Jacquline Charles | Port-Au-Prince | Oct 27

Miami Herald - With Haiti poised to enjoy the economic benefits of long-elusive stability, foreign diplomats are scrambling behind the scenes to keep it all from unraveling as several lawmakers demand the ouster of the country's prime minister.

A small but powerful group of senators is seeking the removal of Prime Minister Miche`le Pierre-Louis -- and possibly several of her ministers -- on charges that she has moved too slowly to solve Haiti's problems.

``The situation is critical,'' said Sen. Jean Hector Anacasis, who is among the six senators behind a recent summons for Pierre-Louis to appear before Haiti's Senate on Thursday. Under Haiti's constitution, the Senate can fire a sitting government.

``We are the ones on the ground who hear the people's cry, who hear them criticizing us, the government, saying nothing has been done. We have to replace the woman,'' Anacasis said. ``If they are accusing us of inviting a crisis, then we are inviting a crisis to avert another crisis.''

Miami | Oct 26

Univision - After living in exile for 45 years shielded by the silence of privacy, Juanita Castro, finally decided to share their personal experiences and reveal some of their best kept secrets. The biggest: that worked with the CIA, the intelligence agency to his brothers Fidel and Raul considered archenemy.

Translation by Google, but readable. The original is here.

Sept 29

BBC - A senior American diplomat has held high-level talks with the Cuban government in Havana, state department officials are reported to have said.

The talks between the two nations were the first of their kind in years, the Associated Press news agency reports.

State department official Bisa Williams held the unannounced talks with Cuba's deputy foreign minister during a visit to Cuba earlier this month, AP says.

A US trade embargo on Cuba remains, but there are signs relations are easing.

** AP Newsbreak: US, Cuba held unannounced talks
** Bills could transform U.S./Cuba business
** Number of Cubans migrating to U.S. drops

Havana | Sept 12

AFP - Cuban Vice President Juan Almeida, a revolutionary commander who fought alongside Fidel Castro to bring down a pro-American dictatorship, has died, the government announced.

An official communique issued through state media said the death of Almeida, the number three official in the Americas' only communist regime, late Friday was from cardiac arrest.

Almeida Bosque was one of just three top Cuban leaders to hold the title Revolutionary Commander.

As a black man in racially diverse Cuba, Almeida was an important visual symbol of a break with the past particularly in 1950s Cuba when racism and discrimination were common. His closeness to Castro for decades has been a sign of Afro-Cubans access to power and influence in communist Cuba.

Born on February 17, 1927 in Havana, Almeida took part in the 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba that is seen by historians as the starting point of the Cuban Revolution.

Frances Robles | Sept 4

Miami Herald - The long-awaited changes to travel and gift rules to Cuba have finally kicked in.

The federal rules regulating what gifts and how much cash can be sent to Cuba finally became official Thursday, five months after President Barack Obama announced a loosening of restrictions amid great fanfare.

``It's about time!'' said Maria Brieva, owner of Machi Community Services, which sends packages to Cuba. ``It's hurricane season, and people were beginning to get anxious.''

In April, Obama lifted caps on Cuban-American travel to the island and on the money that can be sent to relatives as part of a broader campaign to warm long-chilled relations between the two nations. The Cuban government welcomed the changes when they were announced, but did not respond with any notable changes on the island.

The written regulations that make Obama's changes official had not been published in the federal register until now.

That left people who were eager to send money and gifts in limbo, because agencies such as Western Union and shipping companies hadn't received any legal notice of the change.

``When the president made that announcement, people were calling continuously and showing up here with boxes,'' said Mambi International Group owner Santiago Castro, president of the Association of Cuban Travel Agencies. ``We had to tell them no, because as far as we knew, we still could not send things like clothes and shoes.''

The U.S. Department of Treasury and U.S. Commerce Department rules were published in the Federal Register on Thursday.

Jamie Doward | Aug 16

The Observer - Bitter divisions among politicians and ordinary residents living in the Turks & Caicos Islands have emerged following the UK government's decision to suspend its parliament amid allegations of widespread corruption.

The TCI have had their own government since 1976, and have been largely independent of Britain since the 1960s, making Westminster's decision to assert power over the islands all the more controversial.

The island's premier, Galmo Williams, said his country was "being invaded and re-colonised by the United Kingdom". He accused the Foreign Office of "dismantling a duly elected government and legislature and replacing it with a one-man dictatorship".

But many outside the political elite have rejoiced at the news, saying the move was long overdue. They claim corruption had created a climate of fear in which people were scared to speak out for fear of being targeted.

Writing in the TCI Journal, a website that has been critical of the islands' politicians, Shaun Malcolm, a long-time civic leader, declared his country's "long nightmare" had ended. Malcolm said: "As is being said often in the US by some civic participants, 'Never let a crisis go to waste'. My hope is that the Turks and Caicos will emerge now from this period of repression as a stronger society, and that we as a people will use this opportunity to rebuild our institutions wisely."

