Santeria, a syncretic religion mixing Catholic and West African religious elements, is common in Cuba. Some sources estimate that nearly 80% of the population consults with practitioners of religions with West African roots, including Santeria. As is customary, a panel of Afro-Cuban Santeria priests convened on New Year’s Eve and the first day of 2010 […]
Journalists and analysts covering U.S.-Cuba developments are finding reason over the past few weeks to turn to the catchphrase, “The honeymoon is over.” AFP, CNN and Trinidad and Tobago Express (to name a few) have all published these words since January 6. Below, CNN analyzes the shift over the last year in Fidel and Raul’s […]
Every so often a story of a unique nature, crossing many different previously unrelated countries and debates arises when studying Latin America and globalisation. Colombia has now become one of the destinations for migrants who wish to go to the US, but originally coming from Africa, as opposed to from the rest of Latin America. […]
It’s hard to resist presidential decree. Yesterday, after calling for his resignation, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner issued a decree to remove the governor of Argentina’s Central Bank, Martín Redrado, from his post. The impasse has been brewing for some time, coming to a head this week. Kirchner wanted Redrado to devote $6.6 billion in […]
Dr. Julia Sweig, the Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies and Director for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, will be at a Foreign Policy Association-sponsored event on January 13, 2010 at Grupo Santander, speaking on her recently published book, Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know. We’ve referred […]
Following the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Northwest Airlines flight into Detroit, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced extra screening measures on Sunday. The new security measures call for inspecting baggage and patting down U.S.-bound passengers from four countries that the U.S. government considers state sponsors of terrorism, and 10 other “countries of interest.” […]
On January 5, 2000, the U.S. government decided to send 6-year-old Elián González back to his family in Cuba. After a dangerous boat trip from Cuba to Florida—which his mother did not survive and he completed in the end on an inner-tube—Elián in 1999 became a controversy between the United States and Cuba: should he […]
Cuba’s Tropicana nightclub marks 70th anniversary (Reuters) The Tropicana, Havana’s pre-revolution international celebrity haunt, celebrated its 70th anniversary on December 30, its future bright as a money-maker for the Cuban government. Under Fidel Castro, most such establishments in Cuba were closed during the 1960s. But the Tropicana, with its scantily-clad female dancers in feathers and […]
Jorge Castaneda is a policymaker and professor of great interest who writes about Mexico and Latin America as a whole. During my time working in Washington DC, it seemed like he put off many policymakers inside the Beltway during his time as Mexico’s Foreign Minister as part of the Fox Administration from 2000 to 2003. […]
After the detention in Cuba this month of a U.S. government contractor distributing cell phones and laptops, Congress has called new attention to the secretive pro-democracy program that ballooned under the George W. Bush administration and funded this contractor’s mission on the island. House Representative Howard Berman (D-California) and Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) in particular […]
The twilight of 2009 gave cause to celebrate for gay rights activists in Latin America. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Mexico City ten days ago to campaigners’ chants of “yes we can.” In a separate motion the city assembly also sanctioned adoption by gay couples. Then, in Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city, Alex Freyer and José […]
The holiday season is less of an affair in Cuba than elsewhere: only in 1990 did the regime remove references to atheism from its constitution, and it was not until 1998—after Pope John Paul II visited the island and met with Fidel—that December 25 was restored as a national holiday. Still, New Year’s Eve (tonight) […]
Following a Juanes concert in Havana this year and a more recent Kool and the Gang performance there, Carlos Varela—sometimes known as the Cuban Bob Dylan—is the latest example of the musical and cultural exchanges that have been allowed to expand under the Obama administration. At the highest levels of government, relations remain strained between […]
Above: a report on the exchange this month between the Pope and the new Cuban ambassador to the Vatican. Interesting fact: the U.S. ambassador in the Holy City is also Cuban. Miguel Díaz, a well-respected Catholic theologian born in Cuba, was named by the Obama administration earlier this year.
As the U.S. band Kool and the Gang played in Havana this weekend, Raúl Castro made his annual address to the Cuban Councils of State and Ministers. Many had looked forward to the former event as the most recent of several cultural exchanges between the United States and Cuba that indicate improving ties between the […]