CASTRO THE MULTIMILLIONAIRE
Forbes magazine estimated Castro's fortune in at least 900 million dollars. Many of those who are
familiar with the dictator's business believe that Forbes is being too conservative.
The Cuban dictator runs Cuba as if it was his own farm and the 11 million poor Cubans as his slaves.
Castro's businesses include the Convention Palace (Palacio de Convenciones); CIMEX; MEDICUBA;
resort hotels and much more.
PALACIO DE CONVENCIONES (CONVENTION PALACE)
The Palacio de Convenciones is one of the businesses mentioned by Forbes magazine as being one
of those that have helped the Cuban dictator become one of the world's richest persons, while the
Cuban people are forced to live worse than animals.
Here is how the Castro regime describes the Palacio de Convenciones:
"The Havana International Conference Center Complex is Cuba's leading company in the industry.
The Center is an institution that specializes in organizing, promoting and hosting a wide variety
of special events. Its sprawling 60,000 sq.m. premises are located in a residential district of Cuba's
capital city, only five minute away from downtown Havana. Pabexpo, its fairgrounds, contains five
air-conditioned, interconnected exhibition halls. The Complex offers accommodations at the Palco
Hotel, a modern three-star facility. The Conference Center Complex provides catering services at
the Bucán, El Rancho and El Palenque restaurants. In 1998, Club Habana, a top-notch social and
sports center, was added to the complex facilities."
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CIMEX
When Forbes published in May of this year that Castro's fortune was estimated at 900 million dollars,
it mentioned a list of companies that are under his control and from where he is able to skim profits
that go directly to his many bank accounts all over the world.
Among the companies mentioned is the retail conglomerate known as CIMEX.
In an article dated December of 2001, Granma, the official newspaper of Cuba, reported that CIMEX
had sales of 950 million dollars. According to Granma, CIMEX owned "dozens of many large and small
stores, 119 gasoline stations, 117 cafeterias, 47 photo services (digital and color), the tour operator
HAVANATUR, finance and banking facilities, and real estate and duty-free zones businesses."
Recent defectors have said that since that article was published, CIMEX has grown quite a bit more.
Here are some of the products and services that are displayed in CIMEX's web page. You won't see
any embargo here because these products and services are only available to foreigners living in Cuba,
tourists or for export.
For comparison purposes, we have added a couple of photos showing the differences between the
products and services offered by CIMEX and those available to regular Cubans.
Cubans will continue suffering Castro's internal embargo because they do not have the hard currency
that the dictator requires to buy in his shops. And they will never have access to hard currency because
Castro is the only employer in the island and he pays his slaves in worthless pesos.
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Click here to read a report form the US Department of the Treasury listing some of the known
subsidiaries of CIMEX that are operating abroad and also other corporations that are controlled
by Cuba's multimillionaire dictator.
Millionaire Castro even has his own bank!
The Cuban dictator spent more than six hours last week accusing Forbes magazine of libel for saying
that he is one of the world's richest dictators with a fortune in excess of 900 million dollars.
Castro has been accused of murdering thousands of innocent Cubans; of betraying the ideals of the
Cuban Revolution; of murdering many of those who helped him reach power; of keeping 11 million
Cubans enslaved and many other crimes, but it seems that none of those accusations bother the
Cuban dictator as much as Forbes saying that he is almost a billionaire, even though his salary is
supposed to be around 700 Cuban pesos per month.
Manuel de Beunza, a defector who used to to handle the finances for the Ministry of the Interior when
he was a top officer in Cuba's intelligence services, told El Nuevo Herald on Sunday that Castro has a
bank in the UK that is completely controlled by him.
The bank is Havin Bank LTD and until January of this year used to be known as Havana International Bank
LTD. De Baunza, who thinks that Castro's fortune exceeds the $900 million reported by Forbes, told
El Nuevo Herald that Cuba created 270 corporations around the world that report directly to Castro.
De Baunza, who was one of the sources used by Forbes, also said that in one occasion he personally gave
two million dollars to Castro, through José 'Chomy' Millar Barruecos, a trusted aide to the Cuban dictator.
We did a search and found more information about Castro's bank in the UK:
HAVIN BANK LTD, 30 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9TP, United Kingdom
Click here to see a map of where the bank is located.
Another of the analysts consulted by Forbes was Maria Werlau, who also believes that Castro's fortune
may be even larger than the 900 million estimated by Forbes. "Forbes' estimate seems to be much lower
than the vast economic resources that Castro personally controls," she told El Nuevo Herald. "The cash that
he may have in the network of bank accounts that he controls is practically impossible to estimate, because
of how difficult it is to know what goes in and goes out of those accounts."
Maria wrote an extensive report for The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE) titled:
"Fidel Castro Inc.: A Global Conglomerate" Click here to read it.
Take a look at the mansions where the millionaire dictator's business associates stay
You have seen the dilapidated houses where regular Cubans live, now take a look at the mansions
where foreign millionaires that go to Cuba to enter into joint-ventures with the multimillionaire
dictator stay.
These mansions were stolen by Castro and are now rented to those crooks who go to Cuba to
deal in stolen properties, to exploit Cuban workers and to bring more millions to the dictator's
bank accounts.
