The Nicaraguan community based in the USA is preparing to protest against the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, who is expected to attend the UN General Assembly on Wednesday in New York. The organizers expect to receive delegations from New Jersey, Massachusetts, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Florida, the Carolinas, Washington, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut and three Canadian cities.
According to Valenti, the key to this sector’s recovery lies in international tourism returning to the country, which will only happen if a safe environment is restored. “The tourism industry is all about confidence, a tourist will only go where they feel safe and confident.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met in Havana Wednesday with Bob Corker, president of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, visiting the island, reported dpa news. The senator is not seeking reelection in the November US Congressional elections.
The days will begin with little cloudiness in Havana. In the afternoons there will be a slight increase in the probability of isolated showers, which may be more intense towards the south of the capital. The high temperatures will be between 31 and 32° C (88 and 90 F), while the lows will be around 23° C (73 F).
Five months after the protests against the Government of Nicaragua began, the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy announced in a statement that it will continue with the peaceful struggle throughout the country as well as work to include more sectors of society in the effort to bring about the end of the Ortega-Murillo regime.
Aside from being a new project, writing up the “San Isidro Manifesto” against Law 349 has allowed us to see ourselves as a movement. It has given us a space to discuss our interests, and to establish a consensus about our aesthetic and political stance.
The "Espacio Abierto" Gallery is putting on a painting exhibition called “Las tentaciones del ingenio” (Naif temptations). The show is of the works of painter and teacher Jose Clemente Gascon Martinez. (17 photos)
I don’t believe there is a single person in Cuba who hasn’t experienced a relative or friend leave in search of a better future abroad. I believe some of them are never able to forget that feeling: bearing witness to somebody change their life radically while they remain behind, paralyzed, trapped in a country with a suffocating reality and no prospects of improving whatsoever.
During his visit to Cuba, Barack Obama publicly stated that the US embargo (blockade) was a failed policy that hadn’t managed to achieve its objectives and only caused suffering and shortages for the Cuban people. “I’m sure that Congress will inevitably lift an embargo which should no longer be there,” the then US president said.
When it comes to any overly expensive service, you can only hope for two things: quality and security. However, there is no doubt Cuba's telecommunications monopoly, ETECSA, has managed to provide its customers with the worst service possible, with incredible efficiency. A slow and unsecure connection.
“A country’s achievements shouldn’t be defined by how many hotels are being built, but by the quality of a meal,” I heard a man say in line at the bakery. (He was referring to statistics that official media publish everywhere, which are so optimistic, biased, cynical).
Daniel Ortega wants a civil war. Of all the possible scenarios to put an end to the tragedy that Nicaragua lives, it is the only one that can assure his permanence in power. In all the others, his leaving is certain. But now is the first time that one side is not willing to take up arms.
The history of dictators repeats itself. They repress and terrorize their population when they should protect and respect them, while at the same time hiding the terrible truth. And, as if that were not enough, they blame the victims themselves.
Today, the FSLN of Ortega and his government, are a shame. They dishonor Sandino’s memory. The turn to the right, nepotism, corruption and, now, the mass murders of defenseless citizens, have erased with one act the reference point that the Latin American left had in Sandinismo.
Cuba’s state-controlled telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, asked for people to comment about their third mobile Internet trial, which involved free surfing using a 100Mb data package which was to be used in 72 hours. I wanted to find out what people’s general opinion was, so I read many of the 1048 comments that had been published...
Alfredo Nunez Elias was born with a congenital malformation which resulted in him losing a leg when he was 33 years old. This hasn’t prevented him from becoming a hairdresser and stylist, the creator of a hair-straightening product, a fashion designer and pastry chef.
Esmeralda Rojas Soto, 65, belongs to a cooperative in the Artemisa Municipality. She has been rearing cattle for 40 years now and she sells them to the National Meat Company. Like many other farmers, she has experienced discrepancies with the manager of the slaughterhouse when it comes to the weight of her cattle.
The Cuban people’s longing for a single currency became surprisingly apparent during the debates being held about constitutional reform, when opinions were made public, calling for an article that endorses the Cuban Peso as the country’s single currency. Joaquin Pujol talks about what he classifies as “the most commented and long-awaited economic decision in Cuban history.”
Last July, the National Assembly approved the so-called “Law against money laundering, financing terrorism, and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” The law imposes sentences of 15-20 years in jail to those persons categorized as terrorists by the regime in power.
It’s a visible problem, although official Cuban media doesn’t tackle the subject in as much depth as it should. Some people have a warped vision about this kind of violence and believe that it only exists if there is physical aggression. However, violence against women takes many forms.
Neurosurgeon Josmar Briones fully grasped the level of brutality unleashed by Daniel Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua when he received in his clinic two young demonstrators who had been raped with AK-47 rifles by paramilitaries.
In late August and early September, Daniel Ortega embarked on an unprecedented round of interviews with the international media. In these interviews, he repeats a number of false statements about the repression his regime has spearheaded since the national revolt began in April. He reiterates his denials of any repression, despite documented evidence...
At the “La Esperanza” (Hope) prison in Tipitapa, 17 women are illegally detained. For them there is no sun light, nor phone calls from their relatives. They receive no medical attention and are considered by the prison wardens as “highly dangerous criminals.” The crime committed by these women was to protest against the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
