Cuba Creditor Hires Lawyer Who Won Argentina Debt Settlement

Tourists pass the National Capitol Building in Havana on  

Photographer: Francesco Pistilli/Bloomberg

An investment fund that’s seeking a payout from the Cuban government on more than $1.3 billion in defaulted debt and back interest has hired the lawyer who won a settlement for hedge funds in a long-running legal battle against Argentina.

CRF I Ltd. contracted Matthew McGill, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, to represent it in its claim against Cuba “including potential litigation,” according to a letter from the firm provided to Bloomberg News by a fund investor. McGill will be joined by Charles Falconer, the former British secretary of State for Justice, according to the letter.

CRF is the largest debt holder in the London Club, a group of creditors with a total of more than $5 billion in defaulted commercial debt and back interest. The debt dates back to the 1970s and 1980s and trades at about 23 to 24 cents on the dollar, according to the creditors. The Cuban government has said it intends to clear such obligations as it seeks a return to international capital markets.

Cuba’s former President Raul Castro negotiated a settlement of $11.1 billion in sovereign debt to the Paris Club of creditors, which forgave all but $2.6 billion. The London Club -- which includes CRF, Stancroft Trust Ltd, Adelante Exotic Debt Fund Ltd, and a commercial bank -- also offered to restructure the loans earlier this year but withdrew the proposal when Cuba failed to respond.

“I want to believe that there’s still appetite for an amicable settlement,” said Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal, a law professor at Queen Mary University in London who represents the London Club. “The members are not aggressive creditors seeking an absolute return, but they hold legally binding claims that were entered into by Cuba.”

A spokesman for CRF said the company wants to work with Cuba’s new government, under President Miguel Diaz-Canel, “to resolve issues so Cuba can return to the international markets.”

McGill and the Cuba Finance Ministry didn’t reply to emails seeking comment.

McGill represented NML Capital Ltd for more than 10 years as it sought to recover on defaulted sovereign bonds from Argentina. After winning a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, NML and other hedge funds settled with Argentina for $4.65 billion. More recently, McGill represented funds that hold Puerto Rican municipal debt in a case that was heard by the Supreme Court in March.

In the name of the Cuban Family

On October 28 of last year, 2017, Cuba carried out modifications to the 1312 Migration law under which the government ratified the 8 year forced exile that weigh on those of us who have abandoned their work agreements abroad and, weary of the inhuman conditions in which we have been forced to live and work, have decided to opt for a better future beyond the sea. The government of Cuba punishes us with what we love the most: our family. In this moment, there are children growing up without their parents, mothers that have not seen their kids in years, siblings that have never met, while there are others that have lost family members and have been denied the opportunity of the last goodbye. Hundred of thousands of Cuban families are terribly affected by this, all because some Cuban doctors, athletes and engineers have decided to live elsewhere. The people of Cuba has never voted for this law. We are campaigning for this unconstitutional and inhuman ban to be lifted, and we need your support in the name of family unity. 

https://www.change.org/p/petition-in-the-name-of-the-cuban-family-en-nombre-de-la-familia-cubana

U.S.-Cuban relations are about to get worse

The orchestrated presidential succession underway this week in Cuba, from Raúl Castro to his likely replacement Miguel Díaz-Canel, is prompting a new round of speculation about how the Trump administration should react to the long-awaited departure of the Castro brothers from power. Judging from the heated rhetoric between the U.S. and Cuban delegations at last week’s Summit of the Americas, relations are likely to go from bad to worse.

Author
Ted Piccone
Shortly before the U.S. presidential election, candidate Donald Trump promised to “cancel” President Obama’s normalization policy. His administration made good on that promise last year with a number of measures rolling back key features of the incipient rapprochement. This included dire travel warnings, a dramatic 60 percent drawdown of U.S. embassy personnel in Havana, and the eviction of 17 staff from Cuba’s embassy in Washington last September in response to unexplained health incidents affecting U.S. diplomats.

These steps loudly signaled the return of Florida’s pro-embargo faction, led by Senator Marco Rubio, at the helm of U.S.-Cuba policy. Now, with the appointment of the more hardline John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to top national security positions, we should expect the White House to double down on its first year’s embrace of punitive regime change.

