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 Berenthal and business partner Horace Clemmons of Alabama are
close to becoming the first U.S. businessmen to manufacture in Cuba
with a plan to build low-cost tractors designed for Cuban farms,
largely run by private cooperatives.
Their project has U.S. approval and Cuba's Communist government has
given positive signals about the proposed plant but has yet to
bestow permission.
"It's a little bit of a test of loyalty. Are we willing to go
through obstacles to achieve what we believe is a good thing for the
Cubans and ourselves?" said Berenthal, who was born in Cuba in 1944
and left for the United States as a student in 1960, a year after
Fidel Castro's revolution.
After more than half a century of antagonism between the two
countries, Obama has redefined relations with Cuba in the last 15
months, and Cuba is changing. But its leaders are wary of moving too
quickly.
"What is perceived on the outside as slow progress is really the way
of Cubans assuring themselves of the trust that is necessary to be
built," Berenthal said.
 Obama arrives in Havana on Sunday for a historic visit that seals a
rapprochement he and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed in December
2014 after 18 months of secret negotiations.
Since then, Havana has changed noticeably. The number of U.S.
visitors soared 77 percent in 2015, swarming hotels and restaurants
that have been booked to capacity.
Obama this week issued sweeping regulations to promote even more
U.S. travel and trade to Cuba. It was the fifth time he has used
executive powers to boost ties with Cuba, sidestepping the
Republican-controlled Congress which has refused to lift a
54-year-old economic embargo against the island.
Cuba's government has yet to fully reciprocate. Cuba did agree to
roaming deals with U.S. telecommunications operators and restoring
scheduled commercial airline service, two deals that bring more
revenue to the government.
When it comes to Obama's overtures to the Cuba's small but growing
private sector, however, the government has been more deliberate. It
has yet to accept U.S. sales of farming equipment and construction
materials to private businesses, which were authorized by Obama.
Market-style reforms, introduced by Raul Castro in 2011 to "update"
Cuba's socialist model, have been implemented haltingly, even
reversed in some areas. The government recently attempted restoring
price controls on fresh food markets in Havana.
Many traits of communism remain. Political dissent is repressed,
commercial property cannot be bought and sold and the government
still controls imports and exports.
There is no wholesale market for most private enterprises, forcing
shopkeepers to buy inventory at state retail prices or resort to
trickery or the black market.
"Cuba has already changed, but needs more," said Niuris Higueras,
owner of the Atelier restaurant, one of the trendiest spots in
Havana's dining scene. She said business grew 50 percent over the
past year.
"We need to link up with the U.S. market," Higueras said. "There
needs to be more access to U.S. products here in Cuba. We need Home
Depot, a Walmart, a Costco. A Restaurant Depot would be fabulous."
OBAMA: TRADE NOW, POLITICS LATER
While the ice has been broken on commerce, Castro insists there will
be no change to one-party rule.
U.S.-backed dissidents are still detained for attempting
unauthorized political demonstrations and opponents of Obama's
opening to Cuba say he has rewarded Castro without receiving
concessions in return.
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The White House counters that helping stimulate a vibrant private
sector is good for ordinary Cubans and offers a more promising path
toward political change than the decades-old policy of isolation.
While the date of Dec. 17, 2014, marks the most significant turning
point in U.S.-Cuban relations, the Obama policy that has so far had
most impact on the lives of ordinary Cubans was implemented in 2009,
just three months into his presidency.
It was then he ordered the lifting of travel restrictions on
Cuban-Americans visiting relatives in Cuba and the removal of limits
on remittances to relatives on the island.
Cuban-Americans can now come and go freely and send as much money as
they want to their families. That has financed a boom in small
businesses and home repairs and jolted the nascent real estate
market.
Castro's own reforms have also helped grow the private sector. Today
some 500,000 Cubans, or 10 percent of the workforce, are registered
to work in private businesses, including restaurants, car repair
workshops, homes rented out to tourists, beauty parlors and English
language schools.
Some 70 percent of the 1-million-strong agricultural workforce is
private with many Cubans working on state farms that have converted
into cooperatives and owning equal stakes in the business.
John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council, which has been tracking Cuba for more than 20 years, says
the changes have lifted expectations, especially inside the budding
middle-class.
"There is now additional pressure from within for structural changes
to the ideological foundation of the country. Cuba must do more than
reform the commercial and economic sectors of the country. It must
aggressively redefine the revolution," Kavulich said.
While Cuban dissidents and Obama's critics at home prioritize the
issue of human rights, others are more concerned about economic
growth and better living conditions.
"No one is talking about the visit in terms of democracy, human
rights or the opposition. There is still no culture around freedom
of expression," Anaida Gonzalez, a retired nurse in central Camaguey
province, said in a telephone interview.
"People have too many problems in their daily lives. What they want
is for their lives to improve and they associate that with the
embargo," she said.
Most Cubans live on state salaries that average $25 a month plus a
monthly ration card that provides about a week's worth of food and
household supplies.
"It would be a mistake to assume most Cubans prioritize political
questions and are scared to express themselves," said Carlos
Alzugaray, a retired Cuban diplomat and professor specializing in
U.S.-Cuban relations. "They hope to live better. Change, political
and economic, is coming to Cuba anyway, but on our own terms."
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta, Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta; Editing
by Kieran Murray)
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