Today, Cuba declared a two-month amnesty for unlicensed gun owners—an implicit acknowledgment of the presence of an illegal underground market in Cuba, since very few individuals beyond active military personnel and state security agents are legally allowed to even possess weapons. As the Associated Press reports: “Even most police officers are required to leave their […]
Havana is not alone in its judgment that the Obama administration has not done enough in its first year to achieve rapprochement. Analysts have been voicing their dissatisfaction in connection with the end of year one: the Center for International Policy’s critique sums up the main complaints that have been circulating. Over-arching thesis: “Obama is […]
The date has been set: on February 19, the second round of U.S.-Cuba immigration talks will take place in Havana. Recall that the first session took place last July in New York, and the follow up discussions were postponed in December. According to the New York Times, Cuban officials aim to negotiate an agreement with […]
With a revival of aid and interest in Haiti post-earthquake and another round of bickering from Latin America’s left wing leaders accusing the US of occupying Haiti in their aid efforts, the rest of the Americas and the world have taken to sending support and aid to Haiti, running collection campaigns and rescue teams to […]
Perhaps even more than Cubans would like to see normalization of relations with the United States, they would like to see full normalization of relations with Cuban emigrants—the friends and family members who have moved abroad but maintain connections to the island, and oftentimes send money and goods back to those who remain. For years […]
Amidst the horror, criticism, and yes, punditry, only cursory attention has been paid to the forces that made Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, even before the earthquake. Haiti’s woes were not a foregone conclusion: over two centuries ago it became the second independent country in the Americas. As a colony Haiti accounted […]
In the first days following the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, American media failed the public by misreporting or omitting entirely Cuba’s involvement in the relief efforts. Only two mainstream media outlets reported on Cuba’s response. One was Fox News, which claimed (incorrectly) that among the neighboring Caribbean countries providing aid, Cuba was absent. The other […]
(Story below from AFP) US and Cuban experts are teaming up to try to save the Cuba home where Ernest Hemingway lived for more than two decades and penned his classic “The Old Man and the Sea,” official media said Wednesday. Cuba’s National Patrimony office chief Margarita Ruiz inked an agreement with the private US Finca […]
This week Havana will hold the fifth Cuban Conference on Sexual Education, Orientation and Therapy, organized by the National Center of Sex Education (CENESEX) under Mariela Castro. Ms. Castro, notably, is the daughter of Raul and niece of Fidel Castro, and an outspoken rights advocate on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual Cubans. In […]
Canada keeps a much lower profile in the hemisphere than the outspoken United States; perhaps it is the simple comparison to Washington which allows it to maintain largely friendly relations with every government in the West. Still, it is interesting that Cuba’s two large northern neighbors would have such very different relationships with Havana. One […]
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The death last week of 26 patients in Cuba’s largest psychiatric hospital has stirred up considerable controversy on the island. Such a high number is extremely rare, but the cause is even less common on a Caribbean island—cold weather. More specifically, Boyeros, the Havana neighborhood where the hospital in located, experienced “prolonged low temperatures that […]
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