Making Cuba Libre, for Public Relations

Following news of Cuban President Fidel Castro's illness, "the United States beefed up its television transmissions to Cuba ... through its Miami-based TV Marti station," reports Associated Press. "The Office of Cuba Broadcasting unveiled a new G-1 twin turbo propeller plane, which will increase the transmissions from one afternoon a week to six." The 2006 U.S. budget includes $10 million, "to develop airborne TV broadcasting and counter the Cuban government's mostly successful efforts to jam the transmission." Cuban officials may crack down on satellite dishes, which are illegal, saying that "a good part of the programming ... is destabilizing, interventionist, subversive." Castro's death "could be the first step toward ending the decades-long U.S. embargo and opening the country to U.S. corporate interests," writes PR Week. "Most PR firms interested in the Cuban market already have an idea of what they will do when Castro is out of the picture." Burson-Marsteller's Latin America president called setting up Cuba operations "one of the biggest challenges ... but the opportunity is there."