Former Cuban President Fidel Castro appeared on state television Sunday for the first time since June 2008, looking far healthier than in many of the photos released since his surgery. The footage shows clips from Fidel’s three-hour meeting over the weekend with a group of Venezuelan students from the University of Carabobo. He comments on […]
FPA is proud to present one of its newest bloggers, David D. Sussman and its new blog, FPA’s Venezuela Blog. Below is a post by David on some movies dealing with Migration and Latin America that I am proud to post on this blog and encourage readers to check out FPA’s Venezuela Blog frequently. Enjoy! […]
Hurricane Bill was a source of great concern over the last few weeks for storm watchers in the Caribbean and along the southern and eastern coasts of the United States. Cooperation on tracking could not be a matter of politics, even between the Cuban and U.S. governments, because coastal communities in both countries were vulnerable. It is […]
The above clip is a debate between Phil Peters, Vice President of the Lexington Institute, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, lobbyist for the anti-Castro U.S.-Cuba Political Action Committee, on the merits of maintaining or relaxing the U.S. embargo of Cuba. The debate itself follows a typically unproductive “talk past each other” sort of progression, but it lays […]
Statistics on the telecommunications and information technology sectors in Cuba are now available on the website of the government’s Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE). ONE’s data reports (particularly on the economy) are widely regarded as suspect: the claims of improvements and growth often appear impossibly inflated. But this particular report shows such poor results that […]
Is the plan to reform health care in the United States a step toward socialism? Many Republicans say it is. Some of the loudest opponents to Obama’s plan at the Town Hall meetings across the country have been those arguing that the plan erodes the fabric of what defines “America” by turning toward socialism. Across […]
This week, a delegation of U.S. Catholic bishops headed to Havana to meet with church leaders, expressing their hope that the White House will soon take further steps to improve U.S.-Cuba relations. U.S. Reverend Andrew Small, Archbishop of Boston Sean Patrick O’Malley and Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida held a news conference in Havana today. […]
Robert Buddan of the University of the West Indies at Mona had a thought-provoking piece in the Jamaica Gleaner today, entitled “Managing crisis in Jamaica and Cuba.” Buddan highlights the difference in options available to the two countries in facing similar debt difficulties. Cuba, for example, cannot seek or receive loans from the International Monetary Fund […]
From Newsweek: Thursday was the 83rd birthday of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s comandante en jefe, who, upon “retiring” as the country’s leader last year, passed control of the government on to his brother. In that way he remains the godfather of Cuban politics. Like Castro, plenty of other leaders-despite old age, term limits, or even death-continue […]
Today is Fidel Castro’s 83rd birthday, a day he marked not with celebration (indeed, the state organized no official events for the occasion) but with an essay on the global economic crisis, climate change and immigration. He wonders in his piece whether the crisis might mean the end of imperialism or the beginning of something […]
As the Cuban economy continues to struggle to deal with the global downturn and its implications, consumers will see at least one relief. The state announced a reduction of up to 20% on the price of 24 basic goods, including food products like ground meat, chicken and canned milk, as well as soap, toothpaste, diapers and […]
PBS WIDE ANGLE correspondent Aaron Brown will host a live debate on Blog Talk Radio this Thursday at 11:00 a.m. EST. The topic: should the U.S. lift the trade embargo on Cuba? The standard positions in favor of lifting the embargo are (1) it has failed to achieve its objective of regime change, (2) the […]
Over the years of the embargo, relationships between states/cities in the United States and counterparts in Cuba have sprung up. Now, as legislation to dismantle travel restrictions and embargo regulations makes its way through the halls of Congress, a number of state and local leaders are asserting themselves in favor of a more open relationship […]
Raúl Castro proclaimed last week that no one should expect Cuba to change its political and social system; Cuba will remain socialist/communist. But he and top economists do foresee a great overhaul of the system. NPR reported: Rafael Hernandez, editor of the quarterly journal Temas in Havana, says Raul Castro is attempting to transform the Cuban […]
The yearly two month Cold War between Colombia and Venezuela has come this summer amidst talks between the US and Colombia to place approximately seven US bases in Colombian territory in order to aid US anti-drugs forces. A week ago as a response, Venezuela withdrew its ambassador from Colombia and is threatening to restrict trade […]