Corruption
The Cuban Regime is an Enemy to the Freedom of Expression
The Cuban Regime is an Enemy to theFreedom of Expression / Iván García Ivan Garcia, 10 May 2017 — When he is particularly bored, after flicking through the eight channels that there are on the island, 56 year old civil engineer Josuan watches the national news some nights with a smirk only to later write […] Continue reading
Cuba a mix of corruption, impressive beauty, people
Cuba a mix of corruption, impressive beauty, people By Amelia Rayno / Minneapolis Star Tribune The uniformed woman’s eyes narrowed as she looked me up and down, assessing. Seconds earlier, she had told me that the currency exchange was one floor up at the Havana airport. Now, after processing my poor Spanish, blond hair and […] Continue reading
Happiness
Happiness / Somos+ Somos+, Roberto Camba, 21 March 2017 — The United Nations has just launched the 2017 World Happiness Report, coinciding with the World Happiness Day on March 20th. From its first publication in 2012, the world has come to understand more and more that happiness has to be used as the correct measure […] Continue reading
Corruption Versus Liberty: A Cuban Dilemma
Corruption Versus Liberty: A Cuban Dilemma / Dimas Castellano Dimas Castellanos, 18 November 2016 — The evil of corruption–the act of corruption and its effects–has accompanied the human species since its emergence. It has been present in all societies and in all ages. Its diverse causes range from personal conduct to the political-economic system of […] Continue reading
How Cuban State Security Intimidates Potential Informants
How Cuban State Security Intimidates Potential Informants / Iván García Iván García,9 April 2017 — They did not put a Makarov pistol to his head or torture him with electric prods. Let’s call him Josué. (The names in his article have been changed). He is a guy who wears American-made jeans, listens to jazz by […] Continue reading
Social justice in Cuba? No racism?
Commentary: Social justice in Cuba? No racism? Javier Garcia-Bengochea Guest Columnist Privacy Policy It ain’t what you don’t know that hurts you. It’s what you think you know that just ain’t so … Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige paraphrasing Mark Twain. It’s called fake news. For decades, Cuba has promoted a false narrative regarding […] Continue reading
Should U.S. Companies Hit ‘Pause’ on Doing Business in Cuba?
Should U.S. Companies Hit ‘Pause’ on Doing Business in Cuba? Apr 20, 2017 President Trump’s government has yet to reveal its hand on the issue of reconciliation with Cuba. There had been a lot of progress towards greater ties following President’s Obama’s overtures in December 2014: Some cooperation agreements were signed – particularly in aviation […] Continue reading
Cuba: Risk of Health Crisis Due to Lack of Potable Water
Cuba: Risk of Health Crisis Due to Lack of Potable Water / Iván García Ivan Garcia, 21 April 2017 — There is a slightly damp and cold breeze when Antonio, after drinking a rather bitter sip of coffee, with his wooden cart with rusty steel wheels, moves to a water spout in Manglar Street, very […] Continue reading
When Your Ally’s Beards are on Fire
When Your Ally’s Beards are on Fire*… / Miriam Celaya Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 18 April 2017 — According to an old adage, when you see you neighbor’s beard on fire, go soak your own*. The maxim should be applied to the elderly Cuban dictator, especially if we take into account that the erratic performance […] Continue reading
Cuba Searches for its “Lost” Money
Cuba Searches for its “Lost” Money April 11, 2017 By Eileen Sosin Martinez* (Progreso Semanal) HAVANA TIMES — In my neighborhood, the story about Juan the butcher, who took a detour with a truck full of minced meat, sold it and then left the country, is famous. “It’s a good thing he left,” a neighbor […] Continue reading
The Thousand Faces of “Journalism”
The Thousand Faces of “Journalism” / Miriam Celaya Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 29 March 2017 – An opinion piece published in recent days by El Nuevo Herald gives me a disturbing feeling of déjà vu. It is not the subject – overflowing with a number of articles by different authors – but its focal point, […] Continue reading
The Enigmatic Closing Of Plaza Carlos III Causes Discomfort
The Enigmatic Closing Of Plaza Carlos III Causes Discomfort 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 27 March 2017 – It is almost noon on Sunday and a young couple, with their two young children in their arms, stops frustrated in front of the closed gate of the Plaza Carlos III Shopping Center. For a moment they are […] Continue reading
Doubtful Meat From Brazil Continues To Be Sold In Cuba
Doubtful Meat From Brazil Continues To Be Sold In Cuba / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 21 March 2017 — Cubans know a lot about adulterations. For decades they have grappled with the “diversion of resources” [i.e. stealing] from state stores and the practice of state employees acquiring products elsewhere at low prices, […] Continue reading
‘From now on you have no name. You are prisoner 217’: life in a Cuban jail
‘From now on you have no name. You are prisoner 217’: life in a Cuban jail A brutal high-security prison was the last place Stephen Purvis expected to end up when he moved to Havana. Stephen Gibbs tells his story Stephen Gibbs Sunday 19 March 2017 09.00 GMT If you happened to go to a […] Continue reading
The Taliban Has Returned
The Taliban Has Returned / Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez, 15 March 2017 – At the beginning of the last decade, when Fidel Castro would call a “march of the fighting people” for any reason whatsoever and the multitudes who seemed to have arrived from Pyongyang would chant slogans and wave little […] Continue reading
Rio Mar, a Restaurant Under Surveillance by Alejandro Castro
Rio Mar, a Restaurant Under Surveillance by Alejandro Castro / Juan Juan Almeida Juan Juan Almeida, 28 February 2017 — An unusual combination of powerful forces has conspired to put Río Mar, a privately owned restaurant, in the defendant’s dock. Who has broken the rules this time? Río Mar occupies an enviable location on the […] Continue reading
Numbers, Reason and Principles
Numbers, Reason and Principles / Somos Somos+, Eliecer Avila, 8 March 2017 — Daily, as part of my functions as leader of Somos+ (We Are More), I meet people who are interested in knowing the details of the organization. In theory, these people would become members of Somos+ if there is a sufficient match between […] Continue reading
Embezzlement Today
Embezzlement Today / Regina Coyula Regina Coyula, 17 February 2017 — The long laissez faire of the government with the “if you behave well, I look the other way” has given birth to a generation (just one?) of the cheerfully shameless, known generically as “fighters.” The nice denomination that began by being applied a few, […] Continue reading
An Illegal Business Operating Under Protection of the Castro Name
An Illegal Business Operating Under Protection of the Castro Name / Juan Juan Almeida Juan Juan Almeida, 9 February 2017 — In Cuba being a member of the Castro family is like having a modern-day license to commit piracy. This inalienable right comes in handy for the dynasty’s descendants, especially those born with the compound […] Continue reading
Growing Old in Cuba – Luck or Misfortune?
