Showing posts with label Havana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Havana. Show all posts
Thursday, November 03, 2022
Cuba’s First LGBTQ Hotels - BBC News
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Revolutionsführer Fidel Castro wird 90
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Cuban Same-sex Couples 'Wed' in March for LGBT Rights Led by Castro's Daughter
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| A couple performs a symbolic marriage with US Reverend Roger LaRade in Havana. |
A day before Cuban president Raúl Castro was to visit the Vatican, his daughter sponsored a blessing ceremony for gay couples on an island where gay marriage remains illegal.
More than 1,000 gay, lesbian and transgender Cubans marched through Havana on Saturday, proudly displaying their truest selves for a day in a society where they still endure discrimination.
The Eighth Annual March against Homophobia and Transphobia took on extra meaning for about 20 couples who participated in a “Celebration of Love”, symbolically exchanging vows.
The couples held hands or embraced as American and Canadian protestant clergy members blessed them. It was part of official ceremonies leading up to the Global Day against Homophobia on 17 May.
Castro’s daughter, Mariela, heads Cuba’s Center for Sex Education, which has been pushing for gay rights in a country with a history of persecuting homosexuals. » | Agencies in Havana | Saturday, May 09, 2015
Saturday, January 12, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Venezuela is not the only Latin American nation that is monitoring every moment of president Hugo Chavez's illness. His ally Cuba has relied on him for economic help, and that could soon come to an end.
Away from the constitutional wrangles and impassioned crowds of Caracas, the future of Venezuela after Hugo Chavez is being plotted this weekend in an elegant pre-revolutionary mansion in Havana's old playboy quarter.
The firebrand Venezuelan president is fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, stricken by severe respiratory problems and a lung infection after his latest round of surgery for cancer.
His illness left him unable to be sworn in for his fourth term as president last Thursday, having won a close-fought election in October.
But for his Cuban hosts, much more is at risk than simply the loss of a fellow left-wing Latin American radical who has long venerated Fidel Castro. His death would also put at risk the remarkable oil-fuelled largesse that has allowed Cuba to cling to its experiment in tropical communism.
Thanks to the close personal relationship between Mr Chavez and Mr Castro, energy-rich Venezuela supplies more than 100,000 barrels of dirt-cheap oil a day to Cuba - an estimated 50 per cent of the island's petroleum needs.
Venezuela also hires tens of thousands of Cuban doctors and teachers to work in its barrio slums, propping up the Cuban economy to the tune of some $6 billion a year in total. Without that subsidy, Havana would have long ago been forced to introduce market reforms to its communist regime. » | Philip Sherwell, and Andrew Hamilton in Havana | Saturday, January 12, 2013
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Pope ended a historic visit to Cuba with a meeting with its ailing former leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday after celebrating Mass in front of hundreds of thousands of Cubans gathered in Havana's Revolution Plaza.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed that the pair had met, for about 30 minutes at the Papal Nuncio's residence in Havana, but he did not detail what they discussed.
The 84-year-old Pontiff used his sermon to gently prod Communist authorities to embrace change and for Cubans to search for "authentic freedom" as he ended a three day visit to the Caribbean nation.
Crowds had filled Havana's main square overnight, the sprawling plaza surrounded by ten-storey high images of revolutionary heroes Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos where Fidel Castro used to deliver hours long speeches of fiery rhetoric.
The Pope, who began his six-day tour of Mexico and Cuba with an attack on Marxism, asserting that the "ideology as it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality", had made it a theme of his visit to urge increased cooperation between church and state.
With President Raul Castro, who took over from his older brother four years ago, seated in the front row, the pontiff urged the nation to open up to reforms and denounced "irrationality and fanaticism" that many will see as a thinly veiled attack on Cuba's leadership. » | Fiona Govan | Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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"Cuba and the world need change, but this will occur only if each one is in a position to seek the truth and chooses the way of love, sowing reconciliation and fraternity," the pontiff told hundreds of thousands of worshippers and well-wishers, including President Raul Castro, seated front and centre.
"The truth is a desire of the human person, the search for which always supposes the exercise of authentic freedom," the pontiff, 84, told the vast crowd including hundreds of wildly cheering and chanting nuns, and others waving a sea of Vatican yellow and Cuban blue, white and red flags.
Hailing the Cuban government's granting of freedom of religion since 1998, Benedict also said Cubans' quests for truth generally should also respect "the inviolable dignity of the human person."
That sounded very much like an oblique reference to the situation of dissidents pressing for political opening in the Americas' only one-party Communist ruled country. Dozens were rounded up and arrested during the pope's visit, dissident sources said.
About 100 Catholic Cubans marched early on Wednesday from Havana's Catholic cathedral to the mass venue, carrying a statue of their patroness Our Lady of Charity. It was a celebration of the fact that until 14 years ago, religious processions were banned in officially atheist Cuba for decades.
