The Agonist - Carribean

My Guantanamo Interview

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:18:07 -0700

In January, 2006 outraged that her country was illegally imprisoning people at Guantanamo, Mahvish Rukhsana — a journalist and recent law school graduate — volunteered to translate for the prisoners and eventually began representing an Afghan detainee. She has since published the stories of the detainees she has met in the newly-released book, My Guantanamo Diary. For more information, please visit http://www.mahvishkhan.com.

The work that lawyers like Rukhsana have done to advocate on behalf of these detainees contributed to a recent Supreme Court ruling to grant habeas corpus to all Guantanamo prisoners. That is why I felt so privileged to be able to talk to her about the importance of upholding the Constitution and restoring our international reputation. My interview with Rukhsana was conducted just before the Supreme Court's landmark ruling, and has been edited down to narrative form. [cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org]

Cuba approves first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:58:44 -0700

Rory Carroll | June 26

The Guardian - Cuba has approved what is believed to be the world's first registered lung cancer vaccine and is offering it to Cuban and foreign patients in its hospitals.

The therapeutic vaccine CimaVax EGF extends life with few side effects, and is another step in Cuba's expertise in biotechnology. It was unveiled on Monday at Havana's centre of molecular immunology.

It has been shown to boost survival rates by an average of four to five months, and in some cases much longer. It does not prevent lung cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, CimaVax EGF is said to have few side effects because it is a modified protein which attacks only cancer cells.

Re-Emergent Fidel Castro Meets Chinese Official

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:33:12 -0700

Havana | June 25

Reuters - Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who has raised his public profile in recent days, met on Tuesday with a Chinese official and told him he spends his days gathering information and analyzing policy for Cuba's leadership, state-run media reported.

After almost two years behind the scenes due to health problems, Castro has re-emerged in the past week with several high-level meetings and a spate of newspaper columns, including a biting blast at what he called the "enormous hypocrisy" of the European Union.

Cuban television said Castro and China's top anti-graft official, He Guoqiang, had a "cordial and fraternal" meeting that included an invitation from He to the ailing 81-year-old to attend the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Castro, the report said, spoke of "the advances of the Chinese people" and the "importance of the concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics."

CUBA: A City Drinks in Change

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:59:32 -0700

Dalia Acosta | Holguin | June 11

IPS - Afflicted for far too long by severe drought, which concentrated all minds on how to get water to entire communities of people, this eastern Cuban city seems at long last to be drinking its fill, and its appearance is completely different from what it looked like two or three years ago.

Cafés, restaurants, snack bars and opportunities to combine leisure and culture are beginning to flood into the historic centre of Holguín, the capital of the province of the same name, as the most visible sign of a government project to embellish the city and restore services that have been in poor shape since the 1990s.

And one of the most important things is that "the Cuban peso is returning to its former prominence," Rigoberto Romero, the provincial government coordinator for the project to restore the boulevard running through the heart of Holguín, which is also known as the City of Parks, told IPS.

"Services paid for in national currency should have the same quality standards as those that are paid for in hard currency. We are trying to add character to the venues with cultural options, as well," he said.

Post-Ponzi scheme, Grenada to reopen for offshore banking

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:47:40 -0700

Colin Woodard | St. George's, Grenada | June 1

CSM - It's one of the world's quieter capitals: a town of 7,500, modest buildings perched on hillsides surrounding the bright blue anchorage.

But St. George's was headquarters to one of the most outlandish banking frauds, in which US and Canadian retirees were defrauded of millions while local officials looked the other way.

Now Grenada is preparing to reopen its offshore financial services sector six years after it collapsed in a wave of international criminal investigations, trials, and allegations of government collusion.

The country has replaced its fractured regulatory regime with a single organization to oversee all offshore financial activities, from insurance companies to credit services. The head of the new institution said this week that amended finance laws will allow the attorney general authority to take immediate court action against any offshore entity suspected of fraud.

Cuba: US passed dissidents private funds

Mon, 19 May 2008 17:33:45 -0700

Anita Snow | Havana | May 18

AP - Cuba has documented proof that U.S. officials on the island are delivering private funds to political dissidents in order to undermine the communist government, Cuban officials said Sunday.

Although Cuba has accused U.S. officials of funneling federal funds to dissidents before - a charge Washington has repeatedly denied - Sunday's accusation is the first to suggest American diplomats are acting as couriers to deliver privately donated cash, outside Washington's auditing oversight.

Cuban Foreign Ministry and State Security officials made the accusation in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of a detailed accusation they plan to outline at a news conference on Monday. They gave no further details.

Update May 19: Top US diplomat in Cuba funnels funds to dissidents: Havana

Haiti's Preval names new prime minister

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:44:41 -0700

Joseph Guyler Delva | Port-Au-Prince | April 27

Reuters - Haitian President Rene Preval named a new prime minister on Sunday after lawmakers fired his predecessor to quell violent protests over rising food prices in the impoverished nation, a senator said.

Preval named Ericq Pierre, a senior advisor with the Inter-American Development Bank, to replace former Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, said the president of the Caribbean country's Senate, Sen. Kelly Bastien.

Alexis was dismissed on April 12 in a vote by opposition senators who blamed him for failing to ramp up food production and reduce the cost of living. At least six people died in riots over food prices in the poorest nation in the Americas.

Pierre's appointment must be ratified by Haiti's parliament.

Public unrest has struck in several countries as bad weather, competition with biofuels, market speculation and rising demand in Asia send the price of many staples soaring.

Cubans up early to buy cellphones

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:08:21 -0700

Havana | April 15

M&C - Yusnel was up early on Monday, and he had a clear goal.

