous reporting that I did to you all earlier. The US does in fact have economic ties with Cuba- in fact, we are Cuba's 4th largest trading partner in the world (behind Venezuela, China, and Spain). Last year alone, we did $717,000,000 USD worth of sales to them, in the form of food, medicinal supplies, and telephone poles. Fascinating, and proves that Margarita Alarcon is as crazy as her father. See my private blog for the full scoop.
-One final interesting piece of info. For Americans who travel here illegally, if anything should happen to you, the US Interest Section does not get you in trouble with the government- they do not enforce the travel ban, and will help you if you have problems while in the country. Wish I had known that earlier, but it's good to know for future reference.

Today was a busy day; we also visited the University of La Habana for a brief tour (the photo on the left was taken on the steps of the school). We were supposed to meet with some students; somehow that didn't happen. Now I'm about to work on some Teach for America paperwork and rest up- while at the embassy, we got invited to a Saint Patrick's Day party at the Marine house in Miramar. Green beer and jello shots, they told us. I'm really curious to see a Marine compound and find out more about the American expat community here in Cuba, so I can't wait to go.