Cuba Archives - Page 8 of 13 - Americas Quarterly

Why Entrepreneurship Matters in Cuba

For almost two decades, I have watched entrepreneurship explode across Latin America and the Caribbean, empowering citizens, transforming economies and changing lives. In sectors ranging from restaurants and small manufacturing to high tech, entrepreneurs are changing the economic and social landscape of the region. Perhaps most important, they are also generating jobs. Across the region, … Read more

Can Cuba’s Economic Reforms Succeed?

The impression most casual observers receive today from Cuba is that since Raúl Castro assumed power in 2006, the country has been going through a dramatic transition to a market economy. But while what the younger Castro brother has called “structural reforms” are important steps toward a market under Cuba’s revolutionary government, they are a … Read more

Cuba: The New Leaders

Yoani Sánchez smiles during a news conference that was part of her 80-day tour of South America, Europe and the U.S. in 2013. Photo: UESLEI MARCELINO/REUTERS. Read profiles of: Miguel Díaz-Canel Yamina Vicente MalPaso The Faculty of Economics Yoani Sánchez Miguel Díaz-Canel By Michael Voss Up from the provinces: Miguel Díaz-Canel waves to the crowds … Read more

Cuba’s New Business Class

A palpable energy is reinvigorating the once-stagnant Cuban economy. Entrepreneurial businesses—spanning all sectors and industries—are springing up across the island. Walking through the streets of Havana, Santa Clara or Camagüey, it’s hard not to trip over construction sites for private restaurants, or see the storefronts offering manicures, haircuts, cell phone repairs, or colorful artwork. View … Read more

U.S. Presidential Action on Cuba: The New Normalization

UN Condemns Cuba Embargo in Near-Unanimous Vote

The United Nations General Assembly voted for an end to the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba for the twenty-third time on Tuesday. For the second year in a row, 188 countries voted in favor of a non-binding resolution calling for the end of the embargo, with Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstaining. Only two countries—Israel … Read more

Cuba and Colombia

Articles: published article?1 A Skeptic’s View on the “Peace Dividend” by Alberto Bernal The economic benefits are neither direct nor certain. The Obstacles to Political Integration Post-Peace by Juanita León The obstacles to political integration. Full text available. Law and Reconciliation in Colombia by Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes and Nelson Camilo Sanchez Here’s how to achieve … Read more

Monday Memo: Canadian Executive Jailed – Missing Mexican students – Venezuelan Bolivar – Murder Suspects in Peru – Colombian Hackers

This week’s likely top stories: Canadian businessman Cy Tokmakjian is sentenced to 15 years in Cuba; Mexico searches for 58 missing students; Venezuela’s bolivar hits a new low; Peru arrests two suspects in the murder of Indigenous activists; Colombian peace negotiator Humberto de la Calle says his e-mail was hacked. Canadian executive jailed in Cuba: … Read more

These Are a Few of My Favorite [AP] Words

If there are two things that inspire me it’s a ramped up, over-the-top, scurrilous AP story about democracy promotion and a Broadway musical–especially a Rodgers and Hammerstein production. So, here is my adaptation of the classic Sound of Music, “My Favorite Things,” based on the recent series of articles published by AP on USAID’s democracy … Read more

Cuba and the Summits of the Americas

If the U.S. wants to keep the Summit of the Americas process on track and regain some measure of influence in the hemisphere, it will have to change its Cuba policy, pronto. Reframing our policy and saving the Summit process isn’t as tough as it seems; it just takes leadership. In coming months, the United … Read more

Dear AP, Sometimes a Democracy Program Is Just a Democracy Program—Even in Cuba

For the past several years, with almost predictable regularity, The Associated Press (AP) has been producing a series of articles supposedly revealing the secret, unaccountable cloak-and-dagger misdeeds of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in its Cuba program. For all the implied sinister intentions, bureaucratic overreach and shades of John le Carré-like intrigue, though, … Read more

Monday Memo: USAID and Cuba – Mexican Energy – U.S. Immigration – Argentine peso – Bridge in Colombia

This week’s top stories: USAID is accused of running a secret program in Cuba; Mexican energy reform passes in the lower house; U.S. Republicans pass immigration bills before recess; the value of the Argentine peso drops over debt woes; a bridge in Montería, Colombia collapses. USAID and Cuba: In a statement this morning, the United … Read more

Arts Innovator: X Alfonso

The hippest place to be in Havana is an old olive oil factory once known as El Cocinero. Reincarnated this February as the Fábrica de Arte Cubano (Cuban Art Factory—FAC), it is the brainchild of Cuban rocker, rapper and filmmaker Equis Alfonso (“X”) and is already taking the Cuban arts scene by storm. Part Miami … Read more

Hard Talk

Will warming Cuba-EU ties open up U.S.-Cuba relations? Yes: Sarah Stephens; No: Joel Brito

The EU has recognized that its Common Position has failed to improve human rights in Cuba. It’s time for the U.S. to do the same with its embargo.

When Louis Michel, then-development commissioner for the European Union (EU), met in 2009 with Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, he worried openly about the slow pace of EU diplomacy. “I think that if the European Union does not consolidate the normalization of relations with Cuba,” Michel said, “the Americans will do so before us.”1 He … Read more