police
A Shameful Stab in the Back for Angel Santiesteban from UNEAC
A Shameful Stab in the Back for Angel Santiesteban from UNEAC / Amir Valle, Angel Santiesteban Posted on June 17, 2013 By Amir Valle The strategy of UNEAC and certain “disinformed” writers against Ángel Santiesteban One more shame falls on the Writers and Artists Union of Cuba. This time, the shame is a dirty attack, [...] Continue reading
Cuba Internet, in Slow Motion and Hard Currency
Cuba: Internet, in Slow Motion and Hard Currency / Ivan Garcia Posted on June 2, 2013 Facing the India fountain, next to Fraternity Park and close to the Capitol, in the center of Havana, is nestled the Hotel Saratoga. Its ancient facade, painted lime green, has an architecture of curved arches and tall columns. The [...] Continue reading
The Morality of the Survivor
The Morality of the Survivor / Dimas Castellanos Posted on May 25, 2013 In the expanded meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Friday May 13, the head of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment reported on the irregularities in the operation of businesses with foreign capital and international contracts; the Minister of Economy and [...] 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
Canadian jailed in Havana corruption scandal speaks out
Posted on Wednesday, 05.15.13 Canadian jailed in Havana corruption scandal speaks out By Julian Sher of The Toronto Star And Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com Speaking over a scratchy telephone line from inside a Cuban prison, Sarkis Yacoubian’s voice goes suddenly silent. He’s crying. “I was so depressed at times, I wanted to commit suicide,” says [...] 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
Prostitution in Cuba: Denied at Home, Enabled from Abroad
Prostitution in Cuba: Denied at Home, Enabled from Abroad March 30, 2013 Graham Sowa HAVANA TIMES — In Cuba the denial of prostitution is a lie of omission: the government doesn't really talk about it. At the same time American politicians promote a travel ban that seriously damages United States efforts to identify and prosecute [...] 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 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
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
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
Foreign executives arrested in Cuba in 2011 await charges
Foreign executives arrested in Cuba in 2011 await charges Tue Oct 9, 2012 2:48pm EDT * Cubans say cases, investigation complicated * Home countries fret over due process * Potential witnesses barred from leaving island By Marc Frank HAVANA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Executives of three foreign businesses shut in 2011 ostensibly for corrupt practices [...] Continue reading
Corruption of a Political Elite
Corruption of a Political Elite September 26, 2012 Haroldo Dilla Alfonso* HAVANA TIMES — A few weeks ago, Cuban academic Esteban Morales returned to the same issue that in 2010 cost him his membership in the Communist Party, though he was reinstated in 2011. That issue: corruption. Morales raised the issue tactfully, with all due [...] Continue reading
Policeman, Policeman, Are You My Friend?
Policeman, Policeman, Are You My Friend? / Rebeca Monzo Rebeca Monzo, Translator: Unstated The other afternoon at home, talking with a friend, she was telling me, dying with laughter, that when she went to Central Park, a well-dressed man holding a little boy by the hand came almost alongside her. With us, she told me, [...] Continue reading
The Perverse Path of Repression
The Perverse Path of Repression / Agustin Valentin Lopez Canino Agustin Valentin Lopez Canino, Translator: Unstated L is for Liberty "Good morning," said the woman with the thick voice and deep tone. My sister responded in kind and the woman began offering medications for sale. The clock indicated it was seven minutes past eight in [...] Continue reading
The Real Cost of Bureaucracy in Cuba
The Real Cost of Bureaucracy in Cuba Housing procedures are complex and protracted, but can be helped along with a bribe. By Calixto R. Martínez Árias – Latin America 19 Sep 12 For Cubans, getting anything done can be a real nightmare because of the amount of paperwork required. It can also be an expensive [...] Continue reading
The Assemblies to Nominate Candidates Begin
The Assemblies to Nominate Candidates Begin / Cuban Legal Advisor, Yaremis Flores Cuban Legal Advisor, Translator: @hachhe, Yaremis Flores By Yaremis Flores The summons for the citizens to attend the nomination of candidates assemblies are already spreading around the neighborhoods. Some are attending like robots, simply to make an appearance and so as not to [...] Continue reading
Not Different, Accomplices!
Not Different, Accomplices! / Miriam Celaya Miriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting One of the most noticeable features of "Cubanness" is our ancestral tendency to derive patterns from subjectivities. We like to imagine ideal things, automatically assuming they are palpable realities. If what we imagine coincides with our wishes, then you can count on the legend [...] Continue reading
Spanish driver in Oswaldo Payá crash to be tried Aug. 31
Posted on Friday, 08.17.12 Spanish driver in Oswaldo Payá crash to be tried Aug. 31 It is not known if the Cuban government will allow journalists to attend the trial in the eastern city of Bayamo. By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com The Spanish politician accused in the deaths of Cuban dissidents Oswaldo Payá and Harold [...] Continue reading
Foreign business in Cuba: Beware the dangerous embrace
Foreign business in Cuba: Beware the dangerous embrace Havana is at the same time attracting and terrifying entrepreneurs by Nancy Macdonald and Gabriela Perdomo on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 10:16am Until this spring, Stephen Purvis had it all. The British architect, who'd helped launch the Saratoga, Cuba's poshest hotel, was one of the more prominent [...] Continue reading
The Privileged Ones
The Privileged Ones / Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere, Translator: Chabeli The privileges granted by the regime to the Cuban military elite, behind the back of the people's will and stepping over any consensus from the citizens, have as solemn goal to buy the loyalty of this elite. Bought loyalty [...] Continue reading
Independent Activism in Cuba
Independent Activism in Cuba August 5, 2012 June Fernandez* HAVANA TIMES — "Come wearing something red and kiss someone, because all forms of love are important." Last June 28, forty-six people who had received this message via instant messaging or e-mail met in the Havana bus terminal, near the Plaza of the Revolution, to kiss [...] Continue reading