Prof. Jaime Suchlicki
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL 33146-22318                                             March 6, 2002

 RE:  Cuba Transition Project

Dear Prof. Suchlicki,

The Support Group for Independent Cooperatives of Cuba (GACICUBA) is a private organization that has been 5 years in existence and which is dedicated to providing technical and social support for the integrated development of Cuban’s rural sector.  We do not work under any political or ideological banners.

What characterizes our work and distinguishes it from many other similar efforts is that we work exclusively and directly with our Cuban target population and are in constant dialogue with its members.  We have a track record of listening to their needs and providing as much effective support as possible.

Our organization is committed to a participatory strategy that stresses the involvement of the rural population in defining and carrying out its own socioeconomic objectives.  Thus, we support its choice of using the cooperative organizational model as its primary institutional vehicle and we respect its desire to develop, as much as possible, free market,  institutions and practices.

In this task, we have identified women, the young, the peasants/farmers and the agricultural professionals as the key sectors of the current Cuban rural society and we focus our efforts on and through them.

We believe that our efforts parallel some of the intended objectives of the Cuba Transition Project and we think that any collaboration between our two entities might be mutually beneficial and advantageous.  We invite you to look at our performance and previous activities and we hope that you will find us to be an asset in the implementation of the Cuba Transition Project.

If you would like some additional information on our organization, please do visit our website www.gacicuba.org  or contact Prof. George Primov of the Department of Sociology at UM (8-6169), he is well acquainted with our activities and has served as an informal advisor for us on a few occasions.

I hope that you will find our work of interest and that we will have an opportunity to collaborate in helping Cuba’s rural population survive and prosper in the coming years.

Sincerely,

Diosmel Rodriguez,
Executive Director GACICUBA
717 Ponce de Leon BLVD Suite 326
Coral Gales Fl. 33134 Telef.(305) 401 7660
Email: gacicuba@aol.com