Cuba // Current

Photo reveals frail Fidel Castro

Is he ever going to just die already??? My boyfriend's family fled Cuba under Castro's oppressive regime and torture. ... more

ashcatash
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China seeks boost to Cuba ties

A Communist govenment trading with another Communist government. No big surprise here. * * * President Hu Jintao of China... more

ashcatash
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Hu's Cuba visit highlights China's growing LatAm clout - UPI.com

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao Monday proclaimed his huge nation's commitment to boosting its power... more

freeforall2008
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Ashley Rindsberg: Election Amnesia: Cuba on My Mind

"Free Mandela!" Check. "Free Sharansky!" Check. "Free Suu Kyi!" Check (sort of). "Free Oscar... more

freeforall2008
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Russian leader Medvedev heading to Cuba, Venezuela

"MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Cuba and Venezuela, which have increasing... more

kheek
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Hurricane Paloma Smashes Cayman Islands, Cuba Next

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Paloma in the Caribbean has become "extremely dangerous" as it pounds... more

TravG73
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Paloma si dirige verso Cuba

L'uragano si è rafforzato oggi ed è rientrato nella categoria 4 (estremamente pericoloso), secondo il National... more

Arale
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MC Chavez drops a disc.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's flamboyant President Hugo Chavez has made a show business appearance singing on a new... more

smice
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Cachao: Uno Mas

Co-presented by IEEC International Film Club and SFSU dir. Dikayl Rimmasch, 2008, Cuba / USA, 68 min. Celebrating the life of... more

freeforall2008
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Cuban dissidents salute Obama, no comment from Govt

The Cuban government chose to remain silent, but the dissident movement in the communist island on Wednesday saluted the election of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and said it placed the "ball of dialogue" on Havana's side of the court.

"If the Cuban government really wants to solve the problems, now it has the chance. This is the moment for Cuba to speak," said dissident Hector Palacio Ruiz, of Cuba's Liberal Union.

Palacio Ruiz read from a letter addressed to Obama, who he met in May in Miami, in which he wrote that the US president-elect "represents like no one else the prospect of a renovating change" that might extend to Cuba.

Fellow dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua, a social democrat, saluted Obama's win. This election victory could have, for Cuba, "a greater impact than the collapse of the Berlin Wall," Cuesta Morua told DPA.

"Obama, almost with his election alone, without a direct message, eliminates one of the poles of the local cold war that Cuba and the US have held for 50 years. It is an opening for a thaw," he said.

Obama's offer to talk without preconditions to the government of Cuban President Raul Castro "tears down forever and in a positive way the discourse of the besieged fort that the Cuban government has set up for 50 years," he said.

But Cuesta Morua also said that such a dialogue may not take place immediately. "Raul has not yet responded to the dialogue offer," he said.

Dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said: "For Cubans, it is very encouraging. Obama has promised to lift some restrictions (on trips and remittances), a very big humanitarian aspect.

"But he also has a positive political impact that could contribute to a gradual change toward democracy in our country."

Granma, the Communist Party daily, devoted a full page Wednesday to the US presidential election, under the headline, "Obama to the White House". The caption in the photo alongside the article said: "The candidate of change?"

So far, only traditional Cuban leader Fidel Castro has spoken in public about the US election. He said he considered Obama "more intelligent, cultured and impartial" than his Republican rival John McCain, whom Castro described as "old, bellicose, uneducated, not very intelligent and unhealthy".The Cuban government chose to remain silent, but the dissident movement in the communist island on Wednesday saluted the election... more