Archive for the ‘Stuff from an expert’ Category

Cash-strapped Cuba will require visitors to buy health insurance

Cash-strapped Cuba will require visitors to buy health insurance if they want to enter the country, according to a new government measure disclosed on Saturday.
Under the measure, which takes effect in May, the insurance will be sold by foreign companies approved by the Cuban government or by Cuban firms at ports of entry to the [...]

U.S man arrested as US Congress takes its foot off the accelerator concerning lifting travel restrictions

The flurry of news emanating from the U.S between June and October concerning the possible lifting of travel restrictions seems to have died down. Many consider this is because Cuba is refusing to reciprocate or make any democratic concessions whatsoever. Others are suggesting that Raul Castro sees the arrival of millions of US citizens to [...]

Going, Going, gone…Libreta set for extinction, now what? Raised salaries? Direct payments to each Cuban or, nothing?

 
Comments such as this abound in Havana today - One day after the shocking news - “Cuban´s who earn 14 USD per month received the monthly rationed food, touted by the government to be valued at over 200 USD of food supplies, as a supplement to low salaries. We wonder who in government will wish [...]

Could the Cuban government be abolishing benefits to raise wages to international standards?

At present the whole concept of Cuban workers receiving 15 USD per calendar month and for 40 hour work weeks was the concept of receiving several “benefits”. These look set to disappear as Cuba grapples with a critical economy. But can the government afford to pay its workers proper wages to cover the following lost [...]

Cuban rations and the famous “libreta” to be a thing of the past

The system that allows islanders to buy food at deeply subsidized prices each month has long been one of the central building blocks of the country’s socialist system, providing everyone from surgeons to street-sweepers the same allotment of basic foods like rice, beans and a bit of chicken.
 
Now, state-run media are suggesting the “libreta” that [...]

Bisa Williams, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state does, Juanes Concert, Dissident Mettings and some time with the Cuban Government

 
A senior U.S. diplomat who traveled to Havana for the highest-level talks with Cuban officials in decades also met with opposition activists to discuss their political views, three dissidents told local foreign journalists.
 
Apparently a friend of Usha Pitts, who left the Cuban interest section in Havana 2005 and who will have certainly been able to [...]

Bogged down by financial woes, in the midst of a financial meltdown the Cuban economy doe’s not need more “ideals” but, they subsist.

 

Cuba´s economy, fundamentally dependent on tourism, continues to ruin relations with Travel professionals and foreign operators located on the island or worldwide. The primary motives being the dreaded “stop sales” emanated by Cuban firms and tourist enterprises to their foreign partner’s months before the next high season approaches with apparently no sales concluded for the [...]

First reported on TheCubaBlog now being reported by others

We Reported: July 15th 2009 & July 11th 2009
 
Today’s news from Reuters September 29th 2009

* Many foreign business accounts blocked in Cuba
* Businessmen complain government offers no explanations
* Cash squeeze after global downturn, hurricane cleanup
 
HAVANA - Many foreign suppliers and investors in Cuba are still unable to repatriate hundreds of millions of dollars from local [...]

“Cuba Got (diplomatic) Mail” - US diplomat overstays 5 days

 

US and Cuban diplomats grow closer to a diplomatic understanding after a high level diplomat spends an extra 5 days in Cuba after the much anticipated direct mail service talks.
 
It is expected that the talks are nothing more than a preparation between the two countries than, preliminary talks on how to lift the embargo and [...]

Cuban vice president Juan Almeida dies

 
HAVANA - Cuban Vice President Juan Almeida Bosque, a revolutionary commander who fought alongside Fidel Castro to bring down a pro-American dictatorship, has died. He was 82.
 
An official communique issued through state media said Almeida, the number three official in the Americas’ only communist regime, died late Friday from cardiac arrest.
 
Almeida was one of just [...]

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