On October 14th, President Obama utilized his executive powers to issue a new directive on the United States’ relationship with Cuba. The directive dictates new rules that cover a wide range of areas, from supporting medical-related business projects to reinstating normal limits on importing Cuban products for personal use.
In Havana, Cubans have a saying: When something goes wrong; when food takes a long time to come out at a restaurant; when all the taxis passing by are full; when someone trips over a bump in the sidewalk—they say, “Es el bloqueo.” This transla
In the beginning of June, the Cuba Domadores went up against the British Lionhearts for the final match of the World Series of Boxing (WSB). The Domadores (or “Ringmasters”) beat their opposition 9-1, with the Lionhearts only earning one consolation point. A few months afterwards the Cuban boxing team went on to dominate at the Summer 2016 Olympics, earning a boxing medal count that was double the US’s and second only to Uzbekistan’s.
Gradual Reforms or Disagreement on How Much Market Activity Should Cuba Allow?
~ 1 year ago, on Jan. 14, 2013, Raúl Castro and the Cuban government relaxed foreign travel
policies for its citizens...
~ Between Jan. 14 and Nov. 30, 2013, more than 184,000 islanders had gone abroad.
* Many on more than one trip (257,518 trips total according to Cuba’s foreign
and migration department)
In Cuba, a country with restricted internet access, those who have found a way around the government’s access barriers have been labeled as dissidents. One of these, blogger Yoani Sánchez, has consistently been active in portraying and critiquing daily life in communist Cuba. She is most famous for her blog Generación Y, which she is able to maintain by emailing friends outside the country for publication.
“I’m afraid that something will happen to me…that they’ll kidnap me, I don’t know.” These are the fearful words of Ramona Rodríguez, the 51-year old Cuban primary care physician stationed in the northeastern Brazilian state of Pará. She has since left her position last week to seek asylum in the United States embassy in Brasilia and has sought refuge in Brazil in an attempt to establish her residency there while Washington looks over her request.
In Havana this past weekend, Cuba passed a new law to open the country to foreign investment. The latest in a series of reforms by Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel in 2008, this law encourages foreign capital in an effort to advance Cuba’s development and struggling economy.
“Brother Obama,” wrote Fidel Castro in a public letter to the American president, “we don’t need the empire to gift us anything.” The article was published on the 28
