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He’s Still Alive : Fidel Castro Meets with U.S. Lawmakers

11:17 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba| Politics · 4 Comments

8 Apr 2009

aleqm5ifa6sf0pu-q-cymyjpvyxlea103g Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is like the chupacabra. A few people have claimed to have seen him pero no one is really sure if he’s real, as in really still alive. Among the most recent to visit with the ailing Castro were three members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were in Cuba for a historic meeting.
The meetings were the highest-ranking US-Cuba meetings since former president Jimmy Carter visited Fidel Castro in Havana in 2002.

Castro “was very engaging, very energetic, (and) discussed a wide range of issues,” said Rep. Barbara Lee. Rep. Laura Richardson observed that Castro “looked directly into our eyes, quite aware of what was happening, and said to us ‘how can we help President Obama?’”

Among the issues discussed were lifting the travel ban and ending the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

The delegation also met with current Cuban President and Fidel’s little brother, Raul.

Via / The Latin Americanist, Reuters, The Telegraph

Cuba Wary of Possibility of American Visitors

10:28 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba| Money| Politics| travel · 5 Comments

6 Apr 2009

2830612461_5924b6eba9 Last week we told you about an initiative among several U.S. Senators to lift the ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba. While some — both on the Cuban side and the U.S. side — might see this as a good thing for the island, Spain’s El País reports (and editorializes) that the Cuban government is proceeding with caution:

Authorities in Havana are looking anxiously at the possibility that the U.S. might lift the travel ban that impedes American tourists from visiting Cuba “too soon”. On the one hand this is desired and seen as a salvation in these times of crisis, but on the other, the end of the banning of U.S. tourism is perceived as a challenge, with a high potential for destabilizing the political and idealogical landscape, according to observers and diplomats.

To provide perspective on what this major change in U.S.-Cuba relations could mean to prolongation of Cuba as we know it today, El País points to statements made by Cuban politician Armando Hart, who warned against the effects of a lifting of the embargo on Cuban society:

If he [Obama] keeps his promise [of lifting the embargo], a new age of idealogical combat between the Cuban revolution and imperialism will be born. Within it, the design of a new theoretical and propagandistic concept around our ideas and their origin will be needed…a broad migration towards distinct objectives could come upon us and we need to culturally prepare ourselves for that.”

I think this pretty much sums up the overall point: this isn’t just about welcoming dollars into the Cuban economy via American tourism, but rather what that will actually mean to Cuba: an influx of everything the revolution has been trying to combat all these years. American tourism is a demonstration of rampant consumerism which is capitalism at its maximum expression, and that flies in the face of the Cuban way of life. Sure, it’s been filtering through for years now via European tourism, but this sudden aperture is bound to push communist leaders on the island to reconsider the way the reconcile the ideals they wish their people to live by and the fact that the enemy is coming in and leaving a piece of their culture of consumption on the island.

What do you think? Will U.S. tourism to Cuba radically change Cuban society? How will leaders deal with this? What will Cuba look like after, say, 20 years of U.S. tourism to the island? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Via / El País

U.S. Senators Want to Let You Travel to Cuba

10:16 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Cuba| Lifestyle| Politics| travel · 1 Comment

2 Apr 2009

visit-cuba-print-c100197302 While President Obama might not be ready to end the Cuban embargo, a bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators are on a crusade to lift the ban on U.S. travelers to the island.

“I think there’s sufficient votes in both the House (of Representatives) and the Senate to finally get it passed,” Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan said at a news conference.

Dorgan, whose home state of North Dakota could benefit from increased agricultural sales to Cuba, introduced the bill along with fellow Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd and Republican Senators Richard Lugar and Mike Enzi. Seventeen other senators also are sponsoring the measure. A companion bill introduced in the House earlier this year has 121 co-sponsors.

On Senate Republican in particular, Cuban American Senator Mel Martinez, says this is all wrong, as it will provide the Castro regime with a “resource windfall”.

