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CUBA POLITICS SECTION - Havana Journal > Castro's Cuba
By: WILL WEISSERT | Associated Press
Raul Castro dismissed Barack Obama’s policy changes toward Cuba as “achieving only the minimum,” and said Wednesday that it is up to the U.S. — not Cuba — to do more to improve relations.
The Cuban president suggested the communist government is not willing to appease Washington by embracing small political and social reforms on the island, saying in a speech before an international gathering of government ministers that “it is not Cuba who has to make gestures.”
The Obama administration has allowed unlimited travel and money transfers for Americans with family in this…
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AP
Cuba’s government has dropped its refusal to let a prominent physician visit her family abroad, Argentina’s government announced Friday. The measure resolves one of the few disputes between the two countries.
President Cristina Fernandez announced that Cuban officials told her that Dr. Hilda Molina had been given permission to leave Cuba for Argentina and she expressed “much satisfaction” at the decision.
Her left-leaning administration has had warm relations with communist Cuba.
Argentine news media has given extensive attention to Molina’s struggle to see the grandchildren who were born to her son and her Argentine daughter-in-law after they left Cuba…
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By Andy Sullivan | Reuters
A former U.S. State Department official and his wife have been arrested for spying for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Walter Kendall Myers, 72, aided by his wife Gwendolyn Myers, 71, used his Top Secret security clearance to pass on classified information to the Cuban government and at one point met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to court documents.
The two were charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and to communicate classified information to Cuba, the Justice Department said. They…
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By Jorge Olivera Castillo
About the author: Cuban poet and journalist Jorge Olivera was sentenced to 18 years in prison for giving the true information about the real Cuba. He was arrested together with other 28 independent journalists during the so called Cuban Black Spring in 2003, when there was a crackdown on the Cuban opposition. He was sentenced in 24 hours without the possibility to talk to his defender. In December 2004 he was released on medical parole – he almost lost his sight and his health conditions were rapidly worsening. Now, Jorge Olivera Castillo is a head of…
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By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ | Associated Press
(original title:Cuba sounds summer energy alarm, plans blackouts)
Cubans are in for an especially hot summer under an energy saving plan that could shut off air conditioners at work and require Saturday-morning blackouts at home, according to an unpublished government directive obtained by The Associated Press.
The plan, signed by new Economics Minister Marino Murillo and circulating Tuesday among government offices and state companies, also calls for large-scale vacations for government workers. The measures are necessary, it says, to conserve petroleum used to generate electricity during the Caribbean nation’s sweltering summer months.
The directive…
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BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA | El Nuevo Herald
An official video that presents the reasons for the ouster of Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque has been shown for the past several weeks to selected groups of Cuba’s ruling elite, according to information received by El Nuevo Herald from Havana.
The showings began in mid-April before a small group of high-ranking officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as top-level government and Communist Party leaders, sources linked to government circles said.
’‘There is total hermetism regarding these viewings. It…
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Rob Sequin | Havana Journal
New Jersey state lawmakers are planning to introduce a resolution calling on President Barack Obama and Congress to pressure Cuba to return FBI fugitive Assata Shakur who murdered a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.
JoAnne Chesimard was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life for murder but escaped from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in 1979. She was convicted of murdering State Trooper Werner Foerster and other related crimes. The U.S. Justice Department has offered a $1 million reward since 2005 for her capture.
By Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service
Canada’s cabinet minister for Latin America says he has no regrets about chiding Cuba on human rights, even though Havana abruptly canceled the trip he was to make there next week.
But Peter Kent, minister of state for foreign affairs for the Americas, says Canada has only good intentions in helping Cuba reform. That’s because it stands “at a crossroads in history” with positive overtures coming from U.S. President Barack Obama that could end the half-century-old U.S. embargo which the minister says has isolated Cuba.
In an interview with Canwest News Service and Global…
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(Original title: Fidel Castro defends Cuba’s state-controlled press)
By WILL WEISSERT | AP
Fidel Castro defended Cuba’s government-controlled press Friday, arguing that news coverage is manipulated by those wealthy enough to finance newsgathering even in countries guaranteeing press freedom.
In a column posted on a state Web site, the 82-year-old ex-president wrote that “today, only through gigantic investments can you provide centers that produce the news for the whole planet.”
“And only those who manage them decide what gets reported and how it gets reported,” he said.
In Cuba, all television, radio, newspapers, magazines and publishing houses are state-owned, and…
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By Ray Sanchez | South Florida Sun Sentinel
May Day festivities were over in a crisp two hours Friday - less time than former leader Fidel Castro used for his anti-American rants at such events in the past.
Raul Castro, in a straw hat and traditional long-sleeved guayabera, did not address the crowds and left the viewing stand before the final rows of banner-waving marchers had moved across sprawling Revolution Plaza.
Still, ailing brother Fidel, who has not appeared at a public event in more than two years, didn’t miss a chance to bash the United States. In a May…
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