And Castro's business associates and rich friends cannot claim that they were not aware that these
were stolen properties, because the Cuban website advertising these homes clearly specifies that
they used to belong to Cuban executives who had their businesses stolen by the crook-in-chief:
"This Florentine style mansion located in the exclusive residential area of Miramar, Havana was
previously owned by a tobacco baron. It is now used for protocol visits and can be booked through
us on an exclusive basis for your visit to Cuba."
Click here to see these fabulous mansions that are now being leased to the dictator's rich friends
and business associates, after he stole them from its legitimate owners, and compare them with
the houses where regular Cubans are forced to live by this crook who has turned Cuba into his own
farm and a playground for his rich business friends who like to do business with him because they
can exploit 11 million Cubans who cannot strike, ask for vacations, benefits, raises or anything else.
If these piranhas treated workers in their own countries like they treat Cubans, they would end up in
jail. But in Cuba they can do as they please because their business partner is the owner of the plantation
and the 11 million Cubans are his slaves.
Canadian, European, Asian and Latin American millionaires who think that Cubans are inferior and can
be exploited because they are controlled by a ruthless dictator. Isn't this the worst case of racism?
Tarará, another resort exclusively for foreigners
Bofore Castro came to power in 1959, Tarará was another beautiful beach town where many
Cubans lived. But now, Tarará is only available to foreigners who can pay the multimillionaire
dictator in hard currency.
While Cubans are forced to live in dilapidated houses, with blackouts that sometimes last 18 to
20 hours, without hot water and sometimes without running water, the foreigners who can pay
Castro in Euros or dollars can enjoy the good life that Cubans can only dream about.
Here is how the Castro regime advertises Tarara for its foreign guests:
"Villa Armonia is located in Playas del Este (East beaches) about 15 minute drives from Old Havana.
The Villa, also known as Tarara, has comfortable 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses, each with its own
bathroom, satellite TV, hot and cold water and fully equipped kitchen and cleaning services, all
included in the price.
Villa Armonia offers also cafeteria, bar, restaurants, grocery store, medical
facilities, and gym among
many other services. There is a nice marina located inside the Villa so it is easy to practice water sports
such as snorkeling, scuba diving, yacht sailing, fishing, etc."
There is no embargo in Tarara, because only Cubans suffer the internal embargo put in place by
this madman to control the population.
And the price? From US$105 daily for a 2-bedroom village to US$145 for a 4-bedroom one.
From five to seven times the average monthly salary that Castro pays his slaves!
No wonder there are so many foreigners in love with the Hitler of the Caribbean! Castro has created
a paradise for them while at the same time creating a living Hell for the Cuban people.
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This is why you should not do business with thieves
In the 1990s, Castro was desperately looking for foreign investors willing to enter into joint ventures
with him, in order to bail out his sinking economy.
Many European investors, most of them from Spain, were more than willing to accept the invitation.
But that was before Hugo Chávez became president of Venezuela and provided Castro with billions of
dollars in free oil and many billions more in credits and other investments by PDVSA, the Venezuelan
oil holding that Cháves uses as if it was his own personal business.
Now, as reported in El Nuevo Herald, Castro wants to kick out the Spaniards and the other Europeans
who were stupid enough to do business with him, but not before he steals their patents and their
investments in Cuba, like he did 47 years ago when he stole all private businesses in the island.
Once again, Castro used and then betrayed those who tried to help him.
At least two powerful Spanish firms have sued the Cuban regime for violating the " Accord for Reciprocal
Protection of Investments" (APRI). The two companies, Acciones Infraestructura and Zell Chemie SL want
Castro to pay what he owes them, before they agree to cancel their joint ventures.
Zell Chemie, a company that manufactures insecticides and materials that have to do with cleaning the
environment, has been the main supplier of products to the Ministry of Public Health. Zell Chemie has also
provided the financing for these transactions. For the last eight years, almost all the insecticides sold in
Cuba have been manufactured by this company. A source inside Castro's Ministry for Foreign Investments
and Economic Collaboration told El Nuevo that Zell Chemie is accusing Castro of stealing its technology
and the intellectual property that the firm had provided to the joint venture company, Zell Zanid S.A., in
violation of the agreement that they made at the beginning of their partnership.
"We have presented our demands to APRI and are awaiting a response from the Cuban government that
would be satisfactory to both sides," an executive from Zell Chemi in Valencia Spain told El Nuevo Herald.
The executive didn't want to get into the details of the argument.
Zell Chemie and a company owned by the Castro regime, Inversiones Gamma, signed a 50 - 50 joint venture
agreement in 1999 that was supposed to last for 10 years. According to documents obtained by El Nuevo,
the Spanish firm is owed $1.5 million and is asking for $3 million as indemnification for terminating the
agreement.
If an agreement is not reached, Zell Chemie plans to take its demand to the International Arbitrage Court in
Paris, in which case the amount that is asking could go as high as $5 million.
In the other case involving Acciones Infraestructura, the company also went to APRI and the Cuban regime
agreed in June to pay the company $3 million for breaking their agreement. The Spanish company is now
trying to collect, but so far no payment has been made.
