Cuba

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Lugar to Obama: Reach Out and Touch Cuba

Senator slams embargo, calls for policy shift, new envoy

(Newser) - As members of Congress move to rethink US-Cuban relations, Sen. Richard Lugar is urging President Obama to take firm action, including initiating direct talks, the Washington Post reports. The Indiana Republican says the US embargo on the country “undermines our broader security and political interests in the Western Hemisphere,...

Congress Ready to End Cuba Travel Ban: Senators

Lawmakers believe time has come for bipartisan bill to end 50-year-old travel ban

(Newser) - A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill that would allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba for the first time in nearly 50 years, the Miami Herald reports. Previous efforts have been shot down by conservatives and anti-Castro Cuban-Americans, but the lawmakers say momentum is on their side...

Senate Eyes Lifting All Travel Bans to Cuba

But Cuban-American senator fights colleagues to block it

(Newser) - A bipartisan group of senators is set to introduce a new bill on US-Cuban relations tomorrow that would remove all legal barriers to traveling to the island, reports the Washington Post. The bill goes far beyond earlier efforts to relax travel restrictions and enjoys support from committee leaders, top Republicans,...

Obama to Announce New Cuba Travel Rules in Spring

Administration plans to allow more citizens to visit Communist island

(Newser) - President Obama will travel to Key West this spring to announce the softening of travel restrictions to Cuba, the Washington Times reports. New rules will tweak the decades-long embargo to allow more US citizens to visit. Currently, only individuals such as journalists or researchers with specific business can travel to...

El Salvador, Costa Rica Restore Ties With Cuba

(Newser) - El Salvador and Costa Rica have decided to end decades-long diplomatic freezes with Cuba, the BBC reports. They were the last Central American countries still shunning the island. For El Salvador’s newly elected president, Mauricio Funes, normalizing relations is a simple matter of fulfilling a campaign promise. It’s...

Russia May Land Bombers in Cuba, Venezuela

(Newser) - Russian bombers may find a home in Latin America, Bloomberg reports. Venezuela and Cuba have offered to let Moscow use their airfields, and a top military official seems to like the idea. “If the heads of the two countries show the will, the political will, then we are prepared...

Cuba Sackings May Be Olive Branch to US
Cuba Sackings May Be
Olive Branch to US
analysis

Cuba Sackings May Be Olive Branch to US

Castro replaced 'pugnacious' minister with diplomat

(Newser) - Raul Castro’s overhaul of Cuban ministers may be meant to ease tensions with the US under President Obama, writes Tim Padgett in Time. Cuba’s president replaced a “pugnacious” former foreign minister who had close ties to Fidel with a longtime UN ambassador—and the move occurred the...

Fidel Spotted Strolling Around Havana

Residents see frail Comadante in public for first time in years

(Newser) - Residents of Havana say they’ve spotted the unmistakable figure of El Comadante shuffling around the city in recent weeks, the New York Times reports. Fidel Castro hasn’t been seen in public since undergoing emergency surgery in 2006, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hailed the jaunts as "a...

Raul Castro Ousts Top Fidel Loyalists

(Newser) - President Raul Castro abruptly ousted some of Cuba's most powerful officials today, remaking the government in the biggest shakeup since he took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro a year ago, the AP reports. The changes replaced some key Fidel loyalists, including the longtime foreign minister, with men closer...

Congress Debates Easing Cuba Travel Restrictions

(Newser) - A bill pending in the US House includes a provision relaxing travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans who wish to visit Cuba by slicing out funding for enforcement of a 2004 law, the Miami Herald reports. The bill, which will likely see a vote today, allows annual visits rather than one every...

A Year In, Raúl's Cuba In Midst of New Revolution

Fidel's younger brother raises country's global profile, begins reform

(Newser) - Today marks the first anniversary of Raúl Castro's rise to the top of Cuban politics, and as the Miami Herald reports, he has lots to celebrate. Latin America's continuing leftward shift has seen regional leaders cozy up to Fidel's brother, and Russia has used Cuba to expand its presence...

From Cuba to Hollywood, Che a Caricature of Himself

For many, image of Che Guevara still resonates

(Newser) - Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Che is drawing fresh attention to revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara—even as he’s becoming a kind of caricature of himself, Rolf Potts writes in World Hum. In Cuba, Guevara serves as “a sainted martyr of unwavering purity who also happens to promote...

Fidel Demands Gitmo Back
 Fidel Demands Gitmo Back 




Fidel Demands Gitmo Back

Former Cuban prez slams Obama over naval base, Mideast policy on web site

(Newser) - Fidel Castro is demanding that Barack Obama serve up a Guantanamo libre once the last US prisoner leaves, Reuters reports. Castro, posting on a Cuban government website, slammed as an "act of arrogance" Obama's comment that a giveback of Guantanamo would depend on US defense needs and might require...

Castro Hints at His Own Failing Health

He says he may not be lucid in 4 years; again praises Obama

(Newser) - Fidel Castro hinted in a new column that his health is failing, the AP reports. The 82-year-old former Cuban leader wrote yesterday in his online column that Cuban officials "shouldn't feel bound by my occasional reflections, my state of health or my death." He also had warm words...

Fan Fidel Hails 'Sincere' Obama

Castro was glued to inauguration coverage

(Newser) - Cuba's ailing former dictator Fidel Castro has spoken warmly about President Barack Obama, and his brother Raul is hinting about a face-to-face meeting, reports Australia's Age. Fidel, 82, spent Tuesday watching TV coverage of the inauguration and spoke glowingly about America's new president as "absolutely sincere" to Argentine President...

Oy, Caramba! Cubans Turn to Judaism
Oy, Caramba!
Cubans Turn
to Judaism

Oy, Caramba! Cubans Turn to Judaism

But for some, religious awakening looks a lot like exit strategy

(Newser) - Cuba's Jewish community is growing for the first time in decades, the Wall Street Journal reports. The country's Jewish population dwindled to 1,000 by the late 1980s but has now hit 1,500. Hundreds of other Cuban Jews have recently emigrated, landing in Israel, Canada, and the US. Many...

Fidel Reported to Be Close to Death

Castro is gravely ill, sources say

(Newser) - Fidel Castro may be nearing the end of his life, reports the Miami Herald. It's been almost two months since Castro has been photographed in public. No images were released of his November meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and he was a no-show at the Jan. 1 celebrations of...

Hey Sean, Put Down Your Pen
 Hey Sean, 
 Put Down 
 Your Pen 



OPINION

Hey Sean, Put Down Your Pen

Adoration of Cuban dictator is misguided, dangerous

(Newser) - Sean Penn may be “the finest character actor around,” but he's “no journalist,” writes Roger Cohen in the New York Times. Penn’s recent “fawning tributes” to Cuban president Raúl Castro show the actor has “delusional, dangerous” beliefs about the dictator—a fact...

Cuba Embargo Has Backfired: Time to End It

(Newser) - The Cuban embargo has failed to encourage democracy there, and the president-elect should do something about it, writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post. It's time to “bring five decades of counterproductive American policy toward Cuba to a definitive end.” While engagement with other Communist regimes has worked...

Raul Castro: Outside Forces Can't Harm Us

(Newser) - Raul Castro marked the 50th anniversary of his brother's rise to power by declaring that the revolution is "stronger than ever" but warning Cubans that more hardships lie ahead, the Miami Herald reports. Though he didn't mention the US by name, Castro said that outside forces could not harm...

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