Odds and ends

• An IPS story covers the recent Council of State decision to commute death sentences and gives some Cubans’ reactions; according to Elizardo Sanchez, the number of death row inmates affected is about 30.

• Tourism is up, the Cuban government says: a 15 percent increase in the first quarter of 2008 over last year’s performance.

• The Herald ran a story about raids on houses where marijuana is grown hydroponically; 135 were arrested in Miami and across Florida. El Nuevo has a longer story that quotes a federal drug official claiming that “there are activities in Cuba to recruit those who work in these growing houses.” A second official says Cuban immigrants were among those arrested; they are paid up to $2,000 per month to tend the plants, then a $25,000 lump sum at harvest time. The second official said he had no proof regarding recruitment of these workers in Cuba, but said the leaders of these businesses in Miami-Dade are Cuban Americans. What I don’t understand is, with that kind of money to pay, why would they have to leave Miami-Dade, much less go all the way to Cuba, to find workers?