Odds and ends

• Reuters: A Cuban official says that nearly half Cuba’s economic output will shift to the “non-state” sector in the next four to five years.  Earlier, the finance minister forecast that also within five years, the private sector is expected to grow by 1.8 million workers, which would put two in five workers in the private sector.

• Granma: In the first three months of 2012, there were 2,730 sales and 10,660 donations of homes, and 8,390 sales and 6,780 donations of cars.

• Cuban authorities arrested a British subject who was resident in Havana and directed Coral Capital, a business involved in major investment projects on the island.   Cuba Standard broke the news, and the Herald added some details.

• AFP: Cuban economics commentator Ariel Terrero chided the labor ministry for handling layoffs without “sufficient transparency,” leaving Cubans wondering precisely how many were laid off last year, and their characteristics.  As the layoffs proceed, he calls on the government to conduct a “broader discussion.”

• Judy Gross, wife of jailed USAID contractor Alan Gross, gives an interview to Café Fuerte, expressing disappointment that Gross has not been permitted to visit his ailing mother and saying, “I don’t understand the position of the Cuban government.”  The Forward reports that the public relations firm Burson Marsteller has taken up Gross’ case, and the current strategy includes pressure on both the Cuban and U.S. governments.

• El Tiempo (Bogota): OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza says Cuba should be invited to attend hemispheric summits.  “Having Cuba seated every three years in a Summit of the Americas does not weaken the [inter-American] system,” he said in Washington.  And it makes no sense that the largest country would exclude itself because the smallest is attending.”

• Senator Rubio gave an address on U.S. foreign policy that says nothing about Cuba.  As others have pointed out, he said nothing about Iraq either.

• A strange story: the Herald discovers that Cuba has complained about several cases of firearms arriving in checked luggage from Miami.