Excerpts from a European Parliament resolution passed on March 10, 2010: The European Parliament… strongly condemns the avoidable and cruel death of the dissident political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo after a hunger strike of 85 days, and expresses its solidarity and sympathy with his family; Condemns the pre-emptive detention of activists and the government’s attempt […]
Brazil’s President Lula is a largely beloved figure, in his country and abroad: Barack Obama is widely quoted as having told Lula, upon meeting at the G20 summit in London in April 2009, that the Brazilian leader was “the most popular politician on earth.” But even Lula appears to have some issues that he cannot […]
Cuba offers payback plan for frozen bank accounts (Reuters) After freezing hundreds of millions of foreign businesses’ dollars in Cuban banks over the last 1-2 years, Havana is now offering a 2 percent interest rate and a five-year plan to pay these funds out to the companies that are owed. One loophole-sounding proviso: the payments […]
Inflammatory phrases like “Havana’s human rights hell” and “11 million Cubans enslaved for the last 50 years” are just that—inflammatory. They do nothing to encourage any sort of international understanding or change on the part of the Cuban regime. Nor do they advance the cause of detente between the United States and Cuba, or indeed, Cuba and […]
The death last week of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the hunger-striking Cuban prisoner, has proven to be a international issue of grand proportions, and Havana is stubbornly pushing back against the waves of pressure from friends and foes abroad. On Wednesday, authorities arrested or detained at least 30 recognized dissidents in order to prevent them from […]
This was a week of international attention for Cuba. On Tuesday, Orlando Zapata Tamayo—a 42-year-old plumber imprisoned in 2003 who was serving a 36-year sentence for disobedience of the government, among other charges—died in prison after an 85-day hunger strike in protest of inhumane prison conditions. His death drew condemnation from the United States, Canada, Spain […]