It takes some effort to believe that Washington is seriously thinking they’ll succeed at securing a pardon for Alan Gross by simply saying that if Havana wants “warmer relations with the United States” they should free him. It’s as if they’ve tried to sow hopes using the strategy of the invisible carrot.
Read MoreSeveral days ago I read a comment online saying that, except for people who receive family remittances from overseas, all Cubans are starving, with young people appearing to have come out of concentration camps and it being rare to find an obese person on the island.
Read MoreThe Cuban government’s position — which implies a greater degree of tolerance than before — could be explained by synthetically paraphrasing the words of Fidel Castro to the intellectuals in 1961: within the private realm, everything; outside of the private realm, nothing.
Read MoreIf Cuba doesn’t have today a better connection to the Internet, it’s not because of the “blockade by the Americans” or because “the communists limit freedom of information.” The true reason lies with a much more powerful enemy: A corrupt bureaucratic class.
Read MoreFor Cubans, anything that comes from abroad is well received. It doesn’t matter if it’s an elastic band for one’s hair, a plastic shaving razor, cheap costume jewelry or second hand clothes. The worst part is that when a relative comes on a visit to the island with these kinds of things, then the problems begin.
Read MoreFollowing the speech by President Raul Castro before the National Assembly on August 1, Granma newspaper (the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, or PCC) began publishing a series of incisive articles against the bureaucracy, in support of workers participation in decision-making (even in the allocation of earnings), and in support of cooperativism.
Read MoreThe disorders that afflict Cuba’s press are definitively chronic. Yesterday on the national TV news I heard a special announcement that — instead of informing me — actually misinformed me.
Read MoreRaul Castro has just lost more than a vice-president; he’s lost his right arm. General Julio Casas Regueiro stood out in this task in at least three decisive moments: in the mountains of Cuba, in the battles in Africa and during the economic crisis of the 1990s.
Read MoreAs summer comes to a close I remember, more than anything else, one afternoon I felt that — despite such a long and rabid division to which I’ve been witness time and time again — we Cubans could come to some agreement.
Read MoreI have to admit that I enjoyed the open letter from Pablo Milanes to Edmundo Garcia. Although I should emphasize that I don’t agree with many of Pablo’s statements.
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