Transcript

CAMPBELL: In Havana you can feel the change in the air. For the first time in decades, young Cubans aren’t just hoping for a better future – they’re sure it’s coming. Like their parents and grandparents, they grew up under a suffocating US trade embargo. Now the window’s opening. US President Barack Obama is moving to lift the embargo and change these Cuban’s lives.

Embassies have reopened, trade is recommencing. The isolation is finally ending. 

CUBAN BARMAN: “This is our revolution”.

CAMPBELL: Tonight we reveal the astonishing story of how a small American family helped make this happen. Their friendship with the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, made the unthinkable seem inevitable. 

RALPH KAEHLER: “It’s changing our national policy. You know it helped push it. He’s the coolest world leader we’ve met with. Cos there’s so many of them that we’ve sat down with you know”. [laughing]

CAMPBELL: And we join them as they return to a new Cuba that’s desperate to rise.

RALPH KAEHLER: “You know, start with a little snowball that will hopefully turn into an avalanche”.

CAMPBELL: Upstate Minnesota is about as different from Cuba as you could imagine. At the source of the Mississippi, it’s America’s conservative farming heartland. 
Ralph Kaehler’s family has been farming here since 1881. He and his wife Mena raise top of the line Simmental cattle.

RALPH KAEHLER: “Our boys are the 5th generation on the farm. Kind of our trademark that got us into all this has been developing breeding cattle and then I think a lot of our connections from our international stuff have been with being farmers. I think you know it’s more of an approach farmer to farmer”.

CAMPBELL: In 2002, the Kaehler’s travelled to Cuba as part of a Minnesota trade delegation. Governor Jesse Ventura, a former world wrestling champion, defied the Bush administration’s ban on state visits.

REPORTER: “How far away might we have some normalisation between the countries?”

GOVERNOR JESSE VENTURA: “Who knows, but this is a nice step”.

CAMPBELL: The Kaehler’s brought down some of their prize cattle on the plane. Castro had little interest in meeting big agri businesses - instead he took a shine to Ralph and his sons, Cliff and Seth. 

FIDEL CASTRO: “They are proof of the fact that our relations will be lasting relations. And our trade will continue to increase for we are already negotiating with the future generation of American farmers”.

CAMPBELL: By chance, Foreign Correspondent was in Cuba filming the trade show.

REPORTER: “And what were your impressions of him?”

SETH KAEHLER: “Very intelligent man. He’s very nice, he’s very gentle. He’s just a very good person”.

REPORTER: “And what did you think?”

CLIFF KAEHLER: “Well he was very pleasant and nice to us. You know whenever you’re by a political figure like that, you’re just in awe. I mean it was just amazing”.

CAMPBELL: “Did it feel like history in the making?”

CLIFF KAEHLER: “Not at the time”.

SETH KAEHLER: “No”.

CLIFF KAEHLER: “You know looking back, yes I can see that, but at the time you’re just… when you’re that age you just, you don’t realise what’s going on and I think… and it also came on so suddenly that we didn’t have time to really grasp the change”.

CAMPBELL: Castro even made the boys his guests of honour at a state concert. Thirteen years on it’s still a source of pride and some amazement for the parents. The friendship opened the way for Ralph to sell breeding stock and animal feed to Cuba. It was the first US cattle trade since 1959, when Castro toppled the former US-backed regime.

“Now I gather you and your family got to know El Presidente quite well on your trip”.

RALPH KAEHLER: “We’ve met with President Castro probably five or six times. He’s a man when you get in to have that level of leadership that long he does have a natural presence about him. He is very dominating in a conversation because he’s quite confident”.

CAMPBELL: But his friendship with the Communist leader infuriated opponents of Castro in the US.

RALPH KAEHLER: “You know we did get one letter from Florida and the person was such a brave daring soul they put a fake address with no name on it and you know, sent us a picture of this man killed children and how would you feel if he killed your children, you know?”

CAMPBELL: Cuban exiles in Florida might support the embargo. In Minnesota farmers just want to sell their produce. Ralph took me to meet some friends at a local cattle show. 

“Do you think it’s time that politicians eased off a bit?”

JIM ROSSMAN: “Why not? Let’s get over it. Time to move on”.

CAMPBELL: All of them, like Jim Rossman and his family, see the embargo as a Cold War relic.

JIM ROSSMAN: “Why did we do that? Does it make any sense at all?”

CAMPBELL: “So Jim, are you a Communist?”

JIM ROSSMAN: [laughs] “Am I, am I a Communist? No. I’m a Republican”.

