Shocked, shocked am I to hear this report http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2005-05-31T192343Z_01_N31657204_RTRIDST_0_PICKS-ECONOMY-CUBA-DC.XML :
Western companies welcomed in Cuba as heroes a decade ago for bucking the U.S. embargo are packing up and leaving as the Communist government rolls back market reforms and squeezes out intermediaries
What? Going against the US doesn't pay? What would Messrs. Chirac and Shroeder say to that? (not the point here, but I couldn't resist)
Embittered by the change in attitude, small and medium-sized foreign businesses complained this week that they no longer feel welcome and worried they would not recover money owed to them by Cuban partners...The Spanish dairy firm Penasanta SA announced this month that its $8.5 million milk venture had failed due to the economic climate in Cuba, a view expressed by many other businessmen.
Even Spain's leftist, insurgent-loving, Chavez-hugging government got screwed? No way!
Cuban partners say they will pay back investments and money owed for operating costs from future profits, but it is doubtful the companies will even exist in the future," said the commercial attache at a European embassy.
Cuban officials did not answer requests for interviews on the trend.
Let this be a lesson for those whom would lie down with snakes - listening, France? Germany? Canada? Probably not; somehow this must all be America's fault...
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