Over the years, buying and selling en la calle—in the street—has been practiced by generations of Cubans trying to make ends meet. Many of the goods sold on the vast black market come from government stores or from abroad. Now they can be sold via internet on Revolico.com, a fascinating development in a country where […]
On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led a small group of armed rebels/revolutionaries in an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. They were easily defeated, and so failed in their immediate goal of surprising the soldiers within and taking arms for the rebel movement. But the day itself is now widely recognized […]
Noel Brinkerhoff reports: “In another sign of improving, if not incremental change in relations between the United States and Cuba, the U.S. military formally acknowledged a joint disaster-preparedness exercise last week between American and Cuban soldiers. Troops stationed on the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay crossed over into Cuban territory to set up a […]
The last month of economic news has been as diverse as the last 10 months of the same forecasts. With the start of July, the drop in recent markets worldwide and predictions of further problems in large economies such as the UK and Japan set to bring the recession further attention, but by mid month […]
Today my colleague Sean Murphy posted his review of the movie Fidel: The Untold Story on the Foreign Policy Association’s Global Film Review blog. Check out his commentary on the 2001 film here. Also note the blurb from the Miami Herald on the movie poster above: “Infuriating and fascinating! Required viewing.” Particularly incredible in the documentary is the […]
The Center for Democracy in the Americas recently discussed the economic embargo with former Secretary of Agriculture John Block. The Secretary pointed out that very different policies have been used with those other countries the United States opposes on similar grounds—China and Vietnam, for example—and that long-standing Cuba policy is not only inconsistent in this […]
A few graphic novels in progress have crossed my e-mail recently because of their focus on Cuba. The first is called Happy at 90 Miles and is based on the real experiences of one Cuban citizen that attempted the raft-trip from Cuba to the United States, only to be caught and imprisoned. The story will be […]
Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo, speaking in Nicaragua today, demanded that the United States “stop providing military support” to the interim Honduran government, “cease its intervention” in Honduran affairs, and “remove its staff from Honduras.” Fidel Castro similarly accused the United States of backing peace talks in Costa Rica as a stalling tactic to exhaust […]
(From the Wall Street Journal) A New York man filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the U.S. government’s restrictions on spending by American citizens and permanent residents while traveling to Cuba. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, alleges Zachary Sanders was fined after he failed to respond to a March 2000 request by […]
On Wednesday at the Egypt meetings of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Raul Castro called for the creation of a new international financial system that better takes into account developing countries’ interests, and “that relies on the participation of all countries.” It’s a goal that makes a lot of sense, frankly, even if implementation is a […]
Cuba, US to resume immigration talks at UN (From AFP): Talks between Cuba and the United States on the thorny issue of immigration, suspended since 2003, will resume on Tuesday at United Nations headquarters in New York, the US State Department said. “Today, US and Cuban representatives will meet in New York to discuss implementation of […]
Pablo Pacheco is a journalist that was imprisoned in Cuba in 2003, and remains behind bars (his sentence is 20 years). Supposedly, he is able to dictate blog entries by phone to Claudia Cadelo, a friend, who posts them here. The Huffington Post gave this blog attention today. It seems unbelievable that Pacheco would be […]
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