Circles Robinson, Author at Havana Times

Cuba’s President Raul Castro at Hanukah Festivity

Cuban President Raúl Castro attended the Hanukah or the “Festivity of Lights,” a festivity celebrated by the small Jewish community on the island, reported IPS. The president took advantage of his visit to the venue of the Hebrew Council to call on the island’s population to join the debate on the guidelines of the next Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, to be held in April 2011.

Cuba Gov. to Invest in Construction Materials

The Cuban government will carry out investments in the construction materials industry to improve the production capacities of each factory, Deputy Minister of Construction Jorge Luis Rodríguez affirmed. According to the official, the objective is also to guarantee that the population has access to products so they can build new housing and repair the ones that already exist with their own effort.

South Africa: Violence, Exploitation Fail to Dissuade Female Migrants

Since arriving in Cape Town five years ago, Erina Manyene (not her real name) has eked out a meager living picking up shifts doing laundry and cleaning other people’s homes in the city’s leafy southern suburbs.

US Congress Won’t Discuss Travel Restrictions

The United States Congress will not discuss in its last sessions of this year a bill that would have lifted the restrictions on travel to Cuba, said Democratic Senator Bill Delahunt. Starting January, the bill could face a definitive opposition in the new House of Representatives, dominated by the Republican Party, and in the Senate where the Democrats lost part of their majority.

Cuba Drops Death Sentence for Salvadoran

Cuba’s Supreme Court commuted to 30 years the death sentence imposed on Salvadoran Raul Ernesto Cruz, confessed author of attacks with bombs in 1997 that killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo and caused material damage to hotels and tourist installations in Havana. An official source reported that in the modification of the sentence the defendant’s contribution to clearing up the complex structure of the terrorist network financed and organized in the United States, among other factors, was taken into account.

The Abakuas in the Streets of Havana

In 1871, five Cuban black men led an armed action in protest of the shooting of eight medical students. After 139 years, other men and women from this island — in the middle of the street — tried to grant just recognition for that act of bravery. (47 photos)

Do I need to declare my digital camera with GPS on it?

Earlier this year (2010), Aduana General de la República de Cuba (General Customs of the Republic of Cuba) updated their website. Known as AduaCuba and located at www.aduana.co.cu, it is available in both Spanish and English, although the English section is not as comprehensive.

Conversation with Cuban Actor Alejandro Milian

I was taught to be a professional, to respect the stage, that an actor has to study and always concern themself with being a good human being, because someone who is not a good human being can never be an artist.

Climate Change Lost in Cancún

“The hurricane season officially ended on Nov. 30,” a local shopkeeper told this journalist reassuringly as she entered his store with her hair blown in every direction by the wind on a drizzly, cloudy day.

Cuba VP Calls for Dropping Passivity

Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo called on the island’s population to “think, create, alert, act and leave aside passivity and tolerance,” in a speech on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the schools of the ruling Communist Party. “It is necessary to strengthen the link with the masses, eliminate improvisation to be able to convince the workers, the youth and the people of the complex social and international reality we are living,” the official said.