Personally, I am not buying that. Years of isolation has made the Castro regime stronger, and tourism isn’t going to make a difference either way. Cuba is already overloaded with tourists from all over the world, and a few more coming by way of Miami International Airport isn’t going to drastically change anything.

Anyway, Americans have been traveling to Cuba illegally for ages. I’m more concerned about the U.S. making some kind of colonial move on the island, though that was more of a threat during our plumb loco previous administration.

At least one Republican Representative is for ending the travel ban; Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona makes his case for an end to the embargo in a video after the jump. Read more…

An End to the Cuba Embargo? Fat Chance

4:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba| Latin America| Obama| Politics · 1 Comment

30 Mar 2009

For all of you who might have been looking to the Obama administration for an end to the mini cold war that is still being waged, some 40 years later, between the United States and Cuba, you’re out of luck. Vice President Joe Biden was in Viña del Mar, Chile last week for the “Summit of Progressive Leaders“ and announced that this is not likely to happen anytime soon. Oh, but wait, we want Cubans to be free and, uh, this IS the Summit of Progressive Leaders! That must mean we are progressive!

The U.S. has no plans to lift its trade embargo on Cuba, Vice President Joe Biden told reporters today after a heads-of-government meeting in Chile.

“We think the Cuban people should determine their own fate and that they should be able to live in freedom and with some prospect of economic prosperity,” Biden said. “But Cuba is not the biggest challenge facing the hemisphere, the biggest challenge facing the hemisphere is the economy.”

So much for change we can believe in and the promise of extending the olive branch so prominent in Obama’s campaign platform.

But hold up, wait a minute: didn’t candidate Obama call for an end to the embargo when he was campaigning? An end to it because of its “damaging effects on the Cuban people”? Candidate Obama, where art thou?

Via / Bloomberg

Obama Lightens Up on Cuba

5:24 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba| Latin America| Politics · Comments Off

12 Mar 2009

caribbean-cuba Much to the chagrin of right-wing Cuban Americans, President Obama is moving towards a more open relationship with Cuba after 40 years of abysmal dealings between the two countries. He’s not lifting the embargo just yet (I fear riots might break out in Miami should that ever happen) but he is lightening restrictions on visits to the island by those Cuban Americans who have family there. 5 years after restrictions were enacted by Bush, Obama’s shaking things up a bit, allowing those with family in Cuba to visit the island once a year for as long as they choose.

In its 2009 budget bill, Congress took away the U.S. Department of Treasury’s funding for enforcement of more restrictive rules that only allowed visits to immediate relatives once every three years.

That meant the trips were still illegal — but the U.S. government did not have the funding to investigate it.

On Wednesday night, the Treasury department lifted the restrictions all together, making annual trips to Cuba legal. A rule posted on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s web site shows Cuban Americans can now follow the regulations that existed prior to Bush’s June 2004 toughened rules.

The rollback also means people can visit more distant relatives, including those by marriage.

While this isn’t the extent to which I wish things would happen in U.S.-Cuba relations, it is a step ahead which I personally applaud. Havana, however, has remained — uncharacteristically — tight-lipped on this new development, which also includes a hike in the amount of money can be sent back to Cuba by Cuban Americans, which was previously limited to $100 per month.

Meanwhile, not everyone is happy.

Via / Miami Herald

Sunday Brunch Links

8:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Cuba| Immigration| Linking Latinos| Quicklinks · Comments Off

8 Feb 2009

I’ve been way off my game this week and am trying to come back. Mientras tanto, peep what I’m reading/watching this lovely domingo morning:

Shock! Fidel Castro criticizes Obama. Guess he’s not dead yet.

Miley Cyrus may have been nominated for a Kid’s Choice Award, pero she’s still racist.

And, amigo Nezua reminds us of how the land of the free applies to a very specific group of people, not including locked up immigrants.

Feliz Sunday. It’s beautiful out, at least here in NYC it is, so get outside into the sun. She’s missed you.

