Castro's U.S. Business "Guru" Defects

BY: CAPITOL HILL CUBANS



January 7, 2011

Pedro Alvarez, who until recently was head of the Castro regime's foreign trade monopoly, Alimport, has defected to the United States.

Alimport is the Castro regime's official counter-part for every single agricultural sales transaction from the U.S. to Cuba.

As president of Alimport, Alvarez was considered the business "guru" behind agricultural purchases from the U.S., and has wined and dined dozens of U.S. Governors, Members of Congress and hundreds of American business executives.

As U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) gleefully stated during a March 2010 hearing of the House Agriculture Committee:

"I, too, have been down there, Mr. Presidents (of the American Farm Bureau and National Farmers Union), both of you. I appreciate that but assume that you know who Mr. Alvarez is. I spent a lot of time with him. I spent quite a bit of time with Mr. Castro. Sometimes we would be entertained. I can tell you about that a little bit."

In November, Alvarez was detained and question in a "corruption" probe by the Castro regime.

In other words, he either stopped producing for the Castro brothers, or dipped his hand into their (absolute and whimsical) cut.

Now, it appears Alvarez is in the U.S., where he can surely be a source of valuable information regarding the Castro regime's shady business practices -- not to mention on some of that "entertainment" Congressman Boswell is talking about.