The Hotel Nacional de Cuba, considered the island’s flagship tourist installation, today is celebrating 80 years, Antonio Martínez Rodríguez, general manager of the hotel, announced. The hotel, visited by political, sport and cultural personalities, has maintained an average occupancy rate of around 75 per cent in the last decade.
Read MoreThe Cuban State will maintain its subsidy to the island’s publishing houses, but they will have to adjust their subjects and print runs to the population’s demands, Zuleika Romay, director of the Cuban Book Institute, affirmed. Every year Cuba organizes a book fair with the sale of millions of copies, in what constitutes one of the country’s major cultural events,
Read MoreThe Cuban medical brigade in Haiti has saved 250,000 persons in Haiti since the start of its mission in 1998, Deputy Minister of Public Health Marcia Cobas affirmed. The island heads the efforts to reconstruct the health system in the neighboring country, devastated by last January 12’s earthquake and facing a serious cholera outbreak.
Read MoreCubans who don’t receive remittances from abroad, tips, bonuses or black market dollars were dealt another blow to their family economies as the government announced that soap, detergent and toothpaste would be removed from the rationed items starting the first of the New Year.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court of Cuba decided to commute for a 30-year sentence Humberto Eladio Real Suárez’ death sentence. He was tried in 1994 for landing on the island with the aim of carrying out subversive actions against the government. This was the last of the maximum sentences that still remained in the Caribbean island nation, whose authorities have not applied it since 2003.
Read MoreThe current month of December could end as the coldest reported in Cuba since 1951, Ramón Pérez, researcher with the Climate Centre of the Institute of Meteorology, announced. However, the year 2010 will also conclude as the third hottest in the planet’s history, after 1997 and 2005.
Read MoreIn a year of difficult times for cash strapped Cuba and shortages facing its citizens, an agreement between the US government and Western Union is leading to an increased value of remittances sent to families in the Caribbean country. The new authorization from the US Treasury Dept. took affect at the beginning of last week. Western Union said on its website that the change is “great news for our clients!”
Read MoreCuba will send in February several shipments of building materials and mattresses as humanitarian aid for the persons affected by the intense rains in Venezuela, Rogelio Polanco, Cuban ambassador to that South American country, announced. The aid consists of 6,900 tons of cement, 500,000 squares meters of roof tiles, 200,000 square meters of floor tiles and 32,000 foam rubber mattresses.
Read MoreThe president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), Orlando Lugo, called on Cuba’s farmers to meet the production goals established with the government to avoid food imports such as rice, beans and corn, in statements to the National Plenary Meeting of the National Committee of that organization.
Read MorePeruvian President Alan García criticized the intention of his Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro of carrying out reforms in Cuba, more than five decades after the start of the Revolution, in statements to that South American country’s press. “Why didn’t they rectify 50 years ago?” asked García, a defender of free market policies and opening to foreign investment.
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