Repression
Canadian goes on trial in Havana for corruption scandal
Posted on Thursday, 05.23.13 Canadian goes on trial in Havana for corruption scandal By Julian Sher, Toronto Star And Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com When Sarkis Yacoubian walks into a court room in downtown Havana Thursday to face corruption charges that could send him to prison for 12 years the Canadian businessman will have a high-powered [...] Continue reading
Cuba readies corruption trials of Western businessmen
Cuba readies corruption trials of Western businessmen By Marc Frank HAVANA | Tue May 14, 2013 10:50pm EDT (Reuters) – Canadian and British executives of three foreign businesses shut in 2011 by Cuban authorities, ostensibly for corrupt practices, have been charged after more than a year in custody and are expected to go on trial [...] Continue reading
Conspiring With Impunity
Conspiring With Impunity / Rosa Maria Rodriguez Posted on May 16, 2013 “Corrupt lawyer and judge. Raúl Castro, help me. Unjust eviction.” Unfortunately, in Cuba anybody with a Communist Party ID, a title that gives them a substantial amount of power, and personality disorders that will predispose them to abuse their authority, can conspire against [...] Continue reading
Cuba’s Democratic Left on State Socialism
Cuba’s Democratic Left on State Socialism May 9, 2013 | | Print Print | 0 5 11 32 HAVANA TIMES — A couple weeks ago we published a summary of an essay by Pedro Campos and Armando Chaguaceda on the inability of the State Socialist system that reigns in Cuba to carry out the changes [...] Continue reading
Another Fateful May 1st
Another Fateful May 1st / Agustin Lopez Posted on May 3, 2013 Once again it is the first of May, once again the Plaza is filled, slogans that will never be accomplished, unattainable challenges, huge flags carried as if over coffins, people raising their fists and shouting against the ghosts of fear, and above, on [...] Continue reading
Watchdog group Cuba cheated on its UN human rights review
Posted on Friday, 05.03.13 Watchdog group: Cuba cheated on its UN human rights review From the summary of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR): • More than 30 NGOs reported “that there is a separation of powers in Cuba, which ensures that the judiciary can perform its duties without interference from the other branches of government.” [...] Continue reading
Fraud: Cuba Uses 454 Front Groups to Subvert Today’s UN Review of its Human Rights Record
Fraud: Cuba Uses 454 Front Groups to Subvert Today’s UN Review of its Human Rights Record By UN Watch (Bio and Archives) Wednesday, May 1, 2013 Also: Syria, Iran, North Korea took the floor today to sing Havana’s praises GENEVA, – Today’s UN review of Cuba’s rights record was tainted by “massive fraud” committed by [...] Continue reading
Restrictions Aren’t Worth Much
Restrictions Aren’t Worth Much April 24, 2013 Dariela Aquique HAVANA TIMES — Every day, demands become louder from Cuban students for less restrictions on the Internet. This will be one of the points raised at the next congress of the Federation of University Students (FEU). Young people are demanding the right to good and broad [...] Continue reading
The Nature of Socialism
The Nature of Socialism / Rafael Leon Rodriguez Posted on April 23, 2013 The “handpicked” successor of the late comandante Hugo Chavez was elected and is not the new president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. Starting off, his first statements addresses the aim of radicalizing the revolutionary process. On the one hand [...] Continue reading
U.S. urges freedom for Granma journalist
Posted on Wednesday, 04.24.13 U.S. urges freedom for Granma journalist By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com The U.S. government urged Cuba Wednesday to free a former Granma newspaper reporter who was arrested after he wrote about the mismanagement of a government project and is now serving a 14-year prison sentence for spying. José Antonio Torres was [...] Continue reading
Changes In Cuba, I’ll Believe It When I See It
Changes In Cuba, I’ll Believe It When I See It / Juan Juan Almeida Posted on April 19, 2013 Many of you remember what happened in our country in the summer of 1989*. I’m referring to those trials that popular wits baptized, for the range of events and actors, “Tropicana show under the stars, first [...] Continue reading
Cuba and the Enslaving System of Two Currencies
Cuba and the Enslaving System of Two Currencies / Yusnaby Perez Posted on April 16, 2013 The dual currency system in Cuba is one of the major economic and social problems of the country. Don't take my word for it, on several occasions the president of the country, Raul Castro himself (and I have no [...] Continue reading
Jorge Olivera: The History of the Cuban Dissidence is Long
Jorge Olivera: The History of the Cuban Dissidence is Long / Ivan Garcia Posted on April 12, 2013 For someone from Havana, the best thing is to walk the streets in spring. These March days, Jorge Olivera Castillo, 52, poet and journalist, is delighted by the green of the trees, the salty aroma, and the [...] Continue reading
Socialism: A Transition Stage Between Capitalism and… Capitalism