"I came to honour the Virgin of Charity as part of the celebration we are having for the pope's visit," said Ever Marin, 13, who was taking part in a procession for the first time.
About a half million Cubans, on foot as well as packed onto state buses and trucks, thronged the square where revolution icon Fidel Castro famously gave countless addresses to masses of supporters beneath the Jose Marti monument. Benedict XVI was on Wednesday set to meet Fidel Castro, 85, at some point. » | Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Friday, March 02, 2012
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Within hours of signing up to Twitter, the daughter of the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, has got into the online equivalent of a shouting match with a prominent dissident blogger, Yoani Sánchez.
Mariela Castro called Sánchez and her supporters "despicable parasites" in a brief exchange that may have been the first direct confrontation, verbal or otherwise, between dissidents and a member of the Castro family after years of mutual animosity.
Sánchez, who regularly criticises the lack of freedoms in communist Cuba in her Generation Y blog, touched off the dispute by sending tweets that welcomed Mariela Castro to the "plurality of Twitter" where "no one can shut me up, deny me permission to travel or block entrance".
"When will we Cubans be able to come out of other closets?" she asked, alluding to Mariela Castro's championing of gay rights as head of Cuba's national centre for sex education.
"Tolerance is total or is it not?" Sánchez tweeted.
Castro, 49, replied coolly: "Your focus of tolerance reproduces the old mechanisms of power. To improve your 'services' you need to study." » | Reuters in Havana | Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
HAARETZ: Court said prosecutors proved case that Gross was working on a subversive program, paid for by the U.S., that aimed to bring down Cuba's revolutionary system.HAVANA - A Cuban court yesterday found U.S. contractor Alan Gross guilty of crimes against the state and sentenced him to 15 years in prison, a verdict that is sure to have sweeping repercussions for already-sour relations between Washington and Havana.
The court said prosecutors had proved their case that Gross, 61, was working on a subversive program, paid for by the United States, that aimed to bring down Cuba's revolutionary system. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence.
The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID backed democracy-building project. The U.S. government and Gross's family say he was working to improve Internet access for the island's Jewish community and should be released. >>> The Associated Press | Sunday, March 13, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Cuba has launched this year’s glitzy Havana Cigar Festival on a high note, amid news that international sales of the country's famous hand-rolled cigars are rising for the first time since the global recession hit. To the picture gallery >>> | Friday, February 25, 2011
Sunday, August 02, 2009
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The Cuban president Raul Castro has warned the US and Europe he will not 'restore capitalism' and will never renounce the revolution.
Mr Castro said the Caribbean country's socialist political system was non-negotiable.
In a speech marking the end of the annual parliamentary session, which has been dominated by Cuba's grave economic crisis, he said he would be willing to "discuss everything" with foreign leaders except the island's political and social system.
The Cuban leader, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president three years ago, said he wanted to respond to comments by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who has linked dialogue with Cuba to democratic reform in the country.
"With all due respect, in response to Mrs Clinton, but also to the European Union ... I was not chosen as president to restore capitalism to Cuba or to renounce the revolution," he said to applause from Cuban politicians.
"I was chosen to defend, maintain and continue to perfect socialism, not to destroy it," said Mr Castro. >>> The Telegraph’s Foreign Staff and Agencies in Havana | Sunday, August 02, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: For the last 50 years, Cuba has struggled under a crippling US trade embargo. But this week President Obama eased sanctions on the island. Rory Carroll reports from Havana on what this will mean for ordinary Cubans
They file into terminal 2 of José Martí international airport like any other tourists, wheeling and hauling luggage, checking mobile phones for reception, fumbling with passports. Navy blue passports, stamped with the image of a bald eagle with outstretched wings. American passports. History has yet to call time on half a century of enmity between the United States and Cuba, but these arrivals in jeans and sneakers are not awaiting a formal truce. A once forbidden island, they sense, is on the verge of opening up, and they are here to see it.
The trickle started a few weeks ago. Gum-chewing backpackers, middle-aged professionals, retirees, all bold enough to defy the US prohibition on spending money in Cuba, a de facto travel ban. Cubans half- jokingly call their new American visitors "los valientes", the brave ones, for carving a beachhead. Lenin, in a wry mood, might have called them a revolutionary vanguard. A more poetic soul would compare them to the first swallows of spring, harbingers of thaw.
The glacier in which the cold war remnant that is Cuba has been trapped may soon melt. Barack Obama this week lifted a broad set of sanctions that were designed to isolate the island. Cuban Americans, currently restricted on the amount of money then can send home and to one visit every three years, will be allowed to go as often as they wish and to send more money to relatives. Obama has also lifted restrictions on US telecommunications companies applying for licences to operate there, and on scheduled commercial flights to the island. Air travel is currently limited to charter flights from Miami, New York and Los Angeles for Cuban Americans with relatives on the island, and those with a special reason to visit, such as journalists.
