Viewing from February 2012
Statement from Rene Gonzalez's lawyer requesting a humanitarian visit to his seriously ill brother in Cuba
Campaign News | Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Statement to the court by Rene's attorney, Phil Horowitz.COMES NOW the Defendant RENE GONZALEZ by and through his undersigned counsel and moves this Court for the entry of an order modifying his probation to allow him to travel to Cuba for two weeks and as grounds therefore would state as ... read more
"Powerful Interests Are behind the Cyber-Dissidence of Yoani Sánchez"
News from Cuba | Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Salim Lamrani Interviewed by Guillermo NovaInterview with Salim Lamrani, French professor, writer, and journalist, specialist on the relationship between Cuba and the U.S., and author of the recently published book Cuba:Ce que les médias ne vous diront jamais (Paris: Editions Estrella, 2009).You have just published a new book about the ... read more
The Frozen U.S.-Cuba Relationship
News from Cuba | Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsFifty years after the United States enacted an embargo on all trade and commercial transactions with Cuba, relations between the two countries remain at a standstill. Julia E. ... read more
Cuban cigar sales rise amid luxury spending spree
Campaign News | Monday, 27 February 2012
By Rosa Tania Valdes for the Reuters News AgencyCuban cigar sales jumped 9 percent to $401 million in 2011 as spending on luxury items increased in countries with stronger economies, Cuban cigar executives said on Monday.They said smokers in China, the Middle East, Russia and Brazil helped overcome declining sales ... read more
Cuban Blogger Questioned by La Jornada from Mexico
News from Cuba | Monday, 27 February 2012
By Prensa LatinaThe alleged popularity of Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez on Twitter was questioned by Mexican newspaper La Jornada because one-fourth of her followers on the net are inactive accounts.According to the article "Who is Behind Yoani Sanchez?," by journalist Salim Lamrani, nearly 50 of Sanchez followers are in fact ... read more
Brazil strengthens ties
News from Cuba | Monday, 27 February 2012
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff traveled to Cuba for the first time during her presidency in February in a visit to strengthen financial ties with the island. During the trip she met with President Raúl Castro to discuss the “excellent state of their bilateral relations" and later toured the Mariel port together. ... read more
For Jews, Gross Case is Complicated: Revelations Deepen Concerns About Contractor Jailed in Cuba
News from Cuba | Sunday, 26 February 2012
By Paul Berger writing in ForwardThe American Jewish community has always seemed uneasy about the case of Alan P. Gross. On the one hand, he is an American citizen, a Jew from suburban Washington who was arrested in Cuba in 2009 for doing nothing worse - so Gross’s supporters claim ... read more
Chavez heads to Cuba for cancer surgery
News from Cuba | Sunday, 26 February 2012
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez left Friday for Cuba where he will undergo a new surgery to remove a lesion found in the same spot where a cancerous tumor was removed last year.Thousands of supporters lined up the highway from Caracas to the Simon Bolivar International Airport 25 kilometers in the ... read more
Cuba: Self Employed Workers Unionised
News from Cuba | Saturday, 25 February 2012
from Prensa LatinaMore than 80 percent of the so-called "self-employed workers" in Cuba, now nearly 360,000 Cuban citizens, are included in a trade union to represent them, according to data published here Friday.At the end of last year, there were 5,700 trade union committees gathering self-employed workers, especially those who ... read more
Sponsor a seat at the Mirama Theatre in Havana
Campaign News | Friday, 24 February 2012
In March 2012 the Miramar theatre will open its doors with a spectacular gala night featuring both renowned Cuban performers and students from Havana’s music and arts schools performing side by side. You can be there too, either in person, or by sponsoring a seat in the newly renovated auditorium dedicated ... read more
Cuba Condemns Foreign Hostility and Interference
News from Cuba | Friday, 24 February 2012
from Prensa LatinaNew actions to condemn foreign hostility and interference in Cuba made headlines this week on the island nation, as well as a visit by U.S. congress people and a meeting between authorities and religious leaders.On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez rejected comments on human rights in Cuba ... read more
Cuba Defends Truth in Case of Light Aircrafts Brought Down
News from Cuba | Friday, 24 February 2012
from Prensa LatinaCuba on Saturday repeated its defense of truth in the incident on February 24, 1996, when two light aircrafts owned by Miami-based terrorist groups were brought down on Cuban territory.An article published in Granma newspaper lists the actions that Cuba took to prevent that incident, as well as ... read more
US senators meet with Alan Gross, appeal to Cuba’s Raul Castro for his freedom
News from Cuba | Friday, 24 February 2012
By Associated PressA senior U.S. senator met with imprisoned American Alan Gross and discussed the man’s case in a long sit-down with Cuban President Raul Castro, but told The Associated Press on Friday that Gross was not likely to be released any time soon.Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, ... read more
Independent Workers Gradually Join the Unions
News from Cuba | Tuesday, 21 February 2012
from the Cuban News AgencyThe majority of independent workers in the province of Camaguey, amounting to more than 26,000 total, have joined their respective unions associated under the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC).Approximately 17,248 self-employed people in the province have become members of local unions, mostly those in the fields of ... read more
Cuba economy: Tax lessons as private sector grows
News from Cuba | Saturday, 18 February 2012
By Sarah Rainsford for BBC News, HavanaIt is a process that fills many in the capitalist world with dread every year.Now, for the first time, many in Communist-run Cuba are facing the same chore: filing a tax return.It is more than a year since the government increased the number of ... read more
