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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Conceptually some guy who happens to be a Singer is holding a concert right? I can´t help but wonder what all the hoopla is about. But, then again maybe I can. If the concert was in any other city we´d learn little about it unless we lived there. It’s a bit like Sun City, Moscow […]
In yet another sign that Cuba is impatient to heel to the US and, probably more related to financial needs than actual desire, Raul Castro repeated with and air of impatience on Saturday that he is ready and willing to talk to the US….Again. It is now common knowledge that Cuba´s finances may not […]
A story came across the McClatchey wire on Friday night that felt like a punch in the gut. It read like the President had joined the conditionality caucus (see my previous post). However, either the reporter misunderstood or her Miami Herald editor had an agenda. Thanks to Phil Peters on the Cuban Triangle blog we […]
Between 1990 and 2000 the Cuban government offered its citizens a new phrase “periodo especial” or in English the “special period” to officially recognize a period of extreme strife and apparent restructuring of the Cuban economy. Cubans quickly adopted the phrase “Periodo Especial” as the motive for 12 hour daily power cuts, reduced food rationing, […]
At TheCubaBlog we always enjoy a foray into the bizarre so what about this hypothesis. The retired Myers, lacking the perceived power of his State Department business card and lacking the excitement his past employment provided, decided to create a real life novel while talking to the undercover FBI agent. After all, there´s nothing […]
In 2000 the buzz word was the “Chinese are coming” as Cuba´s Ministry of foreign Investment (MINVEC) signed deal after deal with Chinese groups. The Marina Hemingway Chinese restaurant being the first joint venture used frequently to court other such deals. Then there was the development of the sea front in the Marina Hemingway where […]
Cuba is set to raise gas prices on June 1st by up to $1.50 per litre making the gallon a $6 luxury. Sources say that these increases will also be applied to basic products such as cooking oil, bread etc.
First off, forget buying one of those old American cars. There are so many foreigners with “belief of real ownership” stamped into their neurons that are taken for a ride (pardon the pun) by owners of these vehicles. The adage “tell me what you want to know and I´ll tell you it’s what you want […]
This buddy of mine who enjoyed the easy life had retired in Havana, had rented and furnished the ubiquous “casa Particular”, put a new $2000 ICE hifi system in his girlfriends brothers Lada and all the other weird stuff retirees with loads of money and little sense do in Cuba while reveling in the single […]
I had my mother gazing in horror one day when I told her about the stray dog van that drags around a metal trailer with a one-way door on the back. This vehicle seen in places like Marina Hemingway and Playas Del Este is “the end” for stray dogs in Havana. When I say the […]