RALPH KAEHLER: “Maybe even worse”. [laughing]

CAMPBELL: Ralph did a brisk trade with Cuba until 2008 when the global financial crisis hit. He’s now planning to take the family back to Cuba to rebuild connections and sign new contracts. So far there’s been more talk of normalising trade than actual changes. Exporters still have to negotiate a minefield of US restrictions, before they can even start to deal with Cuba’s stifling bureaucracy. But Obama’s announcement has already led to a 10% jump in agricultural trade. Ralph believes the momentum will be unstoppable.

RALPH KAEHLER: “As our trade opens up, Cuba will be in our top 20 trading partners quite easily – potentially top 10 in many of the main food products”.

CAMPBELL: As the Kaehler’s waited on their visas, we flew down to Havana. I was curious to see how much the city had changed since my last visit here in 2000. On the surface at least, the changes were remarkable and not what I was expecting. 

For a start the old town of Havana is actually much more run down – buildings are crumbling, pot holes aren’t being repaired – a sign of how badly the bureaucracy is faltering. And here’s what’s really telling, you hardly see any of these. Fifteen years ago Cuba was plastered with revolutionary and socialist billboards, just as TV was filled with back to back five hour Castro speeches. Today, these are a fading novelty. Even the government seems to realise that people are now far more interested in money than revolution. 

And that’s why you’re seeing a lot more of these – classic American cars from before the revolution. They’re being used as private taxis so people are buying up these old cars from around the countryside, along with horses and carts, and bringing them here to make some income. The irony is that Havana actually looks more like a town from the 1950s now than it did at the turn of the century.

TAXI DRIVER: “I love Australia. I love the kangaroo”. 

CAMPBELL: But what I find really remarkable is that there’s now a real contemporary scene here. Fifteen years ago a typical night out was beans and rice with rum… not anymore. 

Now there’s a swathe of uber-cool bars and restaurants buying food straight from farmers. This club called FAC, Fabrica del Arte Cubano is a disused factory converted into an art, music and fashion venue. It’s not for rich foreigners, it’s for home grown Havana hipsters. Raidel Garcia and Tomas Hernandez are local music producers. They’re keen to show off this new scene to their American neighbours.

GARCIA: “It’s good that there are eyes on this new Cuban society. This society is a bit different from the traditional one and a bit more open-minded. I tell you what… Cuban food is delicious, exquisite. Exquisite. I encourage all American tourists to come and delight themselves with Cuban food. There’s no need for McDonalds. There’s no need for Burger King. There’s no need for Domino Pizza”. 

CAMPBELL: But the thing I most wanted to see was life in the countryside. I headed down to Vinales, three hours west of Havana, to stay with Cuban farmers. Unlike in Minnesota, every part of rural life here is primitive and hard. 
Our hosts here, the Carriles family, have to trek three kilometres through the bush to reach their farm. Fearing it would be too much for an Australian, they’ve brought me a horse.

Now for the men this is the start of a really long hard day on the farm, but for the women in the household, well they’ve already been up since well before dawn working. Kenia Carriles and her daughters do the cooking and cleaning as well as helping out on the farm. There’s no money for equipment so it’s completely labour intensive. 

KENIA CARRILES: “Now this machete is to cut down foliage to feed the pigs because they don’t have any other food”. 

CAMPBELL: The grandfather, Prudencio is 79 but still puts in a 12 hour day.

GRANDPA PRUDENCIO: “I don’t have any money. I eat what I grow. It’s what I will always do. As well as help others”. 

CAMPBELL: The farm has been in the family for three generations. That’s unusual for Cuba - most farms are big rural cooperatives owned by the State - but that system is no longer working to feed the country. Cuba now has to import most its food. The Carriles are expected to give some of their crops to the State, but with barely 60 acres, they struggle to grow enough for themselves.

KENIA CARRILES: “Well, this is the rice we plant. We harvest it every year. We collect four to six hundred pounds of this rice. It’s for our consumption. We don’t sell it. It’s for our tourist business. I would like to have more modern methods of farming”.

CAMPBELL: The family live in a nearby village where they rent rooms to foreign tourists to make ends meet. Kenia may seem an ordinary housewife but she’s actually a trained biologist. These days, nobody can live on State wages. 

“People say that in recent years things got harder because the Soviet Union disappeared and you had the American embargo, how hard has life been in recent years?”

KENIA CARRILES: “Of course. The economy is always the same economy. We don’t have rights, no matter how hard we work, because of the embargo and the lack of commerce with all these countries. The economy affects everything. It affects everyone, even the children”. 

CAMPBELL: Cubans were raised to see the US as the enemy, not just because of the embargo, but because the US backed the brutal regime that Fidel Castro overthrew. Prudencio risked his life helping Castro’s rebel fighters.

“What made you decide to fight the Batista regime?”

GRANDPA PRUDENCIO: [showing his medals] “Because of their crimes. I was thrown off the farm at Rosario when I was seven years old along with all of my family and neighbours because of the Rural Guard”. 

CAMPBELL: “So tell me what was it like when you were working for the revolution, was it very dangerous?”

GRANDPA PRUDENCIO: “Dangerous? You couldn’t speak out. They would hang you from a tree. We had three friends who were dumped in the sewage in Tortuga. One feels pain for those who could be alive and who are not. We have them in our thoughts always. What a great joy! It was a great joy for the Cuban people”. 

CAMPBELL: The Communists would create their own litany of human rights abuses, but Cubans remain fiercely proud of the revolution and their independence. For half a century they never buckled to the pressure of the US. 

Despite the economic problems, it’s a remarkably joyous place. Family is everything here. All Kenia wants is a better future for her daughters. 

“Are people uncertain about what’s going to come in the future after the Castros are gone?”

KENIA CARRILES: “Our young people are very well prepared to follow in our footsteps and share our ideals. We will all fight to maintain these ideals because it feels right”. 

CAMPBELL: Two days later the Kaehler’s were at last flying into Havana. The whole clan had come, Mena, the boys Cliff and Seth, and their girlfriends Shelby and Bailey. Ralph had organised a series of meetings with Cuban officials to capitalise on Obama’s olive branch.

The officials barred us from filming most of the visits, but we were allowed to join them at a state stud farm where the Cubans had a surprise for the Kaehler’s. Fidel Castro may have been put out to pasture, handing the reigns to his younger brother Raul, but Minnesota Red is still going strong.

RALPH KAEHLER: “That’s one that was in the video when Cliff and Seth – that would have been in 2002 and that’s her daughter”.

CAMPBELL: “Wow”.

RALPH KAEHLER: “And that’s her son so we’re making… and you can see they’ve adapted to the Cuban environment. They’re taking very good care of them. Most cows don’t make it to be thirteen years old. We’re quite surprised that she’s still going. For us it makes us feel good. It shows our cattle can adapt, but to have this longevity, it shows it was the right selection genetically for Cuba to help them improve their animals”.

CAMPBELL: And he expects her offspring to help transform Cuba’s cattle stock.

RALPH KAEHLER: “It’s just a matter of the governments working out their idiosyncrasies”.

CAMPBELL: “That’s one way to put it”. [laughing]

RALPH KAEHLER: “Assuming that it will happen, but things are looking good”.

CAMPBELL: For all the goodwill, the embargo remains in place. Until the US Congress agrees to lift restrictions like the ban on direct banking, entrepreneurs like Ralph will struggle. 

RALPH KAEHLER: “It went really well. We’ve had some great meetings and we’ve definitely got interest. We heard from the Cubans, they love the products we introduced to them. Unfortunately, they’re not buying them right now and the Ministry of Foreign Development and Trade has made it very clear the lack of credit and the third country banking is being a huge barrier to them buying more”.

CAMPBELL: On the Kaehler’s last day in Cuba we took them down to the farming town of Vinales. It seemed appropriate that these two very different yet surprisingly similar families should meet. Prudencio had slaughtered and roasted one of their prized pigs. No food shortage was going to get in the way of Cuban hospitality.

RALPH KAEHLER: “Love it! A meal like this… it doesn’t get any better than home barbeque”.

CAMPBELL: As different as Minnesota and Cuba are, the country is still the country - and nothing delights a farmer more than a meal that’s been grown where it’s eaten. 

KENIA CARRILES: “Here we have a delicious meal. All the produce is from our farm”. 

CAMPBELL: “So Ralph, what does coming here tell you about American/Cuban relations?”

RALPH KAEHLER: “If we had US officials here having this meal I know what they would say when they left too. We need to end all the animosity and the same with Cuban officials. If they were sitting at the tables of regular families, I think it would make it easier for both of them to get rid of, I don’t know, for lack of a better word, stupid protocol or you know some of the obnoxious rules”.

CAMPBELL: There are no illusions that trade will boom overnight or that politicians on either side will suddenly forget their animosity. It’s going to be two steps forward and one step back as the US and Cuba start their awkward dance. But after half a century of conflict, these neighbours are at last becoming neighbourly. 

RALPH KAEHLER: “If our kids acted like our governments with the embargo you would take them back in the room, give them a swat on their butt and tell them to straighten up and play better. Even you know heck in a marriage you don’t agree with your spouse on everything but that doesn’t mean you quit talking to them full time. You have your days where you may not, but we need to normalise our relations, opening up trade, be a good neighbour and keep things safe so it’s… I mean it’s going to be better for both countries”.