Growing Old in Cuba: Luck or Misfortune? / Cubanet, Ana Leon Cubanet, Ana Leon, Havana, 3 March 2017 – Jose Vargas is 85 years old and a retired musician. He lives alone in a room in a tenement in Old Havana, depending on a monthly check of 240 Cuban pesos (eight dollars U.S.) and whatever […] Continue reading
Ten Years of Raulism – From “Reformism” to the Abyss
Ten Years of Raulism: From “Reformism” to the Abyss / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 27 February 2017 — As the second month of 2017 comes to a close, the Cuban panorama continues to be bleak. Material difficulties and the absence of a realistic economic recovery program – the ineffectiveness of the chimerical […] Continue reading
Why Foreign Investments Don’t Work in Today’s Cuba
Why Foreign Investments Don’t Work in Today’s Cuba / Dimas Castellano Dimas Castellanos, 17 January 2017 — By 2007, after forty-eight years of revolutionary rule, inefficiency and a lack of productivity had turned state-run farmland into fields infested with marabú weed. Meanwhile, food prices were increasing on the world market. In light of this situation, […] Continue reading
Weakness, Fear And Inability Erode The Cuban Government
Weakness, Fear And Inability Erode The Cuban Government / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos 14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Miami, 23 February 2017 — The recent “diplomatic” action by the Cuban Government to try to prevent the presence of foreign personalities in a private event in Havana to receive a symbolic prize bearing the name of the late regime […] Continue reading
Set Fire To Havana In Order To Hide The Body?
Set Fire To Havana In Order To Hide The Body? / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 21 February 2017 – People say that when an event happens repeatedly it stops being an accident. The fire that took place on Monday, February 20th, 2017, in “La Mezclilla” store, in the neighborhood of San Leopoldo […] Continue reading
The secrets of Santería lie deep in these Cuban families
The secrets of Santería lie deep in these Cuban families BY MIMI WHITEFIELD mwhitefield@miamiherald.com PALMIRA, CUBA José Entenza Montalvo, a babalawo, or priest, shows the faded handwritten books, some more than a century old, where special knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants and the names of those initiated as babalawos are recorded. For Entenza, the […] Continue reading
Extortions, Kidnappings And Limbo – Daily Life Of Cubans Stranded In Mexico
Extortions, Kidnappings And Limbo: Daily Life Of Cubans Stranded In Mexico / 14ymedio, Mario Penton 14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 14 February 2017 — Hundreds of Cubans were stranded in Mexico after the Obama administration ended the wet-foot/dry-foot policy that favored Cuban’s immigration to the United States, but for the 90 who are detained at the […] Continue reading
Measuring Hopelessness
Measuring Hopelessness / Yoani Sanchez Yoani Sanchez, El Pais, 12 February 2017 — Statistics are deceiving. They only reflect measurable values, tangible realities. International agencies cram us with numbers that measure development, life expectancy or educational attainment, but seldom succeed in grading dissatisfaction, fear, and discouragement. Frequently in their reports they describe a Latin America […] Continue reading
A Million Dollar Business Run by Fidel Castro’s Son
A Million Dollar Business Run by Fidel Castro’s Son / Juan Juan Almeida Juan Juan Almeida, 6 February 2017 — Officials, students, athletes, workers, members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, foreign journalists and even tourists. Almost all have been victims of a flagrant, illicit operation authorized by the Cuban government. It […] Continue reading
Invasive Marabou Weed, An Enemy That Became An Ally
Invasive Marabou Weed, An Enemy That Became An Ally / 14ymedio, Bertha Guillen and Ricardo Fernandez 14ymedio, Bertha Guillen and Ricardo Fernandez, Artemisa/Pinar del Rio, 9 February 2017 – When he was a boy, Jorge Luis Ledesma Herrera played around the charcoal ovens his father had built. Now, approaching 50, this Pinar del Rio man […] Continue reading
An Audit Reveals Millions In Losses In Havana Businesses
An Audit Reveals Millions In Losses In Havana Businesses / 14ymedio 14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2017 — The latest audit carried out by Cuba’s Office to the Comptroller revealed losses of more than 90 million Cuban and more than 51 million Cuban convertible pesos in public enterprises and non-agricultural cooperatives in Havana, a situation that […] Continue reading
Billion-dollar Odebrecht scandal engulfs Latin America
Billion-dollar Odebrecht scandal engulfs Latin America Tupac POINTU AFP February 3, 2017 Montevideo (AFP) – For years, Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht landed huge public works contracts by paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes. Now, the company’s dirty dealings have caught up with it — and the fallout is spreading across Latin America, where […] Continue reading