Opinion

The Cuba Embargo: A Fork on the Road

Many Cuban dissidents support Washington’s policy of economic pressure but avoid publicly expressing this within Cuba, where the majority condemns the so-called “U.S. blockade”. However, during a recent international tour, however, a number of them have spoken in favor of the embargo.

Read More

Who Profits from the Cuba Blockade?

I must apologize to the readers of Havana Times for my recent article, “Who Did Cuba’s Ladies in White Speak For?” The title, I now see, ought to have been “Who Profits from the Cuba Blockade?”, for, that is what the issue is ultimately about: who stands to benefit from the petition made by the Ladies in White?

Read More

My Take on Mobile Phones in Cuba

I have an Italian friend who’s always telling me I’ve given cell phones more importance than they deserve, but the truth is that I’ve never seen him come to Cuba without his two mobiles, which are more modern and sophisticated each time around.

Read More

No One in the Lead is Safe

For several decades this “miraculous” island appears to go nowhere, as though under a dark spell. It is as though something has gone motionless. The popular phrase that begins with the words “no one in the lead is safe” comes to mind. I should make it clear that I am not bothered by the prosperity of others. It’s just that, sometimes, one can’t help but make comparisons.

Read More

More on Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez

In view of Sanchez’ important individual contribution to the current struggle for greater freedom of expression in Cuba, I again want to pose a very concrete question: What specific contribution to Cuba’s future, to an economic and political vision for the country in the coming years, can the blog Generation Y make? What is Yoani’s proposal?

Read More

Finally, Cuba Is Harboring a Terrorist!

It seems unlikely that the announcement of her transformation from criminal to terrorist coincidently occurred the day after the State Department was supposed to release its annual report “justifying” the continued inclusion of Cuba on its list of countries that “provide critical support to non-state terrorist groups and repeatedly provides support for acts of international terrorism.”

Read More

The Fairy-Tale of Everyday Life in Cuba

The paltriness of Cuban salaries is the topic which is most repeatedly discussed in all gatherings on the island, formal and not. This is because basic articles of crucial importance continue to be prohibitively expensive for most of the Cuban population.

Read More

Cuba Before the Revolution: The Little Gold Cup

Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, said in Madrid that Cuba before the Revolution – that is, dictator Fulgencio Batista’s Cuba – was “a golden jewel.” To hear this from someone who proclaims everywhere that her group is interested in human rights, seems to me aberrant, considering all the pain that that blood-thirsty regime caused our motherland.

Read More

May Day: Joy and Disenchantment

May Day parades ought to have special meaning for me, a worker. I assure you it did, at one point, but not so much anymore. I don’t believe that parading all the way down to Revolution Square, carrying banners with phrases that evoke the occasion, or portraits of revolutionary heroes or leaders, means anything for the world’s proletariat, much less that we support socialism or not.

Read More