Fernando Ravsberg Archives

Twisted Democracies

In many democracies, particularly in Latin America, well-meaning reforms intended to enhance democracy have achieved just the opposite.

Nicaragua’s Property Values Plummet, Few Buyers

The economic crisis sparked by the pandemic, plus political instability and the suspension of commercial flights, have hit Nicaragua hard.

Cuba Car Fair with the World’s Most Expensive Vehicles

When I woke up that morning in January 2014 when I discovered the news about car prices, I thought that it was just another rumor from Miami. However, once I got to the store, I could confirm that Peugeots were priced at a quarter of a million dollars.

Is the Internet Cuba’s Weakest Flank?

The US is creating a Task Force in order to “help” Cubans access the Internet. Lacking all of Obama’s political imagination, Trump is remaking the movie that several US presidents have already produced before him.

Challenges and Realities of Cuba’s Health Care System

the reality is that if wages of medical personnel don’t increase, the wages of cleaning staff can’t get any better either. Patients will continue to receive “stem-cell” therapy for free while they continue to slip and fall in puddles of water that nobody is cleaning up.

The Millions that Fly Out of Cuba

Tens of thousands of Cubans are traveling to Guyana every year to “import” products worth 145 million USD. The same thing happens in Russia, where the influx of Cuban buyers is such that some markets have signs in Spanish which are specifically directed at Cubans.

US State Department without Evidence against Cuba

Washington is changing its tune as Diplomatic Security Assistant Director, Todd Brown, accepts that a sonic weapon might not exist but he does say that US diplomats in Havana could have been targets of a “viral” attack. Of course, he didn’t offer a hint of evidence to back up his statement.

Challenges for Cuba’s New President

Changes in the Cuban government are slated for 2018, although the President is the only one who is planned to be replaced. The landscape in which the new leader will take the reins of power is one of a nation which is half-way across the river, with a reform process that is pretty much paralyzed and even moving backwards…

How Cuba’s News Policy Affects the Economy

During this year that is now drawing to an end, the private sector of the economy has received several blows with cooperatives, restaurants and night clubs being shut down, as well as new licenses being suspended for the most profitable and popular types of businesses.

US Reinvents Attacks on its Diplomats Stationed in Cuba

The press in the US says that “bipartisan leaders of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lower House asked the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to direct the investigation into the mysterious sonic attacks on personnel of the US Embassy in Havana.”

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