12-23-2007, 03:13 PM
Cuban exiles 'new hope' as Castro fades
By Jacqui Goddard in Miami
Last Updated: 2:15am GMT 23/12/2007
Alberto Beguiristain and his family had a good life in Cuba, with their 130,000 acres of farmland, two sugar mills, a distillery, an insurance company and a colonial mansion east of Havana.
But all he can see of it now is an image on Google Earth showing an empty plot of land. He and his family were forced to flee for their lives after Fidel Castro seized power - and all of their property - during his communist revolution.
Exiled Cuban families are lining up to reclaim their property in the event that Castro formally relinquishes power
Mr Beguiristain has not been able to return to the bustling Âboulevards of Havana for nearly 50 years.
Like fellow exiles in Miami, he has resorted to looking up his property on the island using the Google Earth internet program, which files satellite images from space.
After finding the town of Sagua de la Grande on the screen, he zoomed in on where his sugar mill should have been.
"It's not there any more. Gone," he lamented. "The latest news is that it was dismantled and sold to Latin American companies.
"They took apart the house, the garage, the stable - everything was stripped to nothing."
advertisementMr Beguiristain, 74, is one of hundreds of thousands of Cubans who want their properties back, and who took new hope from the hint by Fidel Castro that he was preparing to shift power to a new generation.
American companies are banned under a trade embargo from doing business with Cuba. But as the dispossessed families prepare legal challenges to reclaim up to £4 billion worth of land, some Western firms are eyeing properties along the beachfronts and palm-lined boulevards of old Havana in the hope that political change will bring on an economic boom.
Lawyers in the US have already drawn up thousands of claims on behalf of Cuban families and American companies who were stripped of homes, businesses and fortunes when Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista and appointed himself president in 1959.
"Most don't want compensation, we want our land back so we can work on it," said Mr Beguiristain. "Industry is run down to the point that we have to rebuild from new."
Mr Beguiristain cannot return under Castro for fear of imprisonment or execution for his part in the US-funded Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, a failed attempt to overthrow the communist regime.
He helped bring arms into the country under CIA cover, but was captured and imprisoned before escaping to the US.
Nicolás GutiÃrrez's family was among the wealthiest in pre-revolution Cuba, but was stripped of its assets, including 100,000 acres, and lost friends to the firing squads that executed tens of thousands of Castro's opponents.
As a lawyer based in Miami, Mr GutiÃrrez, 43, is acting for his relatives and about 350 other Cuban-American families who hope to press claims.
"The failing health of the dictator has caused an uptick in business," he said.
"Recovering our land, our commercial, agricultural and industrial properties is not only the right thing to do for our ancestors and ourselves, but also for Cuba if it is to get back on its feet."
He added: "Had Castro taken my family's land and given 1,000 acres each to 100 families, or 10 acres each to 10,000 families, I would say 'Forget about getting anything back, I'm not going to uproot these people from their land.' But he hasn't."
Instead, the former land of the GutiÃrrez family lies untended, overrun by weeds. The mills were stripped of machinery and houses were handed to government officials.
"To see pictures of these places, it shows how the revolution has done very little in 50 years other than squander what was there," he said.
Foreign companies that have bought into seized businesses risk being evicted should democracy be restored.
But there will be plenty of others preparing to move in to replace them. Consumer giants such as McDonald's, Starbucks and Coca-Cola are among those expected to want to make their marks on Cuba.
"People always want what they haven't been able to have," said Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Centre for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami. If the US trade embargo is lifted and there's more money available, people might want to try a Big Mac."
By Jacqui Goddard in Miami
Last Updated: 2:15am GMT 23/12/2007
Alberto Beguiristain and his family had a good life in Cuba, with their 130,000 acres of farmland, two sugar mills, a distillery, an insurance company and a colonial mansion east of Havana.
But all he can see of it now is an image on Google Earth showing an empty plot of land. He and his family were forced to flee for their lives after Fidel Castro seized power - and all of their property - during his communist revolution.
Exiled Cuban families are lining up to reclaim their property in the event that Castro formally relinquishes power
Mr Beguiristain has not been able to return to the bustling Âboulevards of Havana for nearly 50 years.
Like fellow exiles in Miami, he has resorted to looking up his property on the island using the Google Earth internet program, which files satellite images from space.
After finding the town of Sagua de la Grande on the screen, he zoomed in on where his sugar mill should have been.
"It's not there any more. Gone," he lamented. "The latest news is that it was dismantled and sold to Latin American companies.
"They took apart the house, the garage, the stable - everything was stripped to nothing."
advertisementMr Beguiristain, 74, is one of hundreds of thousands of Cubans who want their properties back, and who took new hope from the hint by Fidel Castro that he was preparing to shift power to a new generation.
American companies are banned under a trade embargo from doing business with Cuba. But as the dispossessed families prepare legal challenges to reclaim up to £4 billion worth of land, some Western firms are eyeing properties along the beachfronts and palm-lined boulevards of old Havana in the hope that political change will bring on an economic boom.
Lawyers in the US have already drawn up thousands of claims on behalf of Cuban families and American companies who were stripped of homes, businesses and fortunes when Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista and appointed himself president in 1959.
"Most don't want compensation, we want our land back so we can work on it," said Mr Beguiristain. "Industry is run down to the point that we have to rebuild from new."
Mr Beguiristain cannot return under Castro for fear of imprisonment or execution for his part in the US-funded Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, a failed attempt to overthrow the communist regime.
He helped bring arms into the country under CIA cover, but was captured and imprisoned before escaping to the US.
Nicolás GutiÃrrez's family was among the wealthiest in pre-revolution Cuba, but was stripped of its assets, including 100,000 acres, and lost friends to the firing squads that executed tens of thousands of Castro's opponents.
As a lawyer based in Miami, Mr GutiÃrrez, 43, is acting for his relatives and about 350 other Cuban-American families who hope to press claims.
"The failing health of the dictator has caused an uptick in business," he said.
"Recovering our land, our commercial, agricultural and industrial properties is not only the right thing to do for our ancestors and ourselves, but also for Cuba if it is to get back on its feet."
He added: "Had Castro taken my family's land and given 1,000 acres each to 100 families, or 10 acres each to 10,000 families, I would say 'Forget about getting anything back, I'm not going to uproot these people from their land.' But he hasn't."
Instead, the former land of the GutiÃrrez family lies untended, overrun by weeds. The mills were stripped of machinery and houses were handed to government officials.
"To see pictures of these places, it shows how the revolution has done very little in 50 years other than squander what was there," he said.
Foreign companies that have bought into seized businesses risk being evicted should democracy be restored.
But there will be plenty of others preparing to move in to replace them. Consumer giants such as McDonald's, Starbucks and Coca-Cola are among those expected to want to make their marks on Cuba.
"People always want what they haven't been able to have," said Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Centre for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami. If the US trade embargo is lifted and there's more money available, people might want to try a Big Mac."
________________________________________________________________
What's the point in arguing or trying to make sense of something that is lost?
What's the point in arguing or trying to make sense of something that is lost?
hock:
