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Here's one scene the TV cameras missed in Havana last month: While Castro's crowds railed at the U.S. to return Elian Gonzalez, 150 members of the
Washington-based Young Entrepreneurs Organization were being greeted warmly by their struggling Cuban counterparts in a five-day educational tour
of Cuba. The Cuban business owners ranged from mom-and-pop restaurateurs to partners in joint ventures with foreign investors. Not surprisingly,
Cuban entreprepreneurs decried the U.S. embargo. Apparently their pitch fell on some receptive young ears. Traveler Richard Rhodes, CEO of Rhodes,
Ragen & Smith, a Seattle-based masonry company, says the Cubans he met were well-educated and eager for change. "I have a global business," says
Rhodes, who imports from China. "I'm very interested in working in Cuba." But for now, the Straits of Florida is wider than the Pacific.
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