This is not a German concentration camp in Auschwitz, 1944. It’s a psychiatric clinic in , 2010. Fernando, a skinny Cuban journalist, jumps to an obsolete computer. “Will you take this to Europe,” he asks me while opening brutal looking pictures taken in a Cuban morgue. “Oh, my God, what is it?” “OK, you don’t […] Read more
There is a story circulating in Havana. On a roof of the Central Committee building Raúl Castro came across an old lamp. He rubbed and polished it and the classic genie popped up. “You can ask me for two wishes”, the creature told him. “Shouldn’t I get to make three wishes?” asked Raúl a bit […] Read more
Let’s start with the obvious. With the Republican takeover of Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen becomes the new Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the authorizing committee with jurisdiction over most of Cuba-related legislation. This means not only that no engagement-oriented Cuba bills will move through that committee, and that very possibly, Ros-Lehtinen might well choose […] Read more
Last month, the Cuban government said it planned to fire 500,000 state employees, and perhaps over 1 million, saying “our state cannot and should not continue supporting… state entities with inflated payrolls, losses that damage the economy, are counterproductive, generate bad habits, and deform the workers’ conduct.” Some heralded the announcement as a long-awaited sign […] Read more
It is difficult to be against artistic exchanges with any country, including Castro’s Cuba, no matter how repressive and anti-American their regimes might be. Yet, conducting business with them as if they were normal governments emboldens them in their repression at home and hostility toward America abroad. Take the case of USAID employee Alan Gross, […] Read more
Fidel Castro ant the other leaders of the Cuban revolution were enjoying two basic advantages when propagating the socialism in comparison with their colleagues in Moscow. They were young and they were part of the Third World. When the “barbudos” (“the bearded ones”) came to power they had considerable appeal for the revolutionary movements in […] Read more
