I’ve heard several people say positive things about Cuba’s new First Vice-Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel. They say that, when he was the Party Secretary for the province of Villa Clara, he would ride around town on a bicycle, in humble sports clothes, just another common, unassuming resident of Matanzas.
Read MoreI couldn’t help asking myself what the fight against homophobia has to do with the Cuban Five, as they are known around the world. The words pronounced by Rene Gonzalez on receiving the award appear to answer this question: “We’re involved in a struggle against attitudes that have made many people suffer. The suffering over being deprived of our freedom unites us. All forms of discrimination and of depriving people of their freedom must be eliminated.”
Read MoreWhen after more than 50 years of restrictions, the Cuban gov. opened the Pandora’s box of Cuba’s real estate market, many experts predicted that the country would experience a boom in home sales and purchases. Rather than a mad spiral of sales, however, this incipient and atypical market has given rise to a speculative phenomenon.
Read MoreMany 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 MoreI 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 MoreWhile hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers paraded in Havana and around the island on International Workers Day on Wednesday, the island’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, presented his government’s report on its observance of human rights. The presentation took place at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and we bring you the statement in its entirety.
Read MoreA former US government official was accused today of spying for Cuba, including having recruited Ana Belen Montes, the Pentagon analyst who for 16 years worked as a a double agent for Cuba, revealed the US Department of Justice on Thursday. The indictment was issued in 2004 but kept secret.
Read More“Raul Castro’s reforms are a step in the right direction. The problem is the pace and the scope of these reforms.” This is how Cuban blogger and activist Yoani Sanchez refers to the economic changes and other measures which Castro is introducing in Cuba, today under the close scrutiny of the international community.
Read MoreAlfredo Guevara, founder of the Havana Film Festival, and an old friend of Fidel Castro, died today in Havana from a heart attack at age 88. Guevara was also the founder of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) created two months after the revolution triumphed in January 1959.
Read MoreIt looks as though one does not need the violence of capitalism or a neo-liberal government to deliver the nation’s resources to private interests, through the mediation of a mob of bureaucrats. Apparently, it does not matter if the quality of a whole city’s drinking water is what’s at stake.
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