Socialism: A Transition Stage Between Capitalism and… Capitalism / Rebeca Monzo Posted on April 10, 2013 I was having a conversation recently at a friend's house about new private businesses, doctors being given permission to travel, the prices and shortages of food, and other issues currently affecting our Cuban planet. One of those present mentioned [...] Continue reading
Afro-Cuban author who complained of racism demoted
Posted on Friday, 04.05.13 Afro-Cuban author who complained of racism demoted By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com A black Cuban author, Roberto Zurbano, whose scathing criticism of racism on the island was published in The New York Times last month, has been demoted from his top job at the government-controlled Casa de las Americas book publishers. [...] Continue reading
Total Alienation
Total Alienation / Miriam Celaya Posted on March 28, 2013 Presided over by Cuba's General-President, on Friday, March 15, 2013 there was an extended meeting of the Council of Ministers, which, in addition to resembling any other, at the same time typifies both the inefficiency of the entire government apparatus and the impossibility of renewing [...] Continue reading
How Cuba became the newest hotbed for tourists craving sex with minors
Posted on Saturday, 03.16.13 Sex Tourism in Cuba: Second of three parts How Cuba became the newest hotbed for tourists craving sex with minors HAVANA — These stories are the result of a joint investigation by Toronto Star reporters Robert Cribb, Jennifer Quinn and Julian Sher, and El Nuevo Herald reporter Juan O. Tamayo. The [...] Continue reading
Canadians are major customers in Cuba’s child sex market
Canadians are major customers in Cuba's child sex market Canada is lax when it comes to stopping its sex offenders from going to Cuba and preying on underage prostitutes. Most tourists are drawn to Cuba by the sand, the sunshine, and the culture. But a few tourists – including some Canadians – are drawn by [...] Continue reading
Cuba’s most horrifying episode of child sex tourism resulted in a girl’s death
Cuba's most horrifying episode of child sex tourism resulted in a girl's death In May, 2010, Lilian Ramirez Espinosa, along with three other Cuban adolescents, was part of a sex party involving foreigners. Lilian ended up dying, though it's still not clear how. Cuban lawyer Laritza Diversent says the authorities reacted to the fact children [...] Continue reading
Another December 10th
Another December 10th / Rafael Leon Rodriguez #Cuba Rafael Leon Rodriguez, Translator: Unstated Yesterday we commemorated the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of Human Rights by the United Nations of that time, in the creation of which there was an outstanding Cuban representation. The authoritarian authorities of our country, who already for [...] Continue reading
An Indecent Proposal
An Indecent Proposal / Jeovany Jimenez Vega Jeovany J. Vega, Translator: Unstated, In response to an article published by Jean-Guy Allard in the newspaper Granma on November 12, in which Yoani Sanchez is accused, for the umpteenth time, of being "a mercenary working for the United States." Clearly the theme "Generation Y" has escaped the [...] Continue reading
An Assessment of the Cuban Government’s Management Over the Last Six Years
An Assessment of the Cuban Government's Management Over the Last Six Years / Dimas Castellano Dimas Castellanos, Translator: Unstated Four decades after taking power through revolution in 1959, the factors which made totalitarianism in Cuba possible have reached their limit. The populist measures imposed during the first years after the revolution were accompanied by the [...] Continue reading
Journalist for Cuba’s Granma convicted of spying
Posted on Wednesday, 11.14.12 Journalist for Cuba's Granma convicted of spying José Antonio Torres was charged after writing about mismanaged public works project. By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com A journalist with Cuba's Granma newspaper was sentenced to 14 years in prison for spying, a charge filed soon after he reported on the government's mishandling of [...] Continue reading
Violator and Ousted
Violator and Ousted / Luis Felipe Rojas Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G. The whirlwind of corruption, the lack of ethics and the indiscipline have shaken the foundations of the police unit of San German, in Holguin. Another neighborhood bloodhound has been victim of its own bite, originally trained to demolish any form of human [...] Continue reading
Cubans Need Help Recovering From Hurricane Sandy
Cubans Need Help Recovering From Hurricane Sandy / Yoani SanchezTranslator: Unstated, Yoani Sanchez How You Can Help Hurricane Sandy has devastated the city of Santiago de Cuba and caused severe damage in several towns in the east of the country. The images of destruction speak for themselves, but the cameras barely manage to capture a [...] Continue reading
There are no free elections without free people, free citizens, free men and free women
There are no free elections without free people, free citizens, free men and free women / Oswaldo Paya Oswaldo Paya, Translator: Cleonte We are on the eve of new elections in Cuba. And I am reminded that the first law issued in Sierra Maestra during the anti-Batista insurrection before the elections scheduled in 1958, was [...] Continue reading