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."
The Washington Post Editorial: A brave act in Cuba deserves American support; Diario de Cuba: Family, Freedom and the Oswaldo Payá Prize by Boris González Arenas; National Review: Appeasement Never Works by George Weigel; NBC6: Mourners Remember 21st Anniversary of Brothers to the Rescue Tragic Flight; The Jerusalem Post: One Israeli killed and eight injured in car accident in Cuba by Laura Sigal
In Havana, Rosa María Payá, President of the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, was going to bestow the Oswaldo Payá Freedom and Life Award on Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, and to honor late Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, represented by his daughter, former minister and ex-representative Mariana Aylwin.
The Organization of American States Secretary-General Luis Almagro said Wednesdaythat the Cuban government denied him permission to enter the island to receive a human rights prize created to honor late dissident Oswaldo Paya.
President Donald Trump said during a press conference Thursday that he shares Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s views on Cuba.
“We had dinner with Senator Rubio and his wife, who was by the way, lovely, and we had a very good discussion about Cuba because we have very similar views on Cuba,” Trump told journalists.
During the Cold War Cuba served as an unsinkable Soviet aircraft carrier. When American diplomats were scheduled to arrive in Havana to negotiate Obama’s Cuba outreach, a Russian spy ship docked in Havana harbor. Putin and Raul are considering reopening a Russian listening post in Cuba.
