Viewing from January 2013

CELAC - How did that happen?

News from Cuba | Wednesday, 30 January 2013

CELAC, that is, and its current president. How did they come to be?The military dictatorships of Latin America lasted through the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, the dominant tendency on the continent became the so-called free trade, prescribed by the Washington Consensus. All the nations subscribed to it as ... read more

Cuba assumes LatAm group presidency in diplomatic coup

News from Cuba | Tuesday, 29 January 2013

From AFPCuba formally assumed the presidency of a key Latin American group here Monday, scoring a major diplomatic coup at a summit at which it urged regional integration and independence from the United States.Cuban President Raul, whose island nation is still languishing under a crippling 50-year-old US trade embargo, hailed ... read more

What is the U.S. Government Afraid of?

News from Cuba | Sunday, 27 January 2013

In 2001 Gerardo Hernandez was condemned to two life sentences, one of them for conspiracy to commit murder for the shooting down of two planes of Brothers to the Rescue. Gerardo had nothing to do with the shooting down of these planes on February 24, 1996 and the U.S. Government ... read more

Our Man in Havana

News from Cuba | Saturday, 26 January 2013

by Peter Kornbluhm for ForeignPolicy.comAt the very end of John Kerry's Jan. 24th confirmation hearing, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) treated him to a lecture about repression in Cuba. "And then we have a United States citizen who all he tried to do is give access to the Internet to a ... read more

The [redacted] USAID shell game

News from Cuba | Saturday, 26 January 2013

A US government force with a reputation for speed and daring plans to spend as much as $2.5 billion over the next eight years to try to bring peace and democracy to trouble spots and flash points around the world.The Office of Transition Initiatives, or OTI, has a long list ... read more

The Paradoxes of Cuban Immigration

News from Cuba | Thursday, 24 January 2013

by Fernando Ravsberg*The opening of Cuba immigration policy could be a mortal blow to the Cuban Adjustment Act, the US law that grants residency to all Cubans who step onto American soil, under the assumption that they fled communism.Hundreds of thousands of economic emigrants from the island settled in the ... read more

Court documents on Alan Gross could help Miami Five

News from Cuba | Wednesday, 23 January 2013

by W. T. Whitney Jr. for People's WorldContinuing with U.S. efforts to undermine Cuba's government from within, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2008 contracted with Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) of Maryland to send Alan Gross to Cuba.Now in prison there with a 15-year sentence for espionage-type ... read more

Fifteen years of cruel separation - Justice for the Miami Five

Campaign News | Sunday, 20 January 2013

by Dan Smith, CSC Campaigns OfficerThis year, 2013, will see the 15th anniversary of the arrest of the Miami Five. It will also mark 15 years of cruel separation for the men and their loved ones in Cuba.Two of the wives, Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, have been denied visas ... read more

Memo to President Obama:Cuba has extended an olive branch, shouldn' t the U.S.?

News from Cuba | Sunday, 20 January 2013

Cuban government officials have recently taken steps to ease long-standing bars to travel to the U.S., but the Obama administration has not yet followed suit.It may be hard to believe but as the newsletter Cuba Central Newsblast points out, since last week Cubans have more freedom to see the world ... read more

Battling cancer with biotechnology

News from Cuba | Saturday, 19 January 2013

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Cuba, after cardiovascular diseases. It is estimated that every year about 21 000 people die of cancer on the island and more than 31 000 cancer cases are newly diagnosed."Cancer is one of the major killers in Cuba. This is partly ... read more

Document confirms the secret and subversive mission Alan Gross in Cuba

News from Cuba | Friday, 18 January 2013

by Jean-Guy AllardA hitherto unknown document just unveiled on a U.S. website confirms the secret and subversive mission of USAID agent Alan Gross in Cuba, for which he was convicted by Cuban justice. The text describes the task in terms of Gross assimilating the work of intelligence agencies, confirming the ... read more

Secrecy, politics at heart of Cuba project

News from Cuba | Thursday, 17 January 2013

From Alan Gross memo: Internet in a backpackU.S. officials stressed the importance of secrecy during a 2008 meeting with a Maryland contractor that had been chosen to carry out a new democracy project in Cuba, according to a confidential memo (download 8-page document).The project wasn’t considered classified, however, because the ... read more