Censorship in Cuba: The Thirst for the Forbidden

At the “video rental” near my house, I was offered the “forbidden” episodes of “Vivir del cuento”, the most popular Cuban television show, starring Panfilo, a pensioner portrayed by comedian Luis Silva. They told me the censors had not allowed those episodes to be aired on television and I immediately asked them to make me a copy.

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Fidel Castro, Bags of Nickels and More

I’ve been working on a project about the legacy of Fidel Castro. I’ve interviewed a range of Cubans, including some who joined Castro on the Granma yacht when it journeyed from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 carrying 82 fighters, most of whom were killed in battle after reaching the island.

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What legacy does Fidel Castro leave?

Six years ago this month, I wondered if Fidel Castro’s health might have slipped after he wrote an extraordinarily brief column in Granma, the Communist Party newspaper (See “Fidel Castro’s 16 words”).

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Havana’s Unofficial Wi-Fi Zones

If a Cuban bureaucrat was given the task of collecting live snails, they would probably manage to escape before he was finished drawing up the resolutions and communiqués that regulate such an activity.

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The Value of the US Embargo on Cuba

It looks as though the US blockade/embargo policy towards Cuba is going to be relaxed considerably in the near future. What happened with the objectives of the harsh sanctions as time went by? Were they accomplished?

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