human rights
Drug smuggling a risk if US relations with Cuba shift, officials say
Drug smuggling a risk if US relations with Cuba shift, officials say By Patrick Oppmann, CNN Updated 1005 GMT (1805 HKT) June 12, 2017 Havana, Cuba (CNN)For Cuban officials on the front lines of the fight against drug trafficking, the Trump administration’s threat to roll back improved relations between the United States and the communist-run […] Continue reading
Autonomy of Cuban Dissidents Will Always Be Beneficial
Autonomy of Cuban Dissidents Will Always Be Beneficial / Iván García Iván García, 1 June 2017– The majority of the openly anti-Castro opponents I know do not live in lavish mansions nor do they possess items fashioned with the latest technology. Neither do they boast bank accounts in financial paradises and they do not own […] Continue reading
War Vocation in the “Peace Zone”
War Vocation in the “Peace Zone” Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 31 May 2017 — A brief note published by the official Cuban press reports the meeting held by “General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz” with “the Chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army, Timoleón Jiménez” (FARC-EP), where the former “ratified the willingness […] 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
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
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
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
HRF celebra diez años promoviendo la libertad y exponiendo los crímenes autoritarios
HRF celebra diez años promoviendo la libertad y exponiendo los crímenes autoritarios DDC | Washington | 1 de Marzo de 2017 – 20:03 CET. Human Rights Foundation (HRF) emitió un extenso comunicado a propósito de sus diez años de fundada en el que expone de forma minuciosa el trabajo desempeñado durante el pasado 2016, en […] 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
HRW pide a países presionar sobre gobiernos Cuba y Venezuela
HRW pide a países presionar sobre gobiernos Cuba y Venezuela POR LUIS ALONSO LUGO Associated Press WASHINGTON Human Rights Watch exhortó el jueves a los países del continente a presionar de manera conjunta para contrarrestar lo que considera como actos represivos de los gobiernos de Cuba y Venezuela y expresó preocupación por el incremento de […] Continue reading
Fidel Castro – The Tyrant Exits but the Damage Remains
Fidel Castro: The Tyrant Exits but the Damage Remains / Jeovany Jimenez Vega Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 29 November 2016 — The dictator Fidel Castro died last Friday at the age of 90. The extensive news coverage was to be expected. After all, he was both the object of the most romantic, idealized love and the […] Continue reading
Losing Fear To Get Freedom
Losing Fear To Get Freedom / 14ymedio, Rolando Gallardo 14ymedio, Rolando Gallardo, Quito, 10 December 2016 — On the 58th anniversary of the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista, the seizure of power by Fidel Castro and the disappearance of the national hope of a return to the constitutional values of 1940, the people of Cuba, their […] Continue reading
Fidel Castro is dead
Fidel Castro is dead BY GLENN GARVIN ggarvin@MiamiHerald.com Fidel Castro, who towered over his Caribbean island for nearly five decades, a shaggy-bearded figure in combat fatigues whose long shadow spread across Latin America and the world, is dead at age 90. His brother Raul announced the death late Friday night. Millions cheered Fidel Castro on […] Continue reading
Trump praises Cuban dissident group the Ladies in White
Trump praises Cuban dissident group the Ladies in White Published October 26, 2016 EFE MIAMI – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday at a Miami meeting with anti-Castro Cuban-Americans praised the Ladies in White dissident group and accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of “closing her eyes” to human rights violations on the communist island. […] Continue reading
Laritza Diversent, Devastated by the Police Operation Against Cubalex
Laritza Diversent, Devastated by the Police Operation Against Cubalex / Iván García Ivan Garcia, 28 September 2016 — After passing the crossing of La Palma, two kilometers from the old bus stop of Mantilla, El Calvario is found nestled, a district of one-story houses, roads without asphalt and a multitude of dogs without owners. At […] Continue reading
Committee to Protect Journalists Invites Journalists in Cuba to “Cross the Red Lines
Committee to Protect Journalists Invites Journalists in Cuba to “Cross the Red Lines” /14ymedio 14ymedio, Havana, 28 September 2016 – Dismantling the legal framework for the press and eliminating all barriers to individual access to the internet are key factors to promote a more open information environment in Cuba, according to the report Connecting Cuba: […] Continue reading
In Puerto Rico, Cubans Call for a Commission Against Impunity
In Puerto Rico, Cubans Call for a Commission Against Impunity / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, San Juan, 15 August 2016 — The emergence of a new opposition partnership called the Conference of the Cuban National Congress is the most notable result of the event that has gathered in Puerto Rico 65 organizations from […] Continue reading
