Cuba : News

News : Cuba : News

Cuba's celebrated and increasingly brassy blogger Yoani Sánchez emerged Thursday as a player in U.S.-Cuba relations, scoring a lengthy reply from President Barack Obama to her questions and playing a starring role in a congressional hearing on efforts to let American tourists visit Cuba. (MiamiHerald.com)

A high-octane effort to let U.S. tourists visit Cuba got a major endorsement Thursday from one of the island's leading dissidents, who suggested that ``along with suitcases, Bermuda shorts, and sunblock, support, solidarity, and freedom could come too.'' Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who this week drew the attention of President Barack Obama, wrote in an essay to House Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., that lifting the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba ``could bring more results in the democratization of Cuba than the indecisive performance of Raúl Castro.'' (MiamiHerald.com)

A retired State Department employee and his wife are expected to plead guilty Friday in federal court to charges they have been spying for Cuba for decades, a source close to the case confirmed. (MiamiHerald.com)

<!--#include virtual="/static/blog_includes/cuban_colada.html" --> (MiamiHerald.com)

Cuban purchases of U.S. food will fall by at least a third this year as the island slashes imports to stabilize an ever-weak economy further hammered by the global economic crisis, a top trade official said Monday. (MiamiHerald.com)

The United States found itself up against virtually the entire world Wednesday as country after country at the United Nations denounced the nearly 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, which the island government says is as strong as ever under President Barack Obama. (MiamiHerald.com)

Independent journalist Aini Martín says she was detained last week as she took photos of a policeman seizing merchandise from an elderly street vendor. (MiamiHerald.com)

Members of the National Police Force arrested five blind street vendors in the capital last week. (MiamiHerald.com)

The government has eliminated potatoes from from the subsidized basket of food purchased under the ration card in the capital. (MiamiHerald.com)

The request of dissident Carlos Manuel Pupo for 3.5 hectares (8.75 acres) of unused farmland has been rejected by the government. (MiamiHerald.com)

AGUIAR, Roberto, de 71 a&ntilde;os, natural de Cuba. Servicios hoy a las 10:30 a.m. en Vista Memorial Gardens. Funeraria Caballero Rivero Woodlawn, Hialeah. (MiamiHerald.com)

La conocida bloguera cubana Yoani S&aacute;nchez sugiri&oacute; que "junto a los maletines, las bermudas y las cremas solares, pueden llegar tambi&eacute;n el apoyo, la solidaridad y la libertad''. (MiamiHerald.com)

Dem&oacute;cratas y republicanos tuvieron un encendido debate sobre la posibilidad de levantar las restricciones de viajes a Cuba... (MiamiHerald.com)

The Obama administration has caved to demands from Fidel and Raul Castro's government to shut down a U.S.-sponsored electronic billboard in Havana. This is a symbolic step backward in America's mission to promote freedom (MiamiHerald.com)

American and Cuban diplomats took the first small steps toward improving relations between our two countries with talks in New York this week on migration issues. The discussions revived a regular dialogue between Washington and Havana on migration issues for the first time in 6 years, and followed a pledge by President Barack Obama to reach out to all of America's neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. (MiamiHerald.com)

Most Latin American leaders slammed the 47-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba at the mid-April Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. Fidel Castro hadn’t been invited, so he ranted about the “blockade”—and President Obama—from Havana. This all sounds familiar, but there is an important new twist today. The Obama team, and shifts in Cuban American opinion, give hope that we may finally move toward eliminating the embargo—if we can jettison unrealistic demands and expectations. (MiamiHerald.com)

Bill Clinton and George W. Bush recently had a face-to-face debate in Canada to discuss current affairs. The only Latin American nation mentioned in their conversation? Cuba. (MiamiHerald.com)

The Obama administration has made an excellent first step to eliminate some restrictions on travel to Cuba, to loosen constraints on remittances, and to re-engage in migration talks. Positive, multiple lines of engagement are clearly the way forward. Broader contact and leverage with Cuba through additional commercial and people-to-people contacts will in time help promote a more pluralistic, less impoverished, and more open society. (MiamiHerald.com)

U.S. President Barack Obama praised dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez and said in a posting on her website on Thursday that he looks forward to the day "all Cubans can freely express themselves." Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez during an interview with Reuters in her house in Havana November 9, 2009.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart gave a speech. His subject was the persecution of Cuban democrats, and the general ignoring of this persecution by the American press.

A metaphorical timeout has been in place between the United States and Cuba for nearly 50 years.

Alexis Puentes has been in the family business since he was 4. That's when he joined his dad and a group of 24 guitarists in a performance aired on Cuban national TV.

Cienfuegos, Cuba, Nov 11 Of 19 sites declared by UNESCO World Heritage in the Caribbean, nine are located in Cuba, explained today doctor Isabel Rigol when speaking about the challenges of the region on this issue.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen blasted efforts to open Cuba up to U.S. tourists Thursday during a House Foreign Affairs Coomittee meeting, suggesting the tourist dollars would only keep the regime in power. (MiamiHerald.com)

Cuba's government remains as repressive under Ra&uacute;l Castro as it was under his brother Fidel, according to the first in-depth report on the island's human rights since the younger Castro took power. (MiamiHerald.com)

Cuban blogger Yoani S&aacute;nchez Thursday posted President Barack Obama's answers to seven questions she sent him in an effort to engage in a bit of "popular diplomacy." (MiamiHerald.com)

More than 50 House Democrats sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi supporting current Cuba policy, which embargo-supporters say effectively means that a bill to open Cuba to tourists is dead. (MiamiHerald.com)

Famed Cuban blogger Yoani S&aacute;nchez said Friday she and another blogger were punched and thrown violently into a car by presumed state security agents as they walked to participate in a peaceful march in downtown Havana. (MiamiHerald.com)

President Barack Obama has answered questions submitted by a celebrated Cuban blogger, saying he isn't interested in "talking for the sake of talking" with Raul Castro and indicating he won't visit the island until the communist government changes its ways. (MiamiHerald.com)

President Barack Obama has answered questions submitted by a celebrated Cuban blogger, saying he isn't interested in "talking for the sake of talking" with Raul Castro and indicating he won't visit the island until the communist government changes its ways. (MiamiHerald.com)

Former political prisoner Vladimir Alejo Miranda has painted the front of his house black, which, he says, is a sign of mourning for Cuba. (MiamiHerald.com)