The changes soften US policy but leave in place the economic embargo that John Kennedy imposed in 1962 - a ban on trade and investment designed to choke Fidel Castro's nascent revolutionary government. Over the decades the embargo was tightened and loosened, but the objective remained the same: topple Castro. It failed to do so. Cuba's economy staggered on and Castro strengthened his grip, but the embargo was maintained. >>> Rory Carroll | Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Guardian Audio: The Guardian's Latin America correspondent Rory Carroll explains why Barack Obama has been able to sidestep Florida's powerful Cuban exiles in breaking down barriers between the two nations >>>
Thursday, March 12, 2009
DIE PRESSE: Die USA lockern Embargo gegen die Karibikinsel – ein Signal der Öffnung. In Kuba hofft das Regime auf weitere Signale der Öffnung aus Washington.
WASHINGTON. Seit der „Schweinebucht-Aktion“, dem von John F. Kennedy initiierten und grandios gescheiterten Putschversuch gegen Kubas Staatschef Fidel Castro 1960, hat niemand an der Doktrin der US-Außenpolitik gegen die Karibikinsel gerüttelt. Ob Republikaner wie Richard Nixon oder Ronald Reagan oder Demokraten wie Jimmy Carter oder Bill Clinton: Alle US-Präsidenten hielten an dem 1962 beschlossenen Handelsembargo fest, um so den Kommunismus in ihrem Hinterhof auszuhungern. Und die exilkubanische Gemeinde in Florida, meist hartgesottene Republikaner, sorgte dafür, dass das Lüftchen aus Washington nicht zu lau wurde.
Seit 45 Jahren ist John F. Kennedy nun tot, und der so oft totgesagte Fidel Castro erlebt in seinem krankheitsbedingten Ausgedinge als Politrentner bereits den zehnten US-Präsidenten. Im Gegensatz zu Kennedy jedoch, der sich in den ersten Monaten seiner Amtszeit zu dem abenteuerlichen Staatsstreich hinreißen ließ, setzt Barack Obama auf eine sanfte, schleichende Veränderung. Washington stößt die Tür zum Castro-Regime auf. >>> Thomas Vieregge | Mittwoch, 11. März 2009
LE MONDE: Obama allège les restrictions sur les voyages à Cuba
Des dissidents cubains ont qualifié, mercredi 11 mars, de "positif" l'allègement des restrictions sur les voyages à Cuba pour les Cubains américains, disant espérer que ce geste de Washington sera suivi d'une réponse similaire de la part de La Havane. "C'est une bonne nouvelle pour le peuple cubain, cela va contribuer à son unité", a déclaré l'économiste modéré Oscar Espinosa Chepe.
Le Sénat américain a voté mardi soir un vaste projet de loi qui comprend l'allègement de restrictions sur les voyages et l'envoi d'argent de Cubains américains vers l'île communiste des frères Castro, sous embargo américain depuis 1962. Les Cubains vivant aux Etats-Unis pourront notamment désormais visiter leurs proches restés à Cuba une fois par an plutôt que tous les trois ans et dépenser jusqu'à 179 dollars par jour sur l'île au lieu de 50. >>> LEMONDE.FR avec BBC News et AFP | Jeudi 12 Mars 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>
Friday, November 28, 2008
BBC: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is in Cuba for the final stop in a tour of Latin America intended to strengthen Russian influence in the region.
Mr Medvedev and Cuban President Raul Castro are expected to sign deals on nickel mining and oil exploration.
The Russian leader arrived in Havana from Venezuela, where he and President Hugo Chavez signed a deal on promoting nuclear energy for civilian use.
Military co-operation also featured in Mr Medvedev's talks with Mr Chavez.
After meeting his Cuban counterpart, Mr Medvedev told reporters: "We have a systematic dialogue. Our relations have been generally good, but in the past six months they have become especially intense."
Russian and Venezuelan warships are scheduled to hold joint military exercises later this week.
Russia is already a major arms supplier to Venezuela, with contracts worth some $4.4bn (£2.39bn). >>> | November 28, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Saturday, May 03, 2008
BBC: The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access.
This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks.
Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look.
The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month.
But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad.
Since taking over the presidency in February, Raul Castro has ended a range of restrictions and allowed Cubans access to previously banned consumer goods.
In recent weeks thousands of Cubans have snapped up mobile phones and DVD players.
But only now have the first computer stocks arrived.
Internet access remains restricted to certain workplaces, schools and universities on the island.
The government says it is unable to connect to the giant undersea fibre-optic cables because of the US trade embargo.
All online connections today are via satellite which has limited bandwidth and is expensive to use.
Cuba's anti-American ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, is laying a new cable under the Caribbean.
It remains unclear whether, once the connection is completed, the authorities will then allow unrestricted access to the world wide web. [Source: Cuba Lifts Ban on Home Computers >>> By Michael Voss, Havana | May 3, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
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