One Woman’s Struggle for Freedom in Castro’s Cuba
One Woman’s Struggle for Freedom in Castro’s Cuba Andrew Egger / July 26, 2016 A slim Cuban woman speaks from a wheelchair at the front of the room. The woman speaks softly for 10 minutes in Spanish, pausing at intervals to wait for her translator’s words. Her left arm ends at the wrist, and she […] Continue reading
Backlash in Cuba
Backlash in Cuba Obama’s historic visit was a smash hit in Havana. Fidel Castro wasn’t going to take that lying down. By ANN LOUISE BARDACH June 10, 2016 HAVANA—These days Fidel Castro doesn’t often leave his comfortable home in Siboney, a leafy suburb west of this city. But on April 19, the 89-year-old Cuban leader […] Continue reading
How Democracy Disappeared from Cuba
How Democracy Disappeared from Cuba / Roberto Alvarez Quiñones From the blog of Dimas Castellano: In response to an article in Diario de Cuba about different views on human rights, one reader noted that he would like to read an account of how democracy disappeared from Cuba. In response, Roberto Alvarez Quiñones wrote “At Democracy’s […] Continue reading
On U.S.-Cuba military cooperation, proceed with caution
On U.S.-Cuba military cooperation, proceed with caution By Editorial Board May 30 at 7:58 PM IDAEL FUMERO Valdés is not someone you’d expect to see as an honored guest of the U.S. military. As chief of investigations for Cuba’s National Revolutionary Police, a part of the military-controlled Ministry of the Interior, he plays a key […] Continue reading
The Cuban justice system is seriously corrupt
“The Cuban justice system is seriously corrupt” DDC | Oslo | 26 Mayo 2016 – 9:03 pm. For more than 15 years the Cubalex Legal Information Center has been providing free guidance to Cubans, who, lacking resources and information, must grapple with the regime’s legal system. Cubalex also advises Cubans and foreigners with regards to […] Continue reading
Brazil stands up to Cuba, Venezuela
Brazil stands up to Cuba, Venezuela Brazil reacted strongly against Cuban and Venezuelan claims that there has been a right-wing “coup” in Brazil Brazil’s new government issued a statement accusing the two governments of spreading “falsehoods” It’s ironic that Cuba and Venezuela, which systematically violate human rights and democratic rules, are lecturing about democracy BY […] Continue reading
The Enemies of Modern Democracy
The Enemies of Modern Democracy / Iván García Ivan Garcia, 28 April 2016 — What do the autocratic Castro brothers, the solemn Vatican, Islamic fundamentalists and the madhouse that is North Korea have in common? The answer is simple: devotion to dogma, lack of transparency and unchecked caste-based power. In theory communism should be music […] Continue reading
Cuba’s Communists dig in despite Obama’s outreach
Cuba’s Communists dig in despite Obama’s outreach Castros ensure communist grip By Guy Taylor – The Washington Times – Wednesday, April 20, 2016 Critics of President Obama’s diplomatic outreach to Cuba are claiming vindication this week as the island nation’s Communist Party hard-liners — cheered on by an 89-year-old Fidel Castro — moved to cement […] Continue reading
The Big Change
Cuba: The Big Change Alma Guillermoprieto MAY 12, 2016 ISSUE One could swear that nothing has changed. The chaotic lines we travelers form in front of Cuba’s stern immigration officers; their belligerent slowness; the noise and heat in the too-small room; the echoing shouts across the room from one olive-green-clad person to another (an argument […] Continue reading
Is Normalization With Cuba Irreversible?
Is Normalization With Cuba Irreversible? That was one of Obama’s goals in his recent trip—and he made huge progress, charming the Cuban public and establishing a rapport with Raúl Castro. By Peter KornbluhTwitterAPRIL 6, 2016 The day after President Obama ended his historic trip to Havana, Cubans turned on their TV sets and watched his […] Continue reading
Will Cuba’s path lead to authoritarian capitalism?
Will Cuba’s path lead to authoritarian capitalism? BY BRAHMA CHELLANEY MAR 21, 2016 NEW DELHI – Hopes for change have been aroused by Barack Obama’s history-making visit to Cuba, the first by a U.S. president since that small island-nation’s revolution established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere in 1959. The United States and […] Continue reading
The importance of Obama’s visit
The importance of Obama’s visit DIMAS CASTELLANOS | La Habana | 21 Mar 2016 – 11:24 am. The damage done to US economic interests by the 1959 revolution led to the deterioration of relations between the two countries. In the midst of the Cold War, disagreements led to a rupture in relations and Cuba’s alliance […] Continue reading
From the Black Spring to a Rolling Stones Concert
Cuba: From the Black Spring to a Rolling Stones Concert / Iván García Posted on March 18, 2016 Iván García, 16 March 2106 — Around 12 midnight on Tuesday, 18 March 2003, I was en route to my apartment in the La Víbora neighborhood when, from the balcony, some incomprehensible signs coming from my mother […] Continue reading