Cuba Celebrates 50th Anniversary of “La Revolución”

6:59 am By Maegan La Mala · Cuba| history · Comments Off

2 Jan 2009

On New Year’s Day, 1959 Fidel Castro and his band of Revolutionary Directorate rebels defeated General Fulgencio Batista’s forces and led his country towards a revolution. Few thought it would hold, but here we are some 50 years later, and Castro’s revolutionary ideal for Cuba is still going, if not strong, along.

While the rest of the world was congratulating each other on the New Year, Fidel was congratulating his countrymen on the longevity of his ideals:

“Upon the 50th anniversary of the triumph, I congratulate our heroic countrymen,” said Castro, 82, in a brief note dated Wednesday afternoon and published in on the cover of Granma, the Communist party’s newspaper.

Lacking a non-generic comment from Fidel or anything of substance from Raul on the future of the revolution, we turn to Mariela, Raul’s daughter, the most outspoken member of the family. Check out what she has to say in the video after the jump.

Flood of Cuban “Grandchildren” into Spain

31 Dec 2008

Spain announced last week the opportunity for mass nationalization of the grandchildren of Spanish citizens who were forced to flee to Cuba during the Spanish Civil War, and the response from Cubans fitting this description has been overwhelming.

Cuban cardiologist Norberto Díaz Reyes will be a Spaniard in 15 days. And he hopes to be in the “madre patria” in less than 3 months. “I always wanted to return to my grandparents’ country. I would like to live and work in Spain for many years”, he says, with a smile wider than the Havana harbor. Norberto, 38, was the first person in his country to take advantage of the so-called “Grandchildren Law”, part of the “Historial Memory Law”, which, starting yesterday and lasting for two years, will let some 150,000 Cuban descendents of emigrants and exiles, obtain Spanish citizenship.

150,000 may not sound like a lot, but that’s only a fraction of what the Spanish government is expecting. In looking at data, it appears that there should be a lot more people on their way to the Spanish consulate in Havana: in just the first third of the last century, over one million Spaniards had emigrated to Cuba. Another piece of data is that in 1905 there were over 100,000 Spaniards from Galicia — just one region of Spain – living on the island. These numbers point to a possible avalanche of petitions for citizenship, and the Spanish consulate has hired an extra 35 people just to deal with all of them.

El País reports that some people waiting in line (for days, some for weeks and months)could care less about living in Spain; what they want is a European passport so they can get to Miami.

Similar lines are forming outside of consulates around Latin America, such as the one in Buenos Aires, where the Spanish government has hired 150 extra employees to handle the demand.

Via / El País

Raul Castro Offers U.S. Prisoner Exchange

1:09 pm By Maegan La Mala · Cuba| Politics · Comments Off

19 Dec 2008

In what could be interpreted as an attempt to warm relations between Cuba and the United States, Cuban President Raul Castro has offered to exchange political dissidents in his country for five Cubans jailed in the United States.

Answering a question about political prisoners in Cuba, Castro said: “We will send those prisoners you talk about [to the United States]with their families. But give us back our five heroes.”

Via / Miami Herald

Fidel Castro Says Obama is Someone to Converse With

8:35 am By Maegan La Mala · Cuba| Politics · 1 Comment

5 Dec 2008

Could change really be coming with the Obama administration, especially in terms of U.S. – Cuba relations? Fidel Castro and his hermano, the actual president of Cuba Raul Castro seem to think so.

Obama took alot of heat during his presidential campaign for saying that he would be wiling to sit down with so-called “enemy” Latin American countries, namely Cuba and Venezuela.

“With Obama, talks could happen anywhere he wants,” Fidel Castro, America’s longtime Cold War enemy, wrote in the latest of a series of columns he has published in state-run media since falling ill in 2006.

“He should remember the carrot-and-stick approach will not work with our country,” Castro wrote of Obama. “The sovereign rights of the Cuban people are not negotiable.”

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