The AP ran a story today titled, “US-Cuba immigration talks under cloud of mistrust.” The course of the article makes the current US-Cuba relationship and future prospects look pretty dismal. But we had always expected progress to be slow, and mutual recriminations do not disappear overnight. I, for one, am not discouraged. Still, one cannot […]
The U.S. State Department announced today that its highest-ranking envoy yet (under the Obama administration) will travel to Cuba to participate in fresh talks on migration issues. The spokesman’s office reported: U.S. and Cuban representatives will meet in Havana to discuss implementation of the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords. The discussions will focus on how best to […]
This February 14, the Chinese New Year (based on the lunar calendar and marking the arrival of spring) was celebrated in Havana with performances by dancers and students of martial arts and other artistic displays in a celebration sponsored by the Havana Historian’s Office and the Cuban School of Wu Shu, Havana’s martial arts school. […]
Completely unrelated to U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations (or lack thereof), Cuban imports of U.S. agricultural products—exempted from the 48-year embargo since the year 2000—declined by 26 percent last year, from a peak of $710 million in 2008 to $528 million in 2009. The United States remains the largest seller of food to Cuba. American analysts judge […]
Republican Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Florida) is one of the staunchest congressional supporters of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. In a noon conference today, Diaz-Balart announced that he would not run again in his Florida election district: he will retire from politics and return to practicing law. In that context, he said, he would work […]
FPA blogger Richard Basas discusses COHA’s recent article—“No ‘Common Policy’ as Europe Grapples over its Future Ties to Cuba“—in this post on the Latin America blog. He addresses the difficulty the EU faces in adopting a single policy toward Cuba when its member states have diverse levels of connection to the island: Spain, which has […]
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs recently published an interesting article online discussing the EU policy towards Cuba, and its effectiveness in balancing trade, human rights and US-EU policy regarding Castro’s Cuba. COHA research associate Evgenij Haperskij points out that the EU’s “Common Policy” towards Cuba has suffered from the same problems as many policies in […]
Laura Chinchilla was elected president in Costa Rica’s election on Sunday. A former justice minister and vice president, Ms. Chinchilla nabbed 47% of the vote, easily outpacing her campaign rivals. Long known as a halcyon enclave amidst the poverty and lawlessness of Central America, Costa Rica has fell victim to its geography of late. Crime […]
We say this every year. But like the stubbornly optimistic Chicago Cubs fan (which I also happen to be), we’ll say it again: 2010 could be the year. This year we could see further change in U.S. policy toward Cuba, starting with opening travel. The Congressional push to open up Cuba for travel by U.S. […]
It is the reverse of what might be expected: the oil-rich, OPEC-member country Venezuela will be counseled through its energy crisis by the small island nation of Cuba, which is renowned for its blackouts and imposed rationing of electricity amid energy shortages of its own. Caracas, which supplies the bulk of Cuba’s oil supplies, turned […]
Earlier this week, Havana announced a two-month amnesty for gun owners across the country to register their unlicensed guns and thus (ideally, but probably not actually) eliminate the illegal gun culture in the country. Today, perhaps on a related bent to curb illegality in all its forms and better account for the true situation in the […]
Today, Cuba declared a two-month amnesty for unlicensed gun owners—an implicit acknowledgment of the presence of an illegal underground market in Cuba, since very few individuals beyond active military personnel and state security agents are legally allowed to even possess weapons. As the Associated Press reports: “Even most police officers are required to leave their […]
Havana is not alone in its judgment that the Obama administration has not done enough in its first year to achieve rapprochement. Analysts have been voicing their dissatisfaction in connection with the end of year one: the Center for International Policy’s critique sums up the main complaints that have been circulating. Over-arching thesis: “Obama is […]
The date has been set: on February 19, the second round of U.S.-Cuba immigration talks will take place in Havana. Recall that the first session took place last July in New York, and the follow up discussions were postponed in December. According to the New York Times, Cuban officials aim to negotiate an agreement with […]
With a revival of aid and interest in Haiti post-earthquake and another round of bickering from Latin America’s left wing leaders accusing the US of occupying Haiti in their aid efforts, the rest of the Americas and the world have taken to sending support and aid to Haiti, running collection campaigns and rescue teams to […]