U.S. Cuba programs: the stuff of spies?

<p style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. government Cuba democracy programs are being revamped to address concerns from Congress, which have held up the $20 million budget.By Frances Robles.miamiherald.com. To the U.S. government aid workers who he suspected were secret agents, Cuban professor Raul Capote was “Pablo.” He went by “Daniel” with his Cuban government contacts, who were spies for sure. Read More

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Should the government ease all restrictions on Cuba travel?

<p style="text-align: justify;">Posted by: Budget Travel, Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 5:11 PM. Earlier this year, President Obama spoke about easing a number of travel restrictions in an effort to help the relationship between the United States and Cuba grow stronger. With more and more people now able to visit the island nation, the country has the potential to one day become a major tourist destination, if it isn't already.As of April 2009, travel restrictions were lifted for any Cuban Americans with immediate family residing in Cuba. Read More

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Cuba's fertility rate less for population replacement

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba. Tue 10 May 2011, 21:30 CAT.The Cuban National Bureau of Statistics and Information has said the country’s overall fertility rate is less than what is needed for population replacement.Bureau director for centre for population and development studies Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga said by 2030 Cubans aged 60 years and above would account for approximately 31 per cent of the total population. Read More

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Cuba's Hunt For Oil Raises Questions For U.S.

<p style="text-align: justify;">by Nick Miroff. May 9, 2011. In the deep waters off Cuba's north coast, a Chinese-built oil rig is due to begin drilling this fall in an area geologists believe may have huge beds of undersea crude.A significant find could transform Cuba's economy and possibly alter relations with the United States, but it may also present new environmental threats for the Florida coast.Mariel — the town 30 miles west of Havanna that was a departure point for more than 100,000 Cubans who left the island in the 1980 Mariel boatlift — is being remade into a servicing hub for the Cuban oil industry of the future. Read More

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Cubans begin to enjoy making money

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Mary Murray&nbsp;&nbsp; Producer. NBC News NBC News. updated 5/6/2011 10:37:25 AM ET 2011-05-06T14:37:25. HAVANA&nbsp; — Wealth sticks out like a sore thumb in Cuba, especially with a person like Orlando – who has amassed a small fortune for over 20 years – and lives in Cuba’s generally humble countryside. Orlando's three-story stone white house with its hand carved wooden doors and tar paved driveway sits in shiny stark contrast to the surrounding homes, most of which are four-room small rectangles topped with thatched roofs and marked by exterior walls badly in need of a splash of paint. Read More

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Cuban artists descend on NYC for three-month festival

<p style="text-align: justify;">May, 06, 2011 01:20 AM - Miami Herald (FL)&nbsp; May 06--NEW YORK -- Before this year, Cuban filmmaker Gerardo Chijona had not been to the United States in almost a decade. So far in 2011, he's already come twice.The director and screenwriter of the 2010 film Ticket to Paradise is one of some 200 Cuban musicians, filmmakers, artists, dancers and writers who are expected in New York City this spring for what promoters say is an unprecedented display of Cuban culture. After months of increased cultural exchanges between the two nations, the Si Cuba Festival has become the most significant demonstration of the Obama administration's departure from Bush-era policies. Read More

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Reader travelogue: Why Cuba?

<p style="text-align: justify;">"Why are you going to Cuba?" several friends asked. Why, indeed? Because I love the country, the culture, and the people, and I have had a research interest in Cuban literature for almost 40 years, but it has been 20 years since my last visit to the island.It was, therefore, with great enthusiasm that I signed up for a trip with the Librarians The tour was arranged by Marazul, a New Jersey agency, in consultation with the Center for Cuban Studies in New York, and in cooperation with ICAP, the Cuban Institute for Friendship With the People. We were traveling under a general license for full-time professionals conducting research in their fields. Read More

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U.S. embargo on Cuba: A 50 years-old crime

<p style="text-align: justify;">Since 1960 the U.S. governments maintain and tighten the economic embargo against the island of Cuba -- the longest embargo posed on any country. The reasons for which the United States enacted the alienation of Cuba are exclusively a product of the Cold War period. Fifty years later, none of these reasons exist anymore. What remains is an inhuman commercial and economic blockade that violates the U.N. Charter, restricts Cubans from acquiring certain goods and blows Washington's international reputation even more. Read More

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Benicio Del Toro - A Latino rebel becomes our man in Havana

<p style="text-align: justify;">Friday, 29 April 2011. Benicio Del Toro is agitated. The Usual Suspects star is pacing to and fro outside the picturesque Bar Silvia in central Havana, where he is directing his first film. It's not often that the dashing star looks out of his comfort zone, but right now he's trying to shoot a scene for 7 Days in Havana in which the actor Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) chats with locals at the famous hang-out. In the apartment above the bar a dog barks incessantly. As Del Toro looks into the monitor, watching a gorgeous couple waltz past, he worries that the scene is going to look "like a video". Read More

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A Family’s Legacy, Afro-Cuban Jazz

<p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> Daniel Barry for The New York Times. By LARRY ROHTER. Published: April 28, 2011. IF there is such a thing as a first family of Afro-Cuban jazz, the O’Farrill clan has a right to claim that distinction. Its members helped invent the hybrid genre back in the 1940s, when Chico O’Farrill came to New York from Havana, and in recent years they have worked to reinvigorate the music despite barriers in both Cuba and the United States. Read More

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