THE HANDCUFFS OF THE EMBARGO AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
Ever since the nearly six decades of hostilities between Havana and Washington began, the United States has been locked in a narrow band of policy options. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, the engine driving U.S. strategy remained a deep distrust of Cuba’s closed socialist system, fueled by the hundreds of thousands of nostalgic Cuban exiles concentrated in the swing state of Florida. Domestic politics prevails.


The rationale for tightening or loosening the comprehensive embargo established in the Kennedy administration has shifted, depending on the circumstances. The pivotal moment, however, was Congress’ decision to codify the embargo after the Cuban military shot down a plane piloted by Cuban exiles in 1996. This law—with its unilateral demands for the end of communist rule, the removal of the Castros from power, the establishment of free and fair elections, and full respect for human rights—severely handicapped any attempt by U.S. policymakers to adapt to changing circumstances, let alone construct an alternate route toward reconciliation and change.

Latin American leaders and activists lí create the International Commission for Fiscalizació n n of RICs menes of Lesa Humanity Castro regime Ré

Leaders poli Ticos and activists of human rights in different coun Latin American countries unveiled the conformació n a Commission n International for Fiscalizació n of Menes cri de Lesa Humanid ad of Ré moan Castro, Segou n informs the web from the Commission .

This initiative comes "in the context of a significant increase in Repression n in the u- recent weeks in Cuba , with arrests, searches and raids of activists throughout the island, but especially in the east."

L to Commission n will be headed by lawyer and Mexican professor René Bolio and will be participació n activist Costa Rican human rights Marí to the MOUsndez Milagros, with engineer and leader poli tico Peruvian Jorge Villena, with p r esidente Board tica Dominican native hiccupped lito Ramí rez, with poli ticoleader Martin Elgue Uruguayan and Venezuelan student council and Martí n lí der Paz.

"The Commission n will focus in its first stage to document, investigate and organize uc mule existing evidence on the ma s longevas of all Latin American dictatorships, a fierce totalitarian state that has oppressed his people to remain in power nearly six decades, something incompatible with the very essence of the values s of the international community ", senna aló René Bolio.

"In the second stage, after test s to be fully organized work from the Commission, will advocate nationally and internationally for the creació n of an International Tribunal to oversee the RICs menes against humanity of Ré Castro regime , " he added.

According to lito Ramí rez she hiccupped, "the work of this Commission n should serve as a clear warning to the Cuban military that do not participate in the Repression No, they do not support those who give or immoral orders".

"I would like to dedicate the work of this Commission n to jove n Mario Manuel de la Peñ to, voluntary pilot of Brothers to the Rescue who was killed with three other eros Compañ on 24 February 1996 re Castro regime. It is ma s, I will propose n Audit Commission that bears his name , "Rami rez Adio yea.

For his par t, Marí to the MOUs Milagros ndez said that aim to "organize public hearings , in different capitals on developments concerning violació n human rights in Cuba during the last 57 yea u os".

"I think the Cuban military have q ue decide whether to perpetuate the Repression not give way to a peaceful transició n fica democracy and justice", Add Adio.

They also Ladies Alaron who will contact n with representatives of Cuban civil society both inside and outside the island.

Members n d and the Commission announced that pró ximamente held a press conference n where n specify in detail the details of the future work of the Commission.

"The Castro family is a crime syndicate," says The Wall Street Journal.

In an article published on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal says Cuba remains a "totalitarian hell" where dissidents die in prison under suspicious conditions and the regime denies entry to "prominent politicians once considered friends."

"The Cuban military dictatorship is pointing to another murder: last month it eliminated the Hamas dissident Hamell Santiago Maz Hernández, who was serving a prison in one of his most notorious prisons for his brutality," he says.

"The remarkable thing was not the death of a critic. That is routine in a police state that retains all weapons, bayonets, money and food. What is noteworthy is that the world is hardly blinking, that is to say, that two years after the distension of US President Barack Obama with Raul Castro, the regime still dispatches its adversaries with impunity. It also routinely blocks visitors from the island, even from the left to keep the population isolated, "he adds.

Cuba experiences a process that is contrary to "normalization" and lives in "the same totalitarian hell that has been during the last 58 years," says the tabloid.

In this article, he has in mind Maz Hernández, 45, who was a member of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU), which he describes as a "group working for a peaceful transition to democracy."

"In November, Maz Hernandez was taken to the Combinado del Este prison, a non-animal dungeon. There he developed a kidney infection. His wife told independent media in Cuba that he lost almost 16kg. According to the regime died on February 24 of a 'heart attack'. It is curious, that epidemic of heart disease among those who oppose Castro, "he emphasized.