Another resident declared on the website that a "new dawn breaks in the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands... after six years of dictatorial rule, founded on ignorance and arrogance".

Rory Carroll | Aug 3

The Guardian - Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, has offered to talk to the US and ease half a century of enmity following olive branches from the Obama administration.

Castro said he wanted to respond to Washington's effort to recast diplomatic relations but insisted Cuba's communist system was solid and would not be diluted. "We are ready to talk about everything but not to negotiate our political and social system," he told the national assembly on Saturday.

The 78-year-old leader, who formally succeeded his ailing brother Fidel last year, made the announcement amid grim economic news which will curb spending on health and education, twin pillars of the 50-year-old revolution.

The government warned of further austerity in the wake of hurricane damage and a sputtering economy, a sharp contrast to glimmers of diplomatic detente.

Rory Carroll | July 28

The Guardian - It was smuggled through the US diplomatic pouch, secretly installed across the facade of a building overlooking Havana and given a very specific mission: to annoy Fidel Castro.

The scrolling electronic sign, a low-tech version of New York's Time Square ticker, escalated the US's propaganda war with Cuba's leader three years ago by flashing human rights messages in five-foot high crimson letters. But history, or more specifically Barack Obama, appears to have pulled the plug on the billboard which flitted across 25 windows of the US interests section in Havana. The screen has gone blank - the latest indication that half a century of enmity may be winding down.

The ticker, erected by the Bush administration in January 2006, infuriated Castro and provoked tit-for-tat diplomatic jousting which further strained relations.

"It was basically a contest of which side could annoy the other the most," said Dan Erikson, author The Cuba Wars and an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank. "The US described [the sign] as a way to convey information to the Cuban people but the real purpose was to irritate the Cuban government."

July 15

The Telegraph - Cuba's Communist leader and president Raul Castro has recorded a three hour party political broadcast in which he sacks many of his cabinet and accuses them of disloyalty.

The film, which is being shown to the party faithful nationwide, shows Raul announcing the departure of several senior figures who played a significant role in the government he inherited from his brother, Fidel.

They include Carlos Lage, vice president, and Felipe Perez Roque, foreign minister, according to The Financial Times.

Both men were seen as potential future leaders before their downfall.

I would really like to ask all bloggers to take a look at this letter from a local 'indigenous' activist here on SXM giving a warning to bloggers. This Leopold James has been taken to task or criticized in blogs on our local site SXM Private Eye in the past. He doesn't like it.

Anyway, it's been blogged about by my friend LH and we would really like to hear some support and thoughts from the blogging world on this matter.

Caribdude

Fear, Threats and Intimidation - SXM PE

Kim Sengupta | June 13

The Independent - Decision to send Guantanamo inmates to British colony sours 'special relationship', The secret deal allowing detainees from Guantanamo,to settle in tropical Bermuda was made without the knowledge of David Miliband

Senior aides to President Barack Obama accompanied four Uighur prisoners as they were flown from Guantanamo Bay to the British colony of Bermuda, without the UK being informed, it was revealed yesterday.

In an escalating diplomatic row over the transfer of the former terrorist suspects, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the transfer with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in what was said to be an uneasy conversation. Privately Whitehall officials accused America of treating Britain, with whom it is supposed to have a "special relationship", with barely disguised contempt.

One senior official said: "The Americans were fully aware of the foreign-policy understanding we have with Bermuda and they deliberately chose to ignore it. This is not the kind of behaviour one expects from an ally."

Stephen Foley | New York | June 8

The Independent - He is said to have been the subject of some cartoonish plots over the years, from poisoned ice cream, mines disguised as sea shells and, of course, exploding cigars, but even Fidel Castro says that the story of an elderly American couple accused of spying for Cuba for three decades reads like "an espionage comic strip".

The retired Communist leader declined over the weekend to say whether Walter Kendall Myers, 72, a US intelligence official, and his 71-year-old wife Gwendolyn really had passed secrets to his regime, but he said they deserved praise if they did.

"I can't help but admire their disinterested and courageous conduct on behalf of Cuba," he wrote in a web column published three days after the couple's sensational arrest.

"Those who in one form or another have helped to protect the Cuban people from the terrorist plans and assassination plots organised by various US administrations have done so at the initiative of their own conscience and are deserving, in my judgment, of all the honours in the world."

As the US State Department works to assess the security damage that may have resulted from the couple's alleged subversive activities, details are emerging about the anger the pair felt at US foreign and domestic policies during the Seventies, when they are said to have begun working for Cuba.

