Agribusiness show in Havana promotes lifting of blockade

By TRACEY EATON and RICARDO CHAVIRA / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – Fidel Castro, flanked by beefy guards and a crush of photographers, strode up to a hog named Austin on Thursday and waited for some sign of life.

Six-month-old Austin – technically, a Landrace boar – could only muster the energy to snort, evidently failing to realize that a political icon of the century had arrived.
The beast, which some Americans call Havana's newest "capitalist pig," was content to lounge on the floor of the exhibition hall, despite the urgings of its handler,
Minnesota teenager Cliff Kaehler.

The 13-year-old, who helped raise Austin on his family's farm in St. Charles, Minn., said he realized it was a special day. After all, he got to meet Mr. Castro, the
legendary rebel who took power in 1959.

"It was an opportunity of a lifetime," the boy said. "He's a very smart guy. To rule as long as he has, you have
to be smart."

Mr. Castro, 76, clad in a dark business suit, chatted for a while with Cliff and his younger brother, Seth, 11,
before making his way through the first U.S.-Cuba Food and Agribusiness Exhibition, shaking hands with
American farmers and business people, posing for photos and even feeding Clarke, a 5-month-old American
bison.

It was a classic moment, yet another momentous event in which Mr. Castro, master of the international stage,
drew the spotlight to his crusade: Burying the U.S. ban on trade with Cuba.

Cubans call it el bloqueo, the blockade, and say it's to blame for practically all their economic ills.

U.S. officials sharply disagree, saying socialist policies have driven the island into ruin.

Their current point man is James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. In decidedly
undiplomatic fashion, he calls Cuba "an international deadbeat."

"I expect to see a lot more bull than beef from the Cuban authorities," he told reporters. "This is a Jurassic
Park economy, and it's no great market for the United States."

Mr. Castro brushed aside such accusations Thursday while touring the food exhibit, containing everything from California raisins and Jell-O to Skippy peanut butter,
Pop-Tarts and Spam.

"They've been saying that kind of thing for more than 40 years," he said.

'Logical market'

Andy Hewes, owner of Texas-based Coastal Rice and Futures Inc., said he would love to trade with Cuba, especially now because business elsewhere isn't that
great.

"The embargo is killing us," Mr. Hewes said. "Once the embargo is lifted, all of our exports would go to Cuba. It's our logical market, and we're their logical
supplier."

Mr. Hewes, asked how he feels about doing business with a government accused of depriving its people of basic human rights, said, "If that's the standard for
judging who we trade with, then we would stop doing business with half the world."

He brought in bags of rice packaged 1950s-style. They were labeled Arroz Coastal, Hecho en E.U. (Coastal Rice. Made in the U.S.)

Nishi Whiteley, director of international marketing for the Texas Department of Agriculture, also was in attendance.

"We're here to promote Texas-grown and -produced products. The Cuban people are very interested and hospitable. We've had people from Texas here before,
and they are quite enthusiastic about the possibilities."

Karen Porter, vice president of international marketing for American Rice Inc., said Cuba is "an important market, and it's close to Texas. We can get products here
quickly. Cuba is an excellent opportunity for Texas businesses."

Her company buys and mills rice in Freeport, Texas, and already has sold Cuba some 40,000 tons of rice, despite a U.S. law prohibiting the financing of such sales.
The Cubans are required to pay cash up front.

Some U.S. officials say they don't object to food sales to Cuba as long as Cuban companies pay in cash. The country, with an estimated foreign debt of $11 billion,
doesn't have a good reputation for paying its bills, they say.

Mr. Castro disputed that and said state-run companies that have bought from the United States have not delayed "even for one second" in paying their bills.

Pedro Álvarez, head of Alimport, a Cuban company that handles food imports from the United States, said he expects his government will buy more than $200
million in American products by the end of the year.

If financing and other restrictions are lifted, that number is likely to soar to some $840 million by the year 2005, he said.

Ventura weighs in

Jesse Ventura, the former pro wrestler turned Minnesota governor, was the highest-ranking American politician at the exhibit. He walked alongside Mr. Castro and
pointed out livestock from his home state.

The United States ought to at least take "a few baby steps" toward ending the trade ban, said the governor. "The Cuban market is rising pretty fast. We in Minnesota
want to be on the ground floor."

Reporters asked Mr. Ventura if he planned to meet with any of Cuba's political dissidents, as former President Jimmy Carter did in May.

"I don't know where they're at. If you took me five blocks from here, I'd be lost," he said, at times calling Americans "United Statesians."

Both President Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush oppose trading with Cuba, saying that doing so will prolong the Castro regime and deprive Cubans of freedom and
opportunity. South Florida is home to a large and vocal Cuban immigrant community that has long opposed U.S. relations with Cuba.

Said Mr. Ventura, "That's not my job to usher in change. The only people who can change Cuba are the Cubans."

PWN Exhibicon International in Westport, Conn., organized the trade exhibit, the first of its kind since 1959. Some 750 American business people are attending the
show, which ends Sunday.

Fidel Castro's older brother, Ramón Castro, also joined in the festivities. Wearing a straw hat and guayabera, he stood outside a booth for the Cuba Florida Cattle
Association.

"Imagine, it's been almost 50 years since we had something like this here," he said, chuckling and shaking his head in wonder. "This is a marvelous event filled with
wonderful ideas. I think we are seeing the resumption of our traditional trade between the two countries. The truth is, it should have happened a long time ago. But
politics has worked to our mutual economic detriment."

He paused as crowds of Americans and Cubans walked past, some of them sampling some of the thousands of pounds of products brought in for the event,
everything from Juicy Fruit chewing gum to beef jerky.

"I remember as a young man driving a Caterpillar bulldozer," Ramón Castro recalled. "I´ve driven many other types since then, including those made in Russia. But
there is nothing like those Caterpillars."