Sen. Richard Lugar Senator Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) sent one of his senior Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff members to Cuba from January 11-14, 2009, charged with the task of evaluating U.S. policy toward the island. His staff’s interviews with government officials, foreign diplomats, members of the clergy, international media, Cuban entrepreneurs and Cuban citizens were […]
Both Granma and El Nuevo Herald (but oddly, not yet Venezuela’s El Universal newspaper) have revealed that Hugo Chávez arrived last night in Havana on an “unexpected” visit. The agenda for his visit has not been announced, but he is accompanied by Venezuela’s Secretary of Oil and Energy—the President of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), the […]
Critics of the embargo have never been hard to find, but high-level dialogue in the United States has typically been cautious. Recently, however, outright denunciations and demands for the end of the embargo have become more common, and have been embellished with attitude. Tampa port commissioner Carl Lindell publicly called the embargo “insane,” and plans […]
One of the many regulations contained within the U.S. Helms-Burton Act of 1996 is a ban preventing Cuba’s use of a fiber-optic underwater cable that connects Miami and Cancun and runs only 32 kilometers from Havana. The ban thus severely limits Internet exchanges by users on the island because instead of the high-capacity cable, Cuba must use […]
Cuba Petroleos (Cupet), the island’s state-run oil company, has just announced that it will begin drilling 24 new wells in 2009 in an effort to expand Cuba’s crude oil and gas production. Cupet’s production currently satisfies only 47% of Cuban demand, leaving a production-consumption gap that has traditionally been covered by imports from Venezuela (although Cuba is […]
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom arrived in Havana yesterday afternoon on an official visit to Cuba. Some context: Guatemala’s 70 year life expectancy ranks as one of the lowest in the Hemisphere—a full eight years below those of close neighbors Costa Rica and the United States—and there is little potential for improvement when the country’s current […]
Over the past year, Latin Americanists, think tanks and non-governmental organizations have released targeted reports providing prescriptions for how a new U.S. administration should approach the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Council on Foreign Relations put forth U.S.-Latin American Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality in May of 2008. Michael Shifter […]
The Law of Historic Memory, a law enacted by the Spanish government in December, will grant citizenship to the children and grandchildren of Spaniards who fled the country during the Spanish Civil War or were exiled during the years that General Francisco Franco’s regime ruled Spain. The Spanish government estimates that one million individuals worldwide […]
Fidel Castro wrote yesterday that the fate of Cuba and of the Americas is inextricably linked to today’s referendum in Venezuela, which will decide whether President Hugo Chavez will have the right to run for President again in 2012 and beyond. Castro’s reflection (an English translation) is here. Venezuelans are crowding into voting booths at […]
The BBC World Service this month broke from their usually news and debate programs and showed an interesting documentary series on Iranian culture and flavour, in a four part series called The Taste of Iran. The host, Sadeq Saba goes through much of the country and explores the food which makes up a great part […]
Hugo Chavez is set to open another referendum on allowing himself to be elected for another term in office beyond constitutional limits, but with the last referendum vote to increase his term in office losing by a small majority and his lack of popularity abroad being adopted by many in Venezuela itself, recent history will […]
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has a unique perspective on Latin American governance, having been victim to one of its worst manifestations. During the 1970s Bachelet was tortured as a prisoner of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship, then exiled from the country. Yet upon returning to Chile, she rose above: she worked first to become a doctor, […]
Cuba is the only independent country in the Western Hemisphere that is excluded from the Organization of American States (OAS), having been suspended from participation in 1962 under a decision that declared the Cuban Marxist-Leninist system of governance incompatible with the inter-American system. This week, for the first time, OAS Secretary General Miguel Insulza openly […]
Barack Obama has already signed the Executive Order requiring the closing of Guantanamo Bay’s detention facilities within the year. Meanwhile, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has offered the new Administration’s first official comments on Cuba, acknowledging a change underway in the Cuban-American community and assuring that the Administration is “sensitive” to it. Both moves indicate a certain […]
Raul Castro’s visit to Russia at the end of January may have turned some heads, but it did not receive the front-page treatment once demanded by news on relations between these two countries. Reports on Raul’s week-long stay generally show that Castro and Medvedev stuck to mutual concerns that included agriculture, manufacturing, science and tourism. These […]