The death of this opponent should stir the conscience of the free world, says the newspaper, which also condemns how the English-speaking foreign press has not picked up this story.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "the Castro family is a crime syndicate" and that "many American companies want a piece of the action" to which "the result is that more money than ever is flowing from the United States to The arks of the military ".

Politically correct nightmares of the moment

(PD) Beyond letters, declarations, NGOs, UN and OAS, there coexist with the democratic world politically correct nightmares enshrined in its existence by European democracies and even by the leading nation of the free world, the United States of America .

Among such nightmares are North Korea, Iran, African failed states that some enunciate as tribes with flag and national shield, regions without law and in state of war and permanent violence and even, among them, the totalitarian military regime of Castro.

The latter, with justice, has won the palms, because although each of the nightmares reviewed is affirmed in an anti-imperialism and declared anti-Americanism, who has managed to place his spies in the United States, even the Pentagon, has been the Totalitarian Castro regime. This is a merit that should not be overlooked.

Recent news points out how Jane Soomer, secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States, on an official visit to Havana, said that "the ideas of the Cuban Revolution's historic leader Fidel Castro on unity and respect for the Caribbean continue In force in the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). "

Add to this the praises of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon following the death of the former Cuban dictator in 2016 and the recognition and support given to the Castro dictatorship by the European Union since the administration Of Ms. Federica Mogherini, culminating in the abrogation of the Common Position, among other examples of this cut, there is nothing more to conclude that politically correct national nightmares exist, with which the democratic West is willing to live together.

Coexistence has sometimes been risky and 9-11 is a timely reminder of these circumstances.

Since 1959 Castro's military regime has expanded throughout the Americas, with terrorist guerrillas, and later with a whole range of variants in which drug trafficking, bribery and 'solidarity' assistance in sanitation, education, etc. , Who mostly got the nightmares to be politically correct nightmares for their acceptance in a wide range of European and American political, diplomatic and financial centers.

The last world chess women's championship held in Tehran, Iran, has set an interesting agenda. The athletes were forced to use the burka to participate in the contest.

It happens that as far as we know, no Muslim woman in Europe, the United States, Latin America, etc., are forced to use crucifixes or anything that is foreign to their identity. And then, why in Tehran? What is the reason for coexistence with this exclusion or with this nightmare?

It is well known that Castro's totalitarian military regime is sustained by the repression, violence, death, exclusion, blackmail, bribery, threat and misery that it exerts against the Cuban people and society. What is it that makes this nightmare one of the politically correct type? What is the secret for tolerance with this regime to impose itself?

The answer may be that this is the time for the politically correct and nothing more nightmares. 
Primaveradigital2011@gmail.com; Writing Habana

Luis Almagro bare the Cuban dictatorship

by Guillermo Lopez Rayneri 

The Secretary General of the OAS scandalizes Latin American politicians, diplomats and intellectuals for calling 'dictatorzuelo' to the 'dictatorzuelos'

(PD) In ​​announcing that he would travel to Havana to receive a prize from dissidents demanding democracy in Cuba, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro has forced the regime of Raúl Castro to ban him from entering with rather ridiculous arguments. Almagro has taken the opportunity to teach the dictatorship with a class about democracy: he has explained that he wanted to "honor the memory of Oswaldo Payá," a pro-democracy activist probably assassinated by the regime, and has asked him not to criminalize Cuba Decide Founded by the daughter of Payá) because the constitutional mechanisms of direct democracy that proclaim the necessity of a plebiscite in Cuba are "an essential instrument for the expression of the towns".

With this and other such actions, the Secretary General of the OAS continues to receive praise in public and private, but also comes scandalizing a number of Latin American politicians, diplomats and intellectuals, who are concerned that the former Foreign Minister of Mujica is calling Dictatorship to dictatorships and reaching out to civil society groups in countries governed by authoritarian regimes, even without their permission.

MORE INFORMATION 
Cuba prevented from entering the head of the OAS in La Haban to 
Cuba denies entry to Mexican president Felipe Calderon to an act of an ON G 
The scandalized come in two types, those that are public in its rejection of Almagro, that is, the officials and supporters of the dictatorship of Cuba and the authoritarian regimes of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and those who do it in Secret, "diplomatically," because they are "career" officials of how much Latin American chancery has formed them in the ascetic arts of maintaining the same label and protocol - effective, gentle, and obsequious-- under today's elected president, the anti-Communist caudillo of Tomorrow, and the left-wing dictator the day after tomorrow.

