Pepe gets up every day at five in the morning so he can use the bathroom before everyone else in the house does (three adults and a child), and he leaves before eight. His work, a cafeteria for construction workers, is four or five bus stops from his home. Most of the time he prefers to walk and gets to the job by nine o’clock at the latest.
Read MoreLeaders and top-level representatives of the nine Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) nations are in Havana or soon to arrive for a summit that gets underway on Sunday. The ALBA countries are about to launch a new currency called the “sucre” to facilitate regional exchange and reduce dependence on the US dollar for cooperation and trade.
Read MoreThe Havana Film Festival awards were announced on Saturday afternoon and the winning movies will get an extra showing on Sunday. “La teta asustada” a Peru-Spain co-production by director Claudia Llosa won the first prize for a full-length fiction film. The top prize for a documentary went to “La perdida” (Argentina-Spain) by Enrique Gabriel and Javier Angulo. The winning short fiction film went to “Para pedir perdon” (Brazil) by Ibere Carvalho.
Read MoreVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets on Saturday with former Cuban President Fidel Castro. Chavez arrived in Havana on Friday night to participate in a summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) which begins Sunday in the Cuban capital.
Read MoreMexican President Felipe Calderon will visit Cuba in the first semester of 2010, announced Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa. The visit put to rest the diplomatic differences related to Swine Flu. Espinosa met for three hours with Cuban President Raul Castro.
Read MoreCuba and Venezuela signed 285 collaboration projects worth US $3.18 billion, it was announced today during the tenth Joint Commission between the two nations, being held in Havana prior to the December 13-14 summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).
Read MoreMexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa met in Havana on Friday with her Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez. Espinosa praised Cuba’s leadership in the development of regional integration efforts.
Read MoreThe Politburo of the ruling Cuban Communist Party decided to dismiss Ernesto López, president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), after 11 years at the head of that state-run agency. The ICRT was strongly criticized by Cuban intellectuals during the debate that took place between 2007 and 2008.
Read MoreCuba’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow one per cent in 2009, affirmed the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in its preliminary report on the economies of the region, presented in Santiago, Chile.
Read MorePope Benedict XVI questioned Thursday the U.S. embargo against Cuba, “which especially affects the poorest persons and families,” in statements during the reception of the island’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Eduardo Delgado.
Read More