Castro Watch News feed page for keyword Castro
CUBA POLITICS SECTION - Havana Journal
*=sticky
Rob Sequin | Havana Journal
Maybe it is premature to declare the end of a US policy that is almost fifty years old but the Havana Journal is closely watching developments that appear to lay a path towards lifting the travel and/or trade Embargo against Cuba. We are listing events, although may not appear to be immediately related to changes in US Cuba policy, we think collectively the events below are related to the big picture of changing US Cuba policy.
We will update this article as events develop.
May 23, 2008: Presidential candidate Obama says he…
more…
Rob Sequin | Havana Journal
Contained in a release of OFAC’s Civil Penalties today, Philips Electronics of North America has agreed to settle allegations of violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations occurring between June 2004 and March 2006 by paying a fine of $128,750.00.
OFAC alleged that an employee of Philips of North America traveled to Cuba without an OFAC license in the course of business of selling medical equipment to Cuba.
Philips voluntarily disclosed this matter to OFAC and it was resolved according to prior enforcement guidelines published by OFAC, 68 Fed.…
more…
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…
more…
AP
The granddaughter of Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara is at the forefront of another revolution — for vegetarianism.
Lydia Guevara poses semi-nude in a PETA campaign that tells viewers to “join the vegetarian revolution,” said PETA spokesman Michael McGraw.
This undated photo provided by PETA shows Lydia Guevara posing on the set of her PETA photo shoot.
(AP Photo/PETA)
The print campaign is expected to debut in October in magazines and posters, McGraw said. It will be launched first in Argentina, where Che Guevara was born, and then internationally. PETA approached the 24-year-old in…
more…
By WILL WEISSERT | Associated Press
Ricardo Alarcon told The Associated Press in an interview late Wednesday night that no date has been set for immigration talks with the U.S., but he said that Raul Castro’s government hopes to expand the agenda to include environmental issues and efforts against terrorism, drug smuggling and natural disasters.
Yet Alarcon also called the U.S. “an ignorant lion,” criticizing the Supreme Court’s refusal this week to hear an appeal by the so-called “Cuban Five,” men convicted of being unregistered foreign agents by a Miami court in 2001. Their lawyers claim that anti-Castro sentiment kept…
more…
By Dan Robinson | Voice of America
U.S. lawmakers have heard testimony about continuing weaknesses in US government funded television broadcasting to Cuba. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) updated members of Congress on steps taken by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting on recommendations to deal with management, morale and other problems.
Since its inception in 1990, TV Marti has been the subject of controversy over cost, contracting, internal management and journalistic issues, and the inability of the Miami-based station to reach enough of the population in Cuba to justify the $500 million spent on…
more…
Latin American Herald Tribune
Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday demanded the immediate release of Cuban photojournalist Maria Nelida Lopez Baez, who is being held at an unknown location on the communist-ruled island.
The journalist faces possible persecution for “pre-criminal social danger,” the Paris-based organization, known as RSF, said in a statement.
“The regime once again feels the need to censor and crack down on dissidents and journalists,” RSF said. “This helps to explain why it was so contemptuous about the recent decision, obtained thanks to the efforts of other Latin American countries, to let Cuba back into the Organization of…
more…
By Drake Bennett | Boston Globe
IT WOULD SEEMINGLY require a sadism-tinged sense of leisure for someone to consider Guantanamo Bay a vacation destination. Or it might be just a lack of imagination. Instead of kneeling, shackled, orange-jumpsuited men, picture a pristine bay and protected coastline where endangered hawksbill sea turtles nest, mingling with Cuban iguanas. The slopes above the bay, too steep for sugarcane, are covered in forests that shelter 10-foot-long Cuban boas, tree frogs, bee hummingbirds (the world’s smallest bird) and hutias - arboreal mammals the size of a housecat. In recent years there have been sightings of…
more…
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…
more…
Well known Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez has been very active lately blogging about everyday life in Cuba and she has posted an article about how people can assist the Cuban blogging movement in Cuba.
She says her request goes out to “citizens of the whole world and rests on the solidarity among people that has nothing to do with political stripes or ideological preferences.
* Link to the blogs from Cuba.
* Spread the Cuban blog articles.
* Invite alternative bloggers to participate.
*…
more…
View all Havana Journal politics articles in 2009
Didn't find the article you were looking for? You can SEARCH for it.