CSC action inspires unprecedented show of parliamentary support for the Miami Five
Campaign News | Tuesday, 14 February 2012
In just a few months, an incredible 124 MPs have signed Early Day Motion 497 - Humanitarian Appeal for Visitation Rights for Wives of the Miami Five - in what is already the most successful parliamentary action ever in support of the Miami Five.Ten years ago, 112 MPs signed an ... read more
Younger Castro steers Cuba to a new revolution
News from Cuba | Sunday, 12 February 2012
by Hugh O'Shaughnessy for The IndependentFifty years ago this month, the United States began the embargo on Cuba which continues to this day. But the country against which it was aimed is rapidly becoming a very different one to the alleged communist menace just 90 miles off the coast of ... read more
Bordering on insanity: 50 years of failed policy towards Cuba
Campaign News | Sunday, 12 February 2012
On its 50th anniversary, Bob Oram looks at the history of the US blockade, a cold war relic reinvigorated by successive US administrationsWhen Fidel Castro went to New York for the United Nations 50th anniversary celebrations in 1995 he asked “How much longer must we wait for a world without...cruel ... read more
Effects of the US blockade against Cuba in 2011 alone
Campaign News | Sunday, 12 February 2012
BLOCKADE 50: END IT NOW!Between May 2010 - April 2011 Public health costs were $15 million higherMarch 2010 - March 2011 Food costs were $120.3 million higherHavana Club’s exclusion from the US market cost it an $106.1million last yearCuba lost $270,000 in payments for honey as a buyer mistakenly did ... read more
Posada Carriles Planned to Attack Cuban Book Fair
News from Cuba | Sunday, 12 February 2012
from Prensa LatinaNew evidence shows that Luis Posada Carriles planned to carry out violent actions during the International Book Fair Cuba 2012, Cuban-Guatemalan writer Percy Alvarado said in Havana on Saturday. When presenting his book "Luis Posada Carriles: Un Engendro Incondicional de la CIA" (Luis Posada Carriles: An Unconditional Monster ... read more
Lawyer for Miami Five vows last-ditch appeal
News from Cuba | Thursday, 9 February 2012
by Paul Haven for the Associated PressA lawyer for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms for spying in the United States said Wednesday he is preparing a last-ditch appeal, arguing that one of the men received bad counsel and that the jury for all five was prejudiced because ... read more
Controversy over Cuba's proposed participation in the Summit of the Americas
News from Cuba | Thursday, 9 February 2012
Statements made at the recent summit of the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Latin America (ALBA) held in Caracas have stirred controversy over the proposed participation of Cuba in the Summit of the Americas, scheduled for Cartagena, Colombia in April, the Cuba Standard reports. At the ALBA summit, Ecuadoran ... read more
The longest blockade in the world - 50th anniversary film report on Democracy Now
News from Cuba | Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Read the full transcript from a recent report on Democracy Now about the 50th anniversary of the US blockade or watch the video by clicking on the link below.AMY GOODMAN: We turn now from Syria to Cuba. On Monday, former Cuban President Fidel Castro was shown in his first public ... read more
Most US citizens want to re-establish ties with Cuba
News from Cuba | Monday, 6 February 2012
People in the United States are ready to change their country’s interaction with Cuba, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,008 American adults, three-in-five respondents (62%) agree with the U.S. re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, while one-in-four (23%) ... read more
Cuban ex-President Fidel Castro launches memoirs - video footage
News from Cuba | Saturday, 4 February 2012
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has made a rare public appearance to launch his memoirs.The book, Guerrilla of Time, is almost 1,000 pages long and relates his childhood and rise to power in the Cuban Revolution.Fidel Castro, 85, said it was every Cuban's duty to fight until the last moment, ... read more
ALBA countries working on roadmap to rebuild Haiti
News from Cuba | Saturday, 4 February 2012
Google translation of a Telesur report edited by Norman GirvanThe countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) are developing a roadmap to assist in the reconstruction of Haiti, prioritising health, education, energy, food production, infrastructure and training of qualified personnel.In the XI meeting of the bloc, held Saturday February ... read more
Miramar Theatre opening in March 2012
Campaign News | Thursday, 2 February 2012
Book your place at the gala opening concerts or sponsor a seat in the auditoriumAfter almost seven years of fund raising the Music Fund for Cuba (MFFC) is proud to announce that the Miramar Theatre in Havana will finally open its doors to the public on 30 March 2012.Two gala ... read more
Term limits discussed at Party conference
News from Cuba | Thursday, 2 February 2012
Cuba's Communist Party held its first national conference in April.In his concluding speech, President Raúl Castro indicated that the party would continue to move ahead with the legislative framework for imposing a limit of two five-year terms for top leadership positions. He added that such a policy, once approved by ... read more
Dilma visits Cuba
News from Cuba | Wednesday, 1 February 2012
from La Alborada.netBrazilian president Dilma Rouseff is in Cuba, from where she will go onto Haiti. The visit seems normal and even welcome by the countries of the Americas, all of which maintain normal ties with Cuba except one that insists on maintaining its blockade against the island. As it ... read more
Party Aims for Efficient, Inclusive Socialism
News from Cuba | Wednesday, 1 February 2012
By Patricia Grogg for IPSCuba's communist leaders have mapped out a strategy to modernise their country's one-party socialist model and make it more efficient, which implies making it more inclusive and representative of a society that is increasingly diverse.The National Conference of the governing Cuban Communist Party (PCC) held two ... read more
