I am often criticized for reading Cuba’s official daily, Granma. I continue to do it, however, because I feel it is worthwhile. Here’s an example: a report on a recent incident on the coast of Santa Lucia, in Cayo Jutia, a 2.5 mile stretch of pristine, paradisiacal beaches.
Read MoreThe truck comes to a stop at one of the corners of the park. From the license plate, everyone knows it’s come from Havana. They’ve seen it before. They tear themselves free from their provincial, afternoon lethargy and quickly approach the vehicle. It’s around four in the afternoon in Guantanamo, Cuba’s easternmost province.
Read MoreAfter arriving by plane to the Holguin airport on December 24th, we noticed the first sign that something was wrong during our trip to the city of Bayamo. There was a deathly silence in the city. Bayamo’s Cespedes park and its surrounding areas seemed peopled by the dead.
Read MoreCuban President Raul Castro warned today about threats of “foreign interference” in Latin America and the Caribbean by the “centers of power that are not resigned to losing control of the region.” He spoke at the opening of the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (CELAC) in Havana.
Read MoreThe price of products in Cuba – particularly farm products essential to the population – show no signs of decreasing. The bureaucrats blame producers, cooperatives and intermediaries. In their assessments, however, they neglect the true causes of this situation.
Read MoreFollowing more than a half-century of restrictions, the Cuban market for the sale of new and used cars was opened on January 3rd, under state control. The measure forms part of the social and economic modernization that the government has set in motion, in hopes of obtaining greater efficiency and realism in the country’s marketing and production processes.
Read MoreThough many years of neglect have effaced some its former splendor, one can still tell the building was once a luxurious colonial mansion. Today, it is one of the many shabby tenement buildings on Aguiar street, in the heart of Havana’s old town, a working-class apartment block where more than twenty families have settled wherever they have found the space.
Read MoreI have no recollections of places devoid of fences or walls that divide spaces into two. Whenever I take a stroll around the city or go on vacation with my family – even when I step onto the balcony and gaze at my surroundings – my eyes invariably settle on walls and boundaries.
Read MoreThe Cuban government continues to regard its émigrés as debris that has broken off from the nation’s edifice and seeks to squeeze out as much surplus value from them as it can through remittances and consular services.
Read MoreJust when we thought the Cold War was over and the world would start moving towards global denuclearization, along comes this bit of news to give us yet another cause for concern, feeding our worries about the United States’ already dangerous practice of trying to impose like-minded and submissive governments around the globe through the use of force.
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