“According to reports, Cargill appears to be betting on Cuba’s cheap agriculture labor.” …Cargill which acts as a middle man between farms and big food companies is the largest privately held company in the US. “In 2003, Cargill created an independent affiliate called Black River Asset Management, a $5.6 billion hedge fund that leverages the company’s unmatched intelligence capabilities to place big bets on products and land on behalf of pension funds and college funds.”
6/12/2014, “US Chamber of Commerce Visits Cuba to Check Investment Climate,” Narayan Ammachchi, nearshoresAmerica.com
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is examining the investment climate in Cuba, a tentative sign that the North American superpower wants to expand its business relationship with its communist neighbor. A delegation from the Chamber of Commerce reportedly visited Cuba recently to “lay the groundwork” for U.S. business activity in the island nation.
Among the visitors were Steve Van Andel, Chairman of Amway, and Marcel Smits, CFO of Cargill. According to reports, Cargill appears to be betting on Cuba’s cheap agriculture labor, while Amway is hoping to offer its direct marketing model to thousands of Cubans laid off by state companies.”…
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Added:
May 27, 2014, “U.S. business leader praises growth of free enterprise in Cuba,” Reuters, Daniel Trotta, Havana
Now that free market reforms in recent years under Cuban President Raul Castro have created a class of small-business owners and private cooperatives and the government is courting foreign investment, Donohue has returned for the first time in 15 years.
“I’m here because of the evidence that we’re seeing in Cuba of an extraordinary expansion of free enterprise, the reduction in government jobs, and more private hiring, all of which is moving in the right direction,” said Donohue, whose chamber is an influential lobbying group that bills itself as the world’s largest business organization….
Donohue and a dozen others including a representative of U.S. commodities company Cargill [CARG.UL] planned to visit a private auto repair cooperative and the special development zone in the port of Mariel. Donohue was due to give a speech at Havana University on Thursday just before departing….
[Image: Cargill in Mexico]
“As you know the chamber for years has been opposed to the sanctions as they are used,” he told reporters shortly after his arrival and before he met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez….
Donohue declined to say whether he expected any U.S. policy change toward Cuba, which Washington has sought to undermine and isolate since the island’s 1959 revolution took it down the path of communism….
But in Washington, New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez expressed serious concern about the chamber’s trip, fearing it would strengthen a government that “jails foreign business leaders without justification, violates international labor standards and denies its citizens their basic rights.”
“Such conditions hardly seem an attractive opportunity for any responsible business leader,” said Menendez, a leading Cuban-American voice for maintaining strict economic sanctions on the one-party state.”…
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Added: Cargill announces addition to its Black Sea presence with US appointed Prime Minister (“Yats is the guy“) Yatsenyuk in attendance, though less than two months later in April 2016, Yatsenyuk would resign, having failed to tackle corruption.
2/24/2016, “Cargill and MV Cargo take final steps to build port terminal in Yuzhni, Ukraine,“ cargill.com, Kyiv, Ukraine
“MV Cargo has signed a share purchase agreement with Cargill to build a grain terminal worth about $100m in Yuzhni, Ukraine.”
“In the presence of [US appointed, “Yats is the guy] His Excellency, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Prime Minister of Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, Minister of Infrastructure Andriy Pivovarskiy, Minister of Agriculture Olexi Pavlenko, and other senior Ukrainian government officials, representatives of Cargill and MV Cargo today formalised their intention to construct grain terminal by signing a Share Purchase Agreement legally committing the two companies and enabling the construction of the facility by MV Cargo to go ahead. The investment, is worth around U.S. $100 million.
Today’s agreement marks a significant milestone in the project and follows the memorandum of cooperation Cargill and MV Cargo entered into with Ukraine’s Sea Ports Authority (USPA) on 13th August 2015, whereby the port authority agreed to dredge the water area adjacent to the future grain terminal down to 16 meters,. This will enable the new terminal to handle large vessels with a deadweight of up to 100,000 metric tonnes that the new facility will attract to the port.
“We are delighted to finally be signing this agreement today, as we have been working towards this moment with our partners MV Cargo and with the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority for quite some time,” said Andreas Rickmers, head of Cargill’s grains and oilseeds business in Europe....”It will add to our footprint of port facilities in the Black Sea region and confirms our intention to keep investing in Ukraine’s agricultural sector.”…
Construction of the terminal will begin on 27th February 2016 and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018.”
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Added: Cargill in 2016 refers to US-installed Prime Minister (“Yats is the guy“) Yatsenyuk as, “His Excellency, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Prime Minister of Ukraine.” “Yats” had been US selection: “Nuland: “I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.”” BBC, 2/7/2014
Image: Prime Minister to be: Feb. 2014: Ukraine’s “Yats,” Arseny Yatsenyuk, foreground, right was US choice to be new prime minister after 2014 US overthrow of Ukraine government:, “Yats is the guy,“ per Ms. Nuland. Also in photo from left, Klitschko, then two blood-drenched US Oligarchs, Asst. US Sec. of State Victoria Nuland, and US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. And Yats.
2/7/2014, “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call," BBC
“The alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, appeared on YouTube on Thursday [Feb. 4, 2014]. It is not clearly when the alleged conversation took place.
