Rolando Gallardo, Quito (Ecuador) | 03/06/2023 Analysis Original: La reconquista rusa de Cuba, El gobernante cubano, Miguel Díaz-Canel, junto con el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin. (Archivo/Kremlin) Tras veinte largas sesiones intergubernamentales entre Cuba y Rusia y una visita de apoyo moral de Díaz-Canel al carnicero de Ucrania, el guerrerista Vladímir Vladímirovich Putin, el régimen de La Habana abrió los brazos a las propuestas y presiones de la oligarquía rusa. Cuba atraviesa la crisis económica, política y social más grande de su historia reciente y para los buitres del Kremlin la fr ..read more

May 23, 2023 Source:  14ymedio and Havana Times By Yoani Sanchez (14ymedio) HAVANA TIMES – In many Cuban houses there is still a wooden Matryoshka, an empty bottle of Moscow Red perfume, or a copy of Sputnik magazine. The Soviet presence was so intense on our Island that, for the children who grew up between the 70s and 80s, the USSR was like a powerful and severe stepmother. Today, we see the Kremlin envoys arrive again and, although they look different in their suits and ties, we know that they are seeking the same thing: to use our country as a geostrategic chess piece that is to ..read more

Jose Mart Internati0nal Airport: Renewing Activity, I hope. By Michael Wilner and Nora Gámez Torres Miami Herald, Updated May 17, 2022 10:03 AM Original Article: Reversing Trump Measures, The Biden administration is restoring flights to Cuban cities other than Havana and reestablishing a family reunification program suspended for years, following recommendations of a long-anticipated review of U.S. policy toward Cuba, senior administration officials told McClatchy and the Miami Herald on Monday. The administration will also allow group travel for educational or professional exchanges and lift ..read more

Abstaining in the recent UN resolution wasn’t the first time it had to defend Moscow while abhorring its actions. RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT, March 9, 2022 William LeoGrande Original Article: Why Cuba Supports Russia’s Indefensible Invasion of Ukraine Putin recibe a Díaz-Canel en Moscú The UN General Assembly, meeting in emergency session, voted 141 to 5, to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. To the surprise of many, Cuba abstained, despite its close relations with Moscow and its belief that the West instigated the crisis by expanding NATO right up to Russia’s borders, ignoring its legitimate ..read more

Complete Article: U. S. – Cuba Relations in the Biden Era   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper makes a renewed case for engagement with Cuba as the best way for the United States to advance its national interests, reassert its regional leadership, reduce resistance to reform within the Cuban government, and promote a freer, more prosperous future for the Cuban people. It also argues that the United States should continue to highlight Cuba’s democratic failings and support actors across the spectrum of Cuban society who work to ensure that greater economic and civic freedoms are guaranteed on ..read more

The U.S. should stop punishing the people of Cuba for their government’s crimes. Note: Even US conservatives recognize the absolute failure and stupidity of the embargo on Cuba. A.R. February 17, 2022 Doug Bandow Six decades ago the Kennedy administration imposed an embargo on Cuba. A dozen American presidents have enforced the island’s economic isolation, substantially tightening controls in recent years. For a time Washington even cited Havana as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. campaign, observed Mauricio Vicent of El Pais, is “without doubt the longest punitive measur ..read more

Fidel Castro once called it ‘a tangled ball of yarn,’ and after six decades, Washington’s keystone regime change policy still hasn’t worked. RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ February 3, 2022 William LeoGrande February 3, 1962, marks the sixtieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Proclamation 3447 imposing an “embargo on all trade with Cuba” to punish Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government for its “alignment with the communist powers,” the Soviet Union and China. Despite having failed to bend Havana to Washington’s will over the past six decades ..read more

Original Article: INFLATION IN CUBA January 29, 2022 Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva (El Toque) HAVANA TIMES – Figures published by the Cuban Government place inflation at 77%. Calculations by other economists have set it much higher. The complexity of giving a number proves just how complicated the Cuban economy is, where different markets coexist, alongside each other yet completely divided, each of them with their own prices and currencies. If we stick to the basic concept of “inflation”, which is the widespread increase of average prices in a country over a certain period of time, then we ..read more

Mauricio De Miranda Parrondo, 20 diciembre 2021 La economía cubana: entre la confusión y el sin sentido A partir de lo visto en el recién concluido III Pleno del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC), resulta claro que la dirigencia política del país insiste en conducir la economía cubana con criterios ideológicos voluntaristas que demuestran su confusión respecto a las leyes objetivas de la economía y el sin sentido que genera despreciar y vulnerar esas leyes. Hemos pasado por esto varias veces y los resultados han sido siempre los mismos: el fracaso. ¿Cuál es el objetivo de in ..read more

Original Document: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, 2022 REPORT, Cuban Country Chapter https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022 January 14, 2022 The Cuban government continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism. At the same time, Cubans continue to endure a dire economic crisis, which impacts their social and economic rights. In July, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in landmark demonstrations protesting long-standing restrictions on rights, scarcity of food and medicines, and the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government responded with bruta ..read more