Critics of Almagro wield two important arguments. One is that, according to them, the OAS is no different from the UN in that it is simply an intergovernmental organization in charge of providing a platform to the representatives of countries, and, therefore, it must have within it the same right to Voice and vote, and with the same honors due to any head of state, Allende as Pinochet, Videla as Alfonsin, Carlos Andres Perez as Nicolás Maduro. The second argument is that what Almagro criticizes the Venezuelan regime is contrary to the tradition of the OAS, since, although from its creation in 1948 it would theoretically have been interested in promoting values ​​of representative democracy, in practice From its pulpit was criticized only to the dictatorship of Castro in Cuba, that was suspended in 1962, and an accomplice silence was kept before the anticommunist dictatorships of the whole continent during the Cold War.

Critics of Almagro are mistaken twice. Unlike the UN that has had two dictatorships (China and Russia) in its Security Council since its inception, the OAS is an organization created by democracies and dedicated to democracy.From its beginnings, with the adoption of the OAS Charter in 1948, with greater force since the 1992 Charter reform, and culminating in the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IDC) in 2001, the OAS has a duty to Promote the essential elements of democracy: freedom of the press, independence of the judiciary, free and fair elections, and alternation of power.

Moreover, while the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, Egypt and Rwanda are members of the Human Rights Council, the Secretary General of the OAS is obliged to seek the "suspension of all participation in OAS organs "Of any undemocratic regime that would have taken control of the government of a member state, either because it came to power through a coup against a democratic president, or because, having been elected in free and fair elections, it eroded democracy A gradual, sustained and systematic way to the point of becoming an authoritarian or dictatorial regime, as is the case of Venezuela, where there is no guarantee of future elections.

It is not true that the OAS did not say anything during the Cold War. Although he remained silent before the dictatorships of Videla and Pinochet, the OAS was then able to condemn the tyrannical regimes of Trujillo in 1960, Castro in 1962, Somoza in 1979, and Noriega in 1989, even without tools such as Democratic Charter.

The first two convictions, against Trujillo and Castro, were made possible by former Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, a social democratic leader of principles who believed in an OAS without dictatorships and who reminded Almagro much.

Hispanic Americans who are lucky not to live in dictatorship, we must abandon the indifference because it leaves the microphone to those who are scandalized by the actions of Almagro. Instead, we must support loudly the millions of Venezuelans and Cubans who are risking their lives today to demand democracy in their countries. We must support Almagro. 
G.lopezrayneri@gmail.com, Guillermo López Rayneri

The most abusive among monopolies

by Juan Gonzalez Febles

(PD) ETECSA, the Telecommunications Company of Cuba SA under its name conceals the most abject, abusive and predatory monopoly of the Cuban citizen on foot, which has the most predatory Castro state.

Protected by the pseudo-legal mechanisms imposed since the totalitarian authoritarianism imposed by the Castro dynasty for more than five decades, ETECSA is the most abusive exploitative octopus known in contemporary Cuban history.

All telephones, faxes, etc., present in the world market, have caller ID and none among the world's telephone corporations has it occurred to charge extra this service as does ETECSA. The Castro monopoly charges this service and in other ways and with other variants, scam to its undervalued clients, Cubans residing in Cuba deprived of all rights.

ETECSA, to earn more, reduced the entry of SMS to Cuba, from companies with which it does not have direct contracts. The impact from this was more than 85% of the text messages that enter the island.

The SMS to Cuba filtered by ETECSA cost almost 20 times more. ETECSA seeks to earn more always at the expense of the people without Cuban rights.

There is also the issue of censorship: the government removes the sms you want.

Another relevant scam of ETECSA is that the recharges provided an extra that originally established that the beneficiary of a recharge made from abroad, received double the amount deposited. ETECSA has converted this benefit into a bonus that is due in less than one month, whether or not you made use of the bonus.

What art and magic to steal!

ETECSA successfully joins the efforts of Castroism that occupies a relevant place worldwide in terms of influence peddling, fraudulent accounts, bribery and other gimmicks in so-called tax havens. The usual loser? The people of Cuba! 
J.gonzalez.febles@gmail.com; Juan Gonzále z 
Photo: Daudy Hermel

Mariela Castro: 'The people do not want to turn to capitalism. We continue to invent socialism '

Mariela Castro with her Italian husband Paolo Titolo ... later they say that the people do not want capitalism that bigger example

"Cuba will continue with its socialist project," said Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), who is in Mexico invited to the International Film Festival of Guadalajara (FICG).

The Mexican newspaper La Jornada asked Mariela Castro about a possible "disguised capitalism" on the island, to which she replied emphatically that she was not going to "turn towards capitalism": "The people do not want to turn around.

The daughter of General Raúl Castro visited the FICG, where she received the Maguey Prize for her activism in favor of the rights of the homosexual community, women's rights and HIV / AIDS prevention.

In an interview with La Jornada, she was questioned about the refusal of the regime to have former President Felipe Calderón enter the island in February to attend the Oswaldo Paya Prize, Truth and Life.

"As Pope Francisco said: Latin America suffers the existence of some cypresses. We do not open the door to the vendepatrias," was the only answer he wrote about it.

Questioned about whether immigration policy has changed towards Cubans with the arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency, said that "so far no".

"I would like the same treatment (given to Cubans) to be given to immigrants from all over the world who come to the United States looking for better economic conditions, which is what attracts them." What we do not want is the Adjustment Act For Cubans, because it encourages disorderly, illegal and dangerous immigration, the ideal is to provide the necessary visas so they can travel safely. "

On a supposed end of the embargo and the inflow of capital to the island, Castro Espín pointed out that "the limit (of capital inflow) would not generate an antagonistic social class to those that have historically been exploited and dispossessed. Of Cuba does not want the emergence of antagonistic social classes, because we have overcome that with the Revolution, therefore, the State and the Party observe and take care that there is no social class with influence in the political and that benefits from it ".

He also stressed that the health, culture, sport and food production sectors have to be guarded by the State that is responsible for "putting limits on the private producer".

Regarding the absence in Cuba of legislation for marriage between same-sex couples, Castro espíned that "laws can not change prejudices or consciences."

"Cuba has not adopted a law in favor of homosexual marriage because you can not repeat what others do and also this does not ensure the end of hate crimes towards that group," he concluded.

Raul Castro was "exposed and diminished" after an incident with Almagro and Calderón, says La Nación

Raúl Castro on January 24, 2017, in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic).

The Cuban government sent a "crude totalitarian message" where control is imposed on any other consideration says an editorial in the Costa Rican daily.

The main Costa Rican newspaper La Nación published an editorial this week criticizing the attitude of the Cuban government by preventing the entry into Cuba of renowned personalities from Latin America to participate in the Oswaldo Payá award ceremony organized by the opposition platform Cuba He decides.

By preventing the entry to the island of Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Chilean exile Mariana Aylwin and Mexican President Felipe Calderón, "the dictatorship of Raúl Castro revealed, again, so clumsily As indefensible, the totalitarian nature of the regime and its determination to put control, intransigence and exclusion above even any hint of good diplomatic forms. "

"The regime refused to grant visas to Almagro, Aylwin and Calderón, against whom it also formulated strong attacks, among them, to participate in" anti-Cuban activities. "In other words, for the top of Castro's power, the dominant group is the Even though no one has freely conceded that authority, this assumed representation implies deciding what is Cuban and what is not, and gives a license to violate the rights of the population and even prevent politicians (One, Almagro, exchancer of the leftist Frente Amplio de Uruguay) visit the island, "the newspaper criticized.

The editorial titled Crudo totalitarian message values ​​that "as a result of the intransigence of Castroism and the democratic clarity of the Secretary General of the OAS, Almagro was strengthened and Raúl Castro, exposed and diminished." The Cuba Decide movement was extolled as an option to which The regime fears for the simple fact of using a mechanism provided by the Constitution itself. "

The Tico newspaper laments that "unfortunately, in the middle are trapped the Cubans, who, in the final analysis, addressed the implicit message emanating from the top Castro: anyone who tries to cross their narrow limits of tolerance will be rejected and drowned without contemplation. The logic of absolute control, for an apparatus of totalitarian power, prevails over any other consideration, let us call this economic opening or permission for an independent group to reward foreign personalities like Almagro (worse if they are Cuban) for their support of Democracy is a message as unacceptable as it is revealing. "

[Based on editorial from The Nation of Costa Rica]