Here is a transcript, with analysis by BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus:…Jonathan Marcus: At the outset it should be clear that this is a fragment of what may well be a larger phone conversation. But the US has not denied its veracity. Warning: This transcript contains swearing.
Voice thought to be Nuland’s: What do you think?
Voice thought to be Pyatt’s: I think we’re in play. The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main [pro-US coup] opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated electron here. Especially the announcement of him [Klitschko] as deputy prime minister and you’ve seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we’re trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff. But I think your argument to him,which you’ll need to make, I think that’s the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, another opposition leader]….
[Jonathan Marcus: The US says that it is working with all sides in the crisis to reach a peaceful solution, noting that “ultimately it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide their future”. However this transcript suggests that the US has very clear ideas about what the outcome should be and is striving to achieve these goals….Washington clearly has its own game-plan.]
Nuland: Good. I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Pyatt: Yeah. I guess… in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other opposition leader] and his guys and I’m sure that’s part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this.
Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the...what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in…he’s going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it’s just not going to work.
Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think that’s right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?
Nuland: My understanding from that call – but you tell me – was that the big three [Yats, Klitschko, and Tyahnybok] were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a…three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you understood it?
Pyatt: No. I think…I mean that’s what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that’s been with them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he’s going to take a while to show up for whatever meeting they’ve got and he’s probably talking to his guys at this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the personality management among the three and it gives you also a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn’t like it.
Nuland: OK, good. I’m happy. Why don’t you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.
Pyatt: OK, will do. Thanks.
Nuland: OK…one more wrinkle for you Geoff. [A click can be heard] I can’t remember if I told you this, or if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman [United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs] this morning, he had a new name for the UN guy Robert Serry did I write you that this morning?
[Jonathan Marcus:…Various officials attempting to marshal the Ukrainian [pro-US coup] opposition; efforts to get the UN to play an active role in bolstering a deal; and (as you can see below) the big guns waiting in the wings – US Vice-President Joe Biden clearly being lined up to give private words of encouragement at the appropriate moment.]
Pyatt: Yeah I saw that.
Nuland: OK. He’s now gotten both Serry and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fuck the EU.
[Jonathan Marcus:…The EU is divided and to some extent hesitant about picking a fight with Moscow….But the US clearly is determined to take a much more activist role.]
Pyatt: No, exactly. And I think we’ve got to do something to make it stick together....So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep… we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing….
Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president’s [Biden] national security adviser Jake] Sullivan’s come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden’s willing.
Pyatt: OK. Great. Thanks.”
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Added: Maidan protesters who stood in the cold for months were later “gripped with a profound sense of shock” when elite corruption in the “new” government was worse than before:
Image: 12/15/2013, Kiev, Ukraine, US Senator McCain shares stage at anti-government protest with Klitschko and others in Maidan square. McCain told the crowd, “America stands with you.” at :35 on CNN video
The protesters were later “gripped with a profound sense of shock” that the new government ignored them:
4/30/2015, “Ukraine: Insider Oligarchs Derail Maidan Revolution,” Huffington Post, Nikolas Kozloff, Contributor
As usual, US intervention made things worse than they were before. Ukraine Maidan protesters “are gripped with a profound sense of shock” that their “revolution” calling for overhaul of elite corruption has yielded the reverse, a worse oligarch and worse elite corruption in which oligarchs still control 80-85% of Ukraine GDP...
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Added: At Dec. 2013 at Maidan protests in Ukraine, standard duplicitous US official, Ms. Nuland hands out free bread to protesters standing in the freezing cold. At :16, she says to them, “You’re so courageous,“ after which a kind man, mistakenly believing she and the US care about them, says, “Thank you very much for your attendance.” The protesters will later be profoundly shocked to learn that the US cared nothing about them.
Above images: “Nuland has been in Kiev for the second day, meeting opposition leaders during her visit. Protesters were also met on December 10 by the United Nations High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Matters Catherine Ashton.” 12/11/2013, “Victoria Nuland brings tea and cake at Ukraine protests,” georgianjournal.ge/world
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Added: Everyone knows US is Grim Reaper but no one stops them:
Added: Ukraine oligarchs were given even more control with new US installed Ukraine Prime Minister “Yats,” Yatsenyuk, who immediately reached out to oligarchs to assign them parts of the country, the exact opposite of what Maidan protests were about:
3/2/2014, “Ukraine Turns to Its Oligarchs for Political Help," NY Times, Andrew E. Kramer, Kiev, Ukraine
“The interim government...is recruitingthe country’s wealthy businessmen, known as the oligarchs, to serve as governorsof the eastern provinces….
The ultra-wealthy industrialistswield such power in Ukraine that they form what amounts to a shadow government,with empires of steel and coal, telecoms and media, and armies of workers. Persuading some to serve as governors in the east was a small victory for the new [US installed] government in Kiev….
“The risk is this will be seen as business as usual by putting wealthy people in government. That has been part of the problem for the past 22 years,”...[said] Steven Pifer, a former American ambassador to Ukraine who is now at the Brookings Institution.”…
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