RAUL CASTRO AND THE NEW TENANT: Just in case the Cuban dictator had not realized fully the implications of the new tenant in the White House, the U.S. missile attack against a Syrian air force base, and the unanimous Congressional support it has receivedhas reminded him of the new reality. The shorthand for what has happened in Havana, Tehran and Pyongyang is that “Trump is not Obama.”   

While the Cuban government lobby and its friends continue to distribute a Potemkin narrative of Cuba, the facts on the ground remain.

AS REPORTED BY CUBABRIEF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS called on governments,  and media around the world to helpthree siblings from Holguín who had been on a hunger strike since March 7th. 

According to Cuba press reports Bolivian president Evo Morales underwent a successful throat surgery at a Havana hospital a couple of days ago. CubaBrief notes that Havana's media also reported Hugo Chavez's "successful" medical treatments on the island.

REVELATIONS ABOUT CUBA BY THE ECONOMIST: “…Unless the country reduces the obstacles to private investment in hotels, services and supply chains, it will struggle to provide tourists with the value for money that will keep them coming back.

Ros-Lehtinen, Wasserman Schultz Lead Bipartisan Call For Review of Havana Club Trademark License to Castro Regime-Owned Cubaexport

WHAT HAPPENED TO RAUL CASTRO’S REFORMS? TheFinancial Times reports today that “Havana has allowed its domestic reform drive to grind to a halt…”  FT says “Raul Castro sought to decentralize the economy and boost productivity by allowing self-employment, slashing state bureaucracy, welcoming foreing investment and unifying Cuba’s dual currency system.”  But the promises made by General Castro when he inherited power have come to naught.

"The next year will determine Raúl Castro’s economic legacy," according to an article in this morning's The Miami Herald.  Just as Quixotic as the perennial "next year in Havana".

Readers of CubaBrief would not be surprised to learn that “the Cuban government has banned the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from being spread in Cuba,” or that “children and teenagers were told to burn copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a ‘hate rally’ against the Ladies in White.”

They say that they fulfill their mission when they serve in countries that have signed agreements with the Cuban regime. "Mission." It is a term that supposes a zeal to spread the faith, and entails a set of diplomatic shenanigans.

In the fable of the scorpion and the frog, a scorpion asks a frog to carry it across the river. The frog, afraid of being stung, hesitates. But the scorpion argues that if it were to sting the frog, they would both drown. Considering that it would be irrational for the scorpion to cause both of their deaths, the frog agrees.

For many years the Cuban government asserted that the reason Cubans risked the dangerous journey in unseaworthy vessels to Florida was because of America's open arms policy for Castro's victims. B

The word in Cuba's capital according to Santeria priests is that Barack Obama hexed Cuban baseball when he joined Raul at the Pan American stadium during his visit last year. Santeria is the Afro-Cuban religion brought to the island by African slaves.

The Associated  Press, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that Fidel’s “younger” brother has decided to carry out a “mission impossible”. Raul wants “to replace Soviet-era” propaganda with “high-definition broadcasting” using “young” journalists. But insists that media content must remain under Communist Party control.

Yesterday we reported that Vancouver’s Cuba Ventures CEO was in Washington to promote “further business opportunities for companies wanting to do business in Havana. That is the “narrative.”

Globe Newswire put out a public relations release this morning about Vancouver’s Cuba Ventures corporation’s CEO Steve Marshall visiting the lobby group Engage Cuba and “pro-Cuba congressman Adriano Espaillat [Democrat, New York] and  to promote business with the island. 

In its monthly report the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) denounced the "482 arbitrary arrests" of peaceful opponents and dissidents that took place in Cuba in the month of February.

Score another kill for the Cuban military dictatorship: last month it eliminated Afro-Cuban dissident Hamell Santiago Mas Hernandez, an inmate of one of its most notoriously brutal prisons.

Bolivian President Evo Morales took an "emergency trip" to Cuba on Wednesday to seek treatment for a throat condition, presidential minister Rene Martinez said, adding that the president would receive a "routine evaluation."

The Cuba Emprende Foundation promotes in the article below exporting well paying programming jobs to Cuba while paying sub-minimum wages but fails to mention how expensive that 'bargain' could be by ignoring security concerns such as how the Cuban intelligence services could pirate the programs and applications being developed or adding code to monitor and surveil. In the Cuban case there isn't a private service that would provide the programmers but the Cuban regime itself. This problem has already presented itself in Mainland China where The New York Times reported on November 15, 2016 that: "For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours."