Cuba Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Americas Quarterly

Here’s a Blueprint for a Trump-Castro Deal on Cuba

President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed “to terminate the deal” that his predecessor in the White House negotiated with Cuba’s President Raúl Castro. Trump’s incoming chief-of-staff, Reince Priebus, last week added these details in an interview on “Fox News Sunday”: “Repression, open markets, freedom of religion, political prisoners – these things need to change in … Read more

Far From Silicon Valley, Cuba Cultivates Startup Scene

The barriers to founding a tech startup in Cuba are high. For starters, hardly anyone has access to internet connections faster than dial-up. But that’s not stopping a generation of young entrepreneurs on the island, where a nascent tech community is challenging the idea that tech innovation has to come from places like Silicon Valley. Two of those … Read more

Castro Still Unlikely to Play Ball With MLB

In the latest game of U.S.-Cuba baseball diplomacy, Raúl Castro has home field advantage. The Cuban president on March 22 hosted the first Major League Baseball game in his country since 1999, a potent symbol of MLB’s efforts to take advantage of U.S. President Barack Obama’s diplomatic opening with the island. So far, however, Castro … Read more

This Week in Latin America: Obama in Havana, Venezuela in Crisis

Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered straight to your inbox every Monday. Cuba, Argentina Host Obama: Cuba and Argentina each play host to U.S. President Barack Obama this week, with human rights issues shading both visits. Today, Obama will hold a working meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro, who will then host a state dinner … Read more

Two to Rumba: The European Union Decides to Negotiate With Cuba

On February 10, the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) approved a mandate to start negotiating an overall agreement with Cuba. This decision had been under preparation since 2008, when the EU renewed its political dialogue with Havana. Between 2003 and 2008, relations had been at a low point following a series of strong measures … Read more

The United States: Good Neighbors, Finally, toward Latin America

Every presidential candidate pledges, as Mitt Romney recently did, to do more to “focus on Latin America” and “take advantage” of the “huge opportunities” there. It’s been a long time since one followed through. Even by the standards of campaign promises, this one has become so empty that it hardly registers. It’s not that candidates … Read more

The Pope’s Historic Visit to Cuba

Like his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cuba at a crucial time in the nation’s history. Pope John Paul II visited in 1998, a time when Communist Europe had crumbled and expectations of change were high; Pope Benedict XVI landed during a time of unprecedented internal change. On Monday, the pontiff arrived in a … Read more

China and the Cuban Economy

Since officially taking over from his brother Fidel in 2008, Raúl Castro has introduced reforms in Cuba to begin what some hope will be a period of economic liberalization. But these reforms are not necessarily moving the island nation in the direction sought by the United States for half a century. Instead, as the balance … Read more

The Other Side of Cuba’s Prisoner Release

The announcement by Havana that it would release five political prisoners “who would travel to Spain with their families,” and another 47 during the next three or four months, has been credited to efforts by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos and Cuba’s archbishop, Cardinal Jaime Ortega. But neither Cardinal Ortega, nor Minister Moratinos would … Read more

Obama, Cuba, and Complacency Toward Evil

Sanctions are not uncommon when dealing with tyrants, as we have seen recently in the discussions weighing what to do about North Korea and Iran. The United States levied sanctions against Libya after its terrorists downed a PAM AM flight over Scotland in 1996; the world imposed sanctions on the white supremacist government in South … Read more

Cuban Agriculture

For a country that prides itself on its scientific accomplishments, Cuba may, by necessity and desperation, have stumbled upon a modern-day economic niche that will serve it well in the future. That niche? Organic farming, the favorite of socially and health-conscious yuppies throughout the developed world. During what the government called, euphemistically, the período especial … Read more

Civic Innovator: [i]Bibliotecas Independientes[/i], Cuba

Thre are no banned books in Cuba; there just isn’t any money to buy them,” Fidel Castro famously said at the 1998 International Book Fair in Havana. Later that year, Ramón Colás, a psychologist and journalist, and his then-wife, economist Berta Mexidor, took up Castro’s challenge. They opened their home library to the public, thereby … Read more

Frustration Mounts

If the new Cuban government has a remarkable resemblance to the old, that’s because they are one and the same. No real change has taken place in Cuba. Yet. The same group that accompanied Fidel and Raúl Castro since their days in the Sierra Maestra—all now senior citizens—remains firmly at the helm of government. They … Read more

Cuba No Libre

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On February 19th, Fidel Castro made it official: he was resigning the presidency and ending his 50-year reign over Cuba.