Luisa Yanez | Miami | May 30

Miami Herald - In what may be the largest civil judgment ever against the Cuban government, a Miami-Dade judge on Friday awarded more than $1 billion to a Homestead man who blamed Fidel Castro and Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara for driving his father to suicide in 1959.

''What the defendants did was torture this family and tear it apart,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Adrien in ruling for Gustavo Villoldo, 73, who ironically became a CIA operative and helped track down Guevara in the jungles of Bolivia in 1967.

It makes me wonder how much the judge would award the families of those we tortured and killed..

Frances Robles | May 27

Miami Herald - Cuba's decades-old suspension from the Organization of American States appears to be coming to an end.

As more countries clamor to lift the communist country's 1962 suspension from the hemispheric group, the U.S. State Department threw a curve ball at the debate late Tuesday by submitting a new proposal that would eventually allow Cuba back to the OAS -- as long as Havana abides by the organization's democratic principles.

The OAS meets Wednesday in Washington to review three proposals submitted that ultimately reach the same goal: an end to Cuba's suspension.

Just how the suspension should be lifted will be taken up at the group's permanent council meeting in Washington, where they will hammer out a final agenda for thegeneral assembly next week in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The council will decide which of the three proposals submitted that lift Cuba's suspension will be voted on in Honduras.

1 minute ago. approximately 9.02 what felt like a rather large earthquake was felt in St. Maarten. Anyone know where up to date information can be found about it? It lasted about 5/8 seconds.

Caribdude

Louis Charbonneau | United Nations | May 18

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to name former U.S. President Bill Clinton as his special envoy to Haiti, U.N. officials said on Monday, in a move that could attract investment in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation and help stabilize the country.

"The announcement is expected to come soon," one U.N. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The official said a formal announcement could come as early as Tuesday.

Clinton, who has galvanized efforts to help the impoverished Caribbean nation recover from the devastating impact of four hurricanes last year, accompanied Ban on a trip to Haiti earlier this year.

Several other diplomats confirmed the appointment of the former president, who is trying to help Haiti through his Clinton Global Initiative foundation.

"This is something that has been in the works for some time," a diplomat said.

Nick Miroff | May 16

WaPo -

Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, an end to the 1962 U.S. trade embargo against Cuba may be lying untapped, buried under layers of rock, seawater and bitter relations.

Oil, up to 20 billion barrels of it, sits off Cuba's northwest coast in territorial waters, according to the Cuban government -- enough to turn the island into the Qatar of the Caribbean. At a minimum, estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey place Cuba's potential deep-water reserves at 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, stores that would rank the island among the region's top producers.

Drilling operations by foreign companies in Cuban waters are still in the exploratory stage, and significant obstacles -- technological and political -- stand between a U.S.-Cuba rapprochement eased by oil. But as the Obama administration gestures toward improved relations with the Castro government, the national security, energy and economic benefits of Cuban crude may make it a powerful incentive for change.

Limited commercial ties between U.S. businesses and the island's communist government have been quietly expanding this decade as Cuban purchases of U.S. goods -- mostly food -- have increased from $7 million in 2001 to $718 million in 2008, according to census data.

Thawing relations could eventually open up U.S. investment in mining, agriculture, tourism and other sectors of Cuba's tattered economy. But the prospect of major offshore reserves that would be off-limits to U.S. companies and consumers has some Cuba experts arguing that 21st-century energy needs should prevail over 20th-century Cold War politics.

Ian Thomson | May 10

The Independent - The holiday-brochure chic of its resorts belies the unremittingly harsh underbelly of the real Jamaica. Here, the eminence of drugs and guns have created a society in which 'respect' has replaced civic values – and where a lack of it results in a trip to the morgue. Ian Thomson ventures into the heart of the country to ask, what went wrong?

Whatever happened to Jamaica – for so many years Britain's pride and joy? Since independence in the early 1960s, the drug barons have taken over, hopes of social equality have faded and there's a pall of violence. Tourists rarely see anything of the twisted side of island life, as they hardly ever venture outside the stockaded beach resorts and private beaches advertised as "paradise". Tourism contributes an estimated $1bn a year to Jamaica's economy and has become a part of Jamaican life, with hordes of vendors, hustlers and "guides" ready to hound the unwitting visitor. Yet this "paradise" of holiday brochures is just as often derided as a criminal backwater.

With an annual murder rate of around 1,500, Jamaica is one of the world's most violent countries, on a par with South Africa and Colombia. A recent report by Amnesty International, "Let Them Kill Each Other" (April 2008), depicted a nation in tragic disorder. Stories of child labour, domestic violence and murder clog the national press. Kingston, the capital, remains locked in cycles of political and gangland violence; to live there today calls for special qualities of endurance.

Havana | May 1

Latin America Herald Tribune - Cuba’s foreign minister on Thursday rejected the inclusion of Cuba on the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and denounced the United States as an “international criminal.”