'I wanted to be the first Cuban to buy a cellphone,' he explained.

However, when he made it to one of the few stores in Havana allowed to sell cellphones to Cubans long before it was scheduled to open, he found a queue of over 30 people waiting for the same reason.

That happened at other stores too, in the latest move to lift 'an excess in prohibitions and regulations' by new Cuban President Raul Castro.

Haiti PM ousted over soaring food prices

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:22:26 -0700

Port-Au-Prince | April 13

AFP - Haiti's prime minister was ousted on Saturday in a no-confidence vote after more than a week of violent demonstrations over rocketing food and fuel prices.

Just as President Rene Preval unveiled a plan to cut the price of rice by 15 percent, 16 senators in the upper house of parliament voted unanimously to censure Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis over the crisis, costing him his job leading the government.

With the 10 senators in Alexis's own party absent, the legislators reproached the prime minister for failing to respond to the needs of Haiti's 8.5 million people, 80 percent of whom live on less than two dollars a day.

The move came amid reports that UN peacekeepers fired tear gas at protesters in central Port-au-Prince and that a UN policeman dressed in civilian clothes was shot dead by unknown assailants near the capital's cathedral.

** Related thread: Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace

Cuba to Allow Thousands to Own Homes

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:26:46 -0700

Havana | April 12

AP - Thousands of Cubans will be able to get title to state-owned homes under regulations published Friday, a step that could lay the groundwork for broader housing reform.

The measure was the first legal decree formally published since Raúl Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as president in February. It came a day after state television said the government would also do away with wage limits, allowing state employees to earn as much they can as an incentive to productivity.

The housing decree spells out rules to let Cubans renting from their state employers keep their apartment or house after leaving their jobs. They could gain title and even pass it on to their children or other relatives. Those who could take advantage of the new law include military families, sugar workers, construction workers, teachers and doctors.

Fifth person dies in Haitian food price protests

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:30:40 -0700

Joseph Guyler Delva | Port-Au-Prince | April 7

Reuters - A man was killed by gunfire as demonstrators took to the streets in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes on Monday, raising the death toll to five in protests against rising food prices, officials and radio reports said.

Protesters also marched outside the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, the capital of the impoverished Caribbean nation of nearly 9 million people, expressing anger at the higher cost of food.

Four people were killed and 20 others were hurt in a riot in Les Cayes last week. U.N. vehicles were burned, peacekeepers were attacked and a food warehouse was looted by angry mobs on Thursday and Friday.

UPDATE April 8:

Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace -

Crowds of demonstrators in Haiti have tried to storm the presidential palace in the capital Port-au-Prince as protests continue over food prices.

Witnesses say the protesters used metal bins to try to smash down the palace gates before UN troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them.

Castro Reforms: DVDs, Farms for Cubans

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:02:10 -0700

Wil Weissert | Havana | April 1

AP - Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time Tuesday as Raul Castro's new government loosened controls on consumer goods and invited private farmers to plant tobacco, coffee and other crops on unused state land.

Combined with other reforms announced in recent days, the measures suggest real changes are being driven by the new president, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans.

Analysts wondered how far the communist government is willing to go.

** Cuba's Opening Marks Shift Away From Fidel

Former PR Governor Says Tipped Off FBI

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:01:10 -0700

Laura N Perez | San Juan, Puerto Rico | March 29

AP - For former Puerto Rican Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo, the federal indictment of the current governor is sweet revenge indeed.

Barcelo, now a statesman for the main opposition party, had previously identified himself as the person who alerted the FBI to possible corruption by Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila.

And at a news conference Friday, Romero did a bit of gloating, saying he decided to finger Acevedo after his rival raised questions about his own campaign finances almost a decade ago.

``He who is responsible pays for it,'' Romero said, using a Spanish adage whose English equivalent is: ``You've made your bed, now lie in it.''

Fighting the War on Terror in the Caribbean and Central America

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:17:13 -0700

William M. Arkin | March 29

WaPo - Here's an odd news story that puts meat on the bones of the phrase "global war on terror": The United States is fighting that war in the Caribbean and Central America.

My assumption was that "Operation Enduring Freedom -- Caribbean and Central America," a formal military operation I'd never heard of before yesterday, is oriented toward Cuba and Venezuela. But it is not. The U.S. military is indeed engaged in a global war, and the terrorist threat, at least in the eyes of the counter-terror warriors, extends to our backyard.

I don't know whether the actual threat necessitates such an "operation," but its bureaucratic existence says a lot about our overreliance on the military and the belief of many in government that the GWOT is a real war, equivalent to the Cold War, and is one that the United States should and will be fighting for decades.

The Rhode Island media this week was filled with the news that a unit of the state's National Guard, an organization called Special Operations Detachment -- Global (SOD-G), is deploying this week in support of something called Operation Enduring Freedom -- Caribbean and Central America.

U.S. Issues Indictment of Governor in Puerto Rico

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:23:21 -0700

Kirk Semple | March 28

NYT - The prosecution may affect the presidential race. Mr. Acevedo is a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention and a supporter of Senator Barack Obama.

Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of Puerto Rico, charged in a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday with campaign finance violations, denied any wrongdoing and vowed to remain in office and fight the charges.

Among the 19 criminal counts he faces are tax fraud and using campaign money to pay for family vacations in Miami; Orlando, Fla.; and China; to pay for $57,000 worth of “high end” clothing; and to pay personal credit card bills.

The indictment threw Puerto Rican politics into disarray as some politicians and political commentators called for Mr. Acevedo’s resignation and members of the opposition party, the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, began to discuss impeachment.