Fernando Ravsberg

Cuba’s Press: Heroic Guerrilla or Inept Army?

The contradiction is that Raul Castro is asking journalists to join in the battle for change but under the control of the same people who have led them into defeat and whose greatest concern seems to be punishing those who are “undisciplined.”

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How Cuba Deals with LGTBs

Cuban legislators continue to refrain from discussing — a form of vetoing without debating — the new Family Code that addresses, among other issues, the rights of lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals (LGTBs).

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Freedom for Cuba’s Political Prisoners

After the release of all peaceful dissidents and several of the violent ones, the bulk of political prisoners remaining in Cuba are those that the United States continues to hold at its military base in Guantanamo, on the east side of the island.

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They Didn’t Like the Cuba Granny Story

What really bothered a friend who is a government official, the same as some other mid-level political cadre, was my story about a grandmother forced to collect tin cans to survive. It was as if they believed it’s enough to kill the messenger for bad news to go away. I’m sorry if I offended anybody, but my job is to write about Cuba, and that includes the poor and the excluded because they too are the children of this nation.

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Raul Castro, The First Secretary

To explain what’s happening in Cuba has always been complex, but with Raul Castro in the presidency, it’s becomes even more difficult. He is a discreet man with short speeches and long silences, someone who deals behind the scenes and plays his cards with neither noise nor fanfare.

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The Stone in the Road in Seeing Cuba

When I was preparing to travel to the island back in 1990, I left with the presumption that I would be covering extremely critical times for the Cuban Revolution. I even considered the possibility of experiencing a violent internal conflict.

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Cuba’s Clock Is Ticking Away

The power of the bureaucracy resides precisely in being able to decide who buys an automobile, who moves into a house, what a small farmer can raise, who travels or how much a self-employed worker pays for a license. And from that role of “Big Brother” also comes their dirty money.

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A Rarified Air Engulfs Cuba

With time one comes to understand that all around us move hidden forces: octogenarian spies, decorated dissidents, not-so-independent journalists, crypto-bloggers, and secret operatives playing the roles of freemasons, academics and artists.

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Carter: A Breath of Fresh Air

Carter told us that he had met with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton prior to leaving the US, and that upon his return he would give a detailed report on the trip and his impressions of the situation in Cuba.

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Cuba Puts the Cart Before the Horse

We might think that this is a temporary situation — with political content — directed to complicate the lives of the foreign press corps working in Cuba. However this lack of forewarning occurs much more often than what economists advise.

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