“One cannot acknowledge the U.S. to have the least moral authority and I frankly believe that nobody takes note of or reads those documents,” Bruno Rodriguez told reporters in reaction to Washington’s annual report on international terrorism.

The foreign minister said that on the subject of terrorism, the United States “historically has had a long file of actions of state terrorism not only against Cuba.”

He accused Washington of protecting anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles, who stands accused by Cuba and Venezuela of blowing up a jet in 1976 with 73 people on board, and of protecting the “state crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people and the Arab peoples.”

“Never has Cuban territory been used to finance or execute terrorist acts against the United States of America. The State Department, which issues those reports, cannot say the same,” Rodriguez said.

Washington | Apr 27

AFP - US President Barack Obama's administration is hoping to relaunch communication channels with Cuba after 50 years of adversarial relations, US media reported on Sunday.

"Informal meetings" were being planned between the US State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States "to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues," The New York Times said.

The wide-ranging talks would cover topics such as drug trafficking and migration. More cultural and academic exchanges were also being considered, the Times said, citing White House and State Department officials who declined to be named.

The talks would serve to "test the waters" to determine whether the United States and Cuba could engage in a "serious, civil, open relationship", a senior administration official said.

Washington was "ready to talk about a series of issues", the official said, cautioning that "this thing with Cuba is going to take a lot of time, and it may not work".

Mark S Smith | Port-Of-Spain, Trinindad | Apr 18

AP - President Barack Obama extended a friendly hand to America's hemispheric neighbors on Saturday at a summit in the Caribbean where he offered a new beginning for U.S.-Cuba relations and sought out Venezuela's fiery, leftist president for a quick grip and grin.

At the Summit of the Americas in this island capital, Obama signaled he was ready to accept Cuban President Raul Castro's proposal of talks on issues once off-limits for Havana, including the scores of political prisoners held by the communist government. Obama shook the hand of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, a leader who once likened his predecessor to the devil, and casually exclaimed, "Como estas?"

Responding to the overture, Chavez walked over to Obama at a meeting, patted the president on the shoulder and handed him the book, "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Eduardo Galeano, an essay that argues against U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region. much more

Washington | Apr 4

AFP - US President Barack Obama plans to ease economic sanctions on Cuba, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit families as often as they like and send them unlimited financial aid, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citing an unnamed senior administration official, the newspaper said the new rules, which the president can introduce without seeking congressional approval, will affect an estimated 1.5 million Americans who have family members in Cuba.

The report came as eight US lawmakers - all Democrats from the US Congressional Black Caucus - arrived in Havana to discuss relations.

William E. Gibson | Washington | Apr 1

LA Times - A bipartisan group of senators says Congress is ready to pass legislation to allow all Americans to visit Cuba. Supporters say the move would create thousands of jobs.

A bipartisan group of senators predicted Tuesday that Congress was ready to pass legislation to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.

Removing the travel ban would produce a burst of tourism, create thousands of jobs and generate as much as $1.6 billion in business a year, an independent research group said.

A Senate news conference Tuesday and one in the House set for Thursday reflect new attempts to lift the travel ban, a key part of the U.S. trade embargo imposed after Fidel Castro took power in Havana in 1959. The broader trade embargo would remain in place.

Sponsors said the bill would free Americans to travel to the one place in the world they can't go and encourage Cubans to push for democratic reforms by exposing them to new people and information.

"Punishing the American people in our effort to somehow deal a blow to the Castro government has not made any sense at all," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.). "At long last, this policy, which has been in place for 50 years and has not worked, will finally be removed."

Ellen Barry | Moscow | Mar 15

NYT - A top Russian Air Force official said that the government was weighing whether to base strategic bombers out of Cuban territory or on a Venezuelan island that has been offered by President Hugo Chávez, according to the Interfax news service.

In comments made at an awards ceremony on Friday night, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of staff for Russia’s long-distance aviation division, told reporters that either option would be practical.

“There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,” he said. “If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.”

He confirmed that Mr. Chávez had offered the use of a military airfield on La Orchila island. “If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible,” he said.

Washington | Mar 11

AFP - The US Senate late Tuesday passed a 410-billion-dollar package that pays for government operations until October 1 and eases Cold War-inspired restrictions on Cuba.

Senators voted 62-35 to end bitter debate on the measure, then approved the legislation by voice vote two weeks after the House of Representatives passed it, sending it to US President Barack Obama for his signature.

The bill's chiefly Democratic supporters beat back a series of amendments on a range of issues, including an effort by foes of Cuba's government to block measures seen as lifting pressure on Havana.

Obama has said he supports easing travel to the island and cash remittances from relatives working in the United States to loved ones in Cuba, but has resisted calls to lift the entire decades-old US embargo.