United States
The Philosophy of Marti versus the Totalitarian Model
The Philosophy of Marti versus the Totalitarian Model Posted on June 14, 2013 Published in the second edition of Cuadernos de Pensamiento Plural, April 2013. People cannot live without history. On the 160th anniversary of the birth José Martí, “the crowning figure of Cuban political thought,” his ideas, instead of being used to solve the [...] 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
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
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
No clear successor to Chávez as leader of Latin American left
Posted on Friday, 03.29.13 Latin America No clear successor to Chávez as leader of Latin American left By MIMI WHITEFIELD mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com Venezuelans will head to the polls April 14 to elect a successor to the late President Hugo Chávez. While Nicolás Maduro, Chávez's handpicked candidate, is favored to win, it's not as clear who will [...] 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
Cuba-Venezuela ties tenuous
Cuba-Venezuela ties tenuous 06/03 00:24 CET Cuba is on Venezuelan economic life support. With leader Hugo Chávez dead, there is speculation that Cuba as we know it may not survive. Havana's options just got a lot thinner, and it hasn't had many of them for a long time. President Chávez venerated the father of Communist [...] Continue reading
Cuba blocks dissident hotline
Posted on Friday, 12.07.12 Cuba blocks dissident hotline A system that allowed Cubans to broadcast their grievances has been blocked by the government. By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com The Cuban government is blocking calls to U.S. and Spanish telephone numbers once described as a 911 service for dissidents — a system they could use to [...] Continue reading
Change in Cuba: Less Costly Than Clinging to the Past
Change in Cuba: Less Costly Than Clinging to the Past December 6, 2012 Esteban Morales interviewed by Dmiti Prieto HAVANA TIMES — Esteban Morales is one of Cuba's most outstanding academics. An economist and a specialist on hemispheric policy, he is a grey-haired, tall, bearded black man with an air of being a taita, or [...] 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
A different and diminished Castro
Posted on Monday, 11.19.12 'A different and diminished Castro' BY BRIAN LATELL afterfidel@aol.com He spoke on the public record more than any political figure in history. It is a strange and dubious distinction to be sure. But during 48 years in power Fidel Castro elevated public discourse into a form of narcissistic excess unlikely ever [...] 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
Cuba unlocks the door
Cuba unlocks the door The lifting of foreign travel restrictions is the most significant act of liberalisation yet from Raúl Castro By Telegraph View 8:22PM BST 16 Oct 2012 It has taken half a century but Cuba has finally bowed to the inevitable and announced the lifting of foreign travel restrictions on its citizens. From [...] Continue reading
A Rerun of the Embargo Show
A Rerun of the Embargo Show / Oscar Espinosa Chepe Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Translator: Unstated Cuban authorities, as has been their custom for years, have launched a new campaign against the U.S. embargo, taking advantage of the start of high-level United Nations General Assembly sessions. The worn-out script began with a press conference by Bruno [...] 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
Some Challenges Facing Cuba’s Press
Some Challenges Facing Cuba's Press September 17, 2012 Esteban Morales* HAVANA TIMES — Everything seems to indicate that there are now two presses in Cuba. There's one that some want all of us to read, and another one that reaches only 10 percent of the population (though summaries of it are broadcast over "Radio Bemba" [...] Continue reading
Indecision time
Cuba Indecision time Never rapid, Raúl Castro's reforms seem to be stalling Sep 15th 2012 | HAVANA WHEN Raúl Castro, Cuba's president, gave his latest big speech, to a meeting of the National Assembly in July, he repeated his stock response to those who urge him to move faster with reforms to his country's stagnant [...] Continue reading
A Subtle Form of Corruption
A Subtle Form of Corruption September 6, 2012 To my constant friends By Esteban Morales* (Published by Progreso Weekly) HAVANA TIMES – When in 2010 I wrote about corruption and what happened to me became general knowledge, it was inevitable that many people worried. Nobody ever understood how it was possible to take a political [...] Continue reading
Tempering Dad
Tempering Dad / Yoani Sanchez Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sanchez For Marino Murillo, Cuban Vice President and father who, a few days ago, saw a daughter leave into exile. "Daddy, you're not getting involved in this stuff," his daughter advised from the other end of the line. The same daughter who a few weeks ago sent [...] Continue reading
Cuba Vice President Marino Murillo’s daughter defected and is living in Tampa
Posted on Monday, 08.27.12 Cuba Vice President Marino Murillo's daughter defected and is living in Tampa By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com The 24-year-old daughter of Cuban Vice President Marino Murillo, sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to ruler Raúl Castro, defected earlier this month and is now living in Tampa, knowledgeable sources said. Glenda Murillo [...] 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
Arrests show Cuba not yet ready for reform
Arrests show Cuba not yet ready for reform by Staff Writers Havana (UPI) Jul 25, 2012 Cuba’s wide-scale crackdown on dissent that led to arrests at a funeral shows the Central American country isn’t ready for credible political reform despite its ambition to embrace a market economy. For more than two years Cuba has been [...] Continue reading
Cuban doctors treated private patients in public hospitals
Posted on Friday, 07.20.12 Cuban doctors treated private patients in public hospitals They treated private patients in public hospitals, ran post-surgery clinics in private homes By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com A number of Havana doctors, nurses and others are under investigation for allegedly treating paying patients in public hospitals and running post-surgery recovery rooms in [...] Continue reading