News

Brazilian President will once again speak with his US counterpart Barack Obama on the subject of US blockade against Cuba. On Monday, Obama signed an order maintaining the blockade for another year. The two leaders will meet next week at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, reported IPS.

Representatives of Cuba and the United States were set to meet Thursday in Havana to discuss the reopening of direct mail between the two nations, broken off in 1963, reported IPS quoting Sara A. Mangiaracina a State Dept. spokesperson. It’s estimated that a fourth of all mail from Cuba has the United States as its destination.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, said on Wednesday that the United States blockade against Cuba is being “maintained intact” under the administration of Barack Obama, who nevertheless has the “historic opportunity” to eliminate that policy in effect for almost half a century.

The Cuban Communist Party leadership in the capital city designated Lazara Mercedes Lopez as the new First Secretary of the Party in Havana, replacing Pedro Saez, who held the post for the last six years. At the time of her appointment to the powerful position Lopez, 45, a forestry engineer, was a member of the Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat.

Lifting the travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans and their ability to send remittances or packages to Cuba repairs “a grave injustice” to that population but has “a very limited reach” as far as rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, noted Cuban representatives at the United Nations.

The Cuban government opened a new popular debate to discuss the country’s problems and define measures to help it come out of the long economic crisis. The discussion, which will be based on a yet to be disclosed “Study Material”, and will take place at workplaces and educational centers, the cells of the ruling Communist Party and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the island’s largest neighborhood organization.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa travels to Cuba on Tuesday to have knee surgery, informed the office of the presidency of the South American nation. In August, Correa, one of Cuba’s political allies in the region, traveled to the island for a vacation.

The United Nations Development Program congratulated Cuban authorities for advances in eradicating polluting substances in the atmosphere. The island eliminated its imports of chlorofluorocarbons and methyl bromide, which deteriorate the ozone layer, reported IPS.

Cuba was held hitless for five innings on Monday by New York Yankees prospect Elvin Orozco pitching for Nicaragua, but in the blink of an eye Michel Enriquez singled and Yulieski Gourriel homered in what proved all that was needed to win the 4-1 game.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed today the continuation of the embargo against Cuba for another year, “in the national interest of the United States,” according to a memorandum sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. Obama is the 11th consecutive US administration to maintain an economic stranglehold on Cuba hoping to force political changes on the island by creating economic difficulties for the population.