Caribbean PC Pirate--Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of ROM

Under a banner bearing a crossbones logo topped by a familiar-looking apple, a modern-day Blackbeard is telling of his plans to make a killing, pirating computers with the help of sanctions that prevent Americans from doing business here.

Even as U.S. lawmakers sent President Clinton a bill Wednesday to thwart foreign investment in Cuba, Angelo, an Italian businessman who did not want his last name used, was at an international computer exhibition here pitching new and used Apple Macintoshes, laptops and software.

“If that’s the way the Americans want to play it, if they want to take themselves for a ride, so be it,” Angelo said.

His business name is Capitan Mac (Captain Mac). His logo, displayed at a stand at the Informatica computer exposition, resembles the skull-and-crossbones pirate flag, but with an apple in place of the skull.

Other American brands were featured at the exhibition this week, including Hewlett-Packard printers. But the dozens of firms present were European, Latin American, South Korean and Canadian--all relishing the opportunity to gain a foothold in Cuba’s largely untapped computer market.

Elsewhere in Havana, deals were being closed and foreign investment projects announced as Cuba’s government deplored the new U.S. sanctions and pursued more foreign cash.

“This policy of threats does put some weak companies or nations under pressure,” said Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban Parliament. “However, experience shows that this policy is unable to undermine our nation. In fact, what we have been seeing in recent years is that the U.S. embargo is breaking up.”

Angelo’s business will not be affected by the proposed new sanctions, which attempt to punish companies using U.S. property in Cuba confiscated at the time of the 1959 communist revolution.

Germany’s ambassador to Cuba, Hans Kruger, on Tuesday opened the first German-owned establishment in Cuba, a franchise of the jewelry chain Irina.

Olivetti, the Italian computer giant, has four sales outlets in Cuba and plans to open more, it said.

Exposition vendors advertised computers, music-mixing and editing machines, TV systems, copiers and computer courses.

But one of the biggest attractions was Capitan Mac. Angelo spoke animatedly with prospective customers and was more than willing to explain his business strategy. Despite the name, he doesn’t limit himself to Apple products: One computer at his stand ran Microsoft’s Windows 95 software.

Capitan Mac is an affiliate of a Rome-based company--which Angelo refused to identify--that will have a sales and service network for Apple products. It is not authorized to sell them, but it can do so in Cuba by using the sanctions as a shield.

The joint venture with the state will open a training school and offer its customers an extended two-year service warranty, Angelo said.

“We’re going to beat the embargo and take an Apple-certified technician and set up our network here,” he said. “We believe we have found a situation like Apple had in 1984. Apple is a cult object in Cuba.”

Angelo said he has no qualms about the possibility of facing legal action from the company: “It’s the Caribbean. It’s a pirate tradition. We are not under U.S. jurisdiction. They want to sue us? It would be stupid.”