Several days ago, while walking through Havana with a London photographer, he told me he didn’t like the restored part of the city because it appeared too much like just another European city. For this friend, what was different was capturing the municipality of Centro Havana in his lens, an area where the restoration work of the Office of the City Historian has yet to arrive.
Read MoreMore than 25,000 persons affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine have been treated in Cuba in the last 20 years, reported Julio Medina, director of the Cuban health program for the victims of the disaster. The explosion of a reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear plant occurred on April 26, 1986 and affected around nine million persons in the former Soviet Union (USSR).
Read MoreCuban opposition activist Guillermo Fariñas, amid a hunger strike, rejected Spain’s offer to be transferred to that country on an ambulance plane, according to statements by his spokeswoman Liset Zamora. However, the dissident asked Madrid to intercede for 24 sick political prisoners who would be willing to leave the island.
Read MoreFor Cuban citizens it is virtually impossible (and punishable) to formally testify against, monitor or criticize any alleged human rights violation committed by officials or state institutions —on occasion contrary to its own 1992 socialist constitution— given the capacity for social control by the State and the subordination of the mass media to government directives.
Read MoreWe know the enemy’s tactics. In their plans, polarization should lead the situation of the country to a worsened political and economic disaster at the hands of the authoritarian conservatives, contrary to the need for all forms of democratization and socialization.
Read MoreCuban-Americana singer Gloria Estefan headed a march this past Friday in Miami in support of the Cuban dissident group known as the Ladies in White. Likewise, actor Andy Garcia headed a protest on Sunday in Los Angeles with the same objective.
Havana Times invites its readers to reflect on this issue:
What has compelled these artists to lead demonstrations against the Cuban government?
Are they defending the interests of Cubans who live on the island?
Will these marches contribute to better relations between Cuba and the United States?
Participate in the debate.
Read MoreCuban opposition activist Guillermo Fariñas may be taken to Spain in an airplane ambulance to be treated for an infection, informed his spokesperson Liset Zamora. Fariñas, on a hunger strike since over a month puts as a condition his traveling to Spain being allowed by Cuban authorities to return to the island to continue his campaign for freedom for political prisoners.
Read MoreThousands marched in Los Angeles, California on Sunday to demand the freedom of political prisoners and respect for human rights in Cuba, reported IPS. The protest was led by Cuban-born actor Andy Garcia and received support from Cuba by the famous blogger Yoani Sanchez.
Read MoreA lack of coordination between four different Cuban state offices is the main cause for the stagnation in pork production in Havana, stated members of the Small Farmers Association (ANAP). A front page article in Granma, the Communist Party daily stated on Monday, “The farmers criticized the ‘diabolic’ mechanisms that hold back production in the capital.”
Read MoreIn an effort to put a break on the increase in convenience marriages, a way used by many Cubans to emigrate, the government of Ecuador will now require a temporary visa for foreigners wanting to marry in this South American country. The announcement came from Eduardo Barrera, director of Foreign Immigration. The number of Cubans marrying Ecuadorians increased from 88 in 2007 to 1,542 in the first nine months of 2009. An estimated that 15 percent of those marriages were considered false, reported IPS.
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