Published in Small State
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Less than a month after his historic inauguration, Paraguay’s president, Fernando Lugo, is denouncing an alleged coup plot to remove him from office.
Last April, Lugo unseated the Colorado Party from the presidential palace, where it had ruled for six decades. But the party still holds a majority in parliament, [...]
Published in Gancho
July 3, 2008
If your only awareness of the Southern Cone came from today’s oped page in the Miami Herald, you’d probably be pretty pessimistic. First, an editorial tears into Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, saying her administration is plucked from the same “wretched tradition” to which her husband’s belonged.
Just over six months [...]
Published on PressTV.ir
June 26, 2008
The US has been dealt another blow after it failed to convince its allies in the European Union not to lift sanctions against Cuba.
The United States had imposed an economic embargo on Cuba since 1962 and President George W. Bush’s administration had tightened sanctions four years ago. But he expressed his [...]
Published in AFP
June 25, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The European Union’s decision to lift sanctions against Cuba dealt a setback to US diplomacy after Washington failed to convince eastern European allies to block the move, analysts say.
“It was a failure for American diplomacy, which did everything possible through pressure on eastern European countries, like the Czechs [...]
Published in The Times of India
June 3, 2008
HAVANA: Raul Castro, Cuba’s President, celebrates two anniversaries on Tuesday: his 77th birthday, and his first 100 days in power since formally taking over from his brother Fidel in February.
The latter milestone is the one, Cubans and much of the world are focusing on, as stock is taken [...]
By Enrique Fernandez
Published in The Miami Herald
May 17, 2008
Templad mi lira.
Tune my lyre. Engulfed by emotion, the poet, in a neoclassical version of a sound check, asks for his lyre to be tuned so he can give free flow to the inspiration triggered by the torrent he [...]
By Marc Lacey
Published in The New York Times
May 2, 2008
HAVANA — Can a rice maker possibly be revolutionary?
There they were, piled up one atop another, Chinese-made rice makers selling for $70 each. Beside them, sleek DVD players. Across the well-stocked electronics store were computers and televisions and other household appliances that President Raúl Castro recently [...]
By Kirsten B. Mitchell
Published in The Ledger
April 27, 2008
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON | Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, 46 years removed from Sagua la Grande, a port city on Cuba’s northern coast, remains an adamant supporter of the Bush administration’s hard-nosed policy toward his homeland.
Until Cuba begins to erase repression of the country’s 11 million people, U.S. travel [...]
By Anita Snow
Published in the Associated Press
March 24, 2008
HAVANA (AP) — Cubans expecting their new president to transform their straitened lives are tempering their hopes as they gradually accept him at his word: Small improvements will come with time, but nothing will happen overnight.
Hopes for at least modest economic reforms sprang up 20 months ago [...]
By Kirk Victor
Published in the National Journal
February 25, 2008
At a recent debate between the Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked to describe the most important policy differences between her and Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the nomination. Health care topped Clinton’s list. “I believe absolutely, passionately, that we must have universal [...]
By Anthony DePalma
Published in The New York Times
February 24, 2008
HAVANA: A simple rule that correspondents follow is, “The bigger the news, the smaller the story.” In other words, to bring home the impact of a monumental event, tell how it touches ordinary people. In the last few days, on a trip to Cuba that was [...]
By John Dorschner and Pablo Bachelet
Published in the Lexington Herald-Leader
February 24, 2008
Cuba’s foreign policy, for decades dominated by Fidel Castro and his efforts to challenge U.S. interests around the world, will be marked by greater pragmatism no matter who succeeds him, analysts and diplomats say.
Cuba’s diplomatic maneuvering already has increased in recent months as [...]
By John Dorschner and Pablo Bachelet
Published in The Miami Herald
February 22, 2008
Cuba’s foreign policy, for decades dominated by Fidel Castro and his efforts to challenge U.S. interests around the world, will be marked by greater pragmatism no matter who succeeds him, analysts and diplomats say.
Cuba’s diplomatic maneuvering already has increased in recent months as the [...]
By Anthony Boadle
Published in the International Herald Tribune
February 21, 2008
HAVANA: Cuba’s rubber-stamp National Assembly will meet on Sunday to name retiring Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s successor, and few people are placing bets on anyone other than his brother Raul Castro.
The younger Castro has provisionally held power since his brother fell ill in July 2006 and [...]
By John Dorschner
Published in The Miami Herald
February 21, 2008
Raúl Castro may move slowly to make minor reforms, but even small changes in agriculture could have ”combustible . . . unintended consequences,” according to a veteran Cuba expert.
Marifeli Pérez Stable, a vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington and a professor at Florida International University, [...]
By Doreen Hemlock
Published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 20, 2008
Fidel Castro has resigned, but don’t expect Cuba to open up to business from South Florida any time soon, analysts say.
A government permanently led by a Raúl Castro team is likely to loosen the state’s grip on Cuba’s economy, but specialists expect change to be slow [...]
By Richard Lapper
Published in the Financial Times
February 19, 2008
The only real surprise about Fidel Castro’s decision to step down formally from his position as Cuban president was its timing.
The announcement, carried in the columns of the Tuesday morning edition of Granma, the Communist party’s daily newspaper, came five days ahead of the opening session of [...]
Published in the Associated Press
January 21, 2008
HAVANA (AP) — Preliminary results are expected this afternoon in Cuba’s parliamentary elections. Cubans are being asked to back 614 top Communists, career politicians, musicians and athletes for posts in the legislature, known as the National Assembly.
Only one choice appeared for each post in districts across the country and [...]
Published in The Sunday Librarians
December 11, 2007
This week I came in and finally was shown the schedule for the rest of the month. Which is how I learned that I am the defacto Sunday Children’s Librarian for the branch through the end of the month…even though I know little to nothing about all the specialized [...]
By Anthony DePalma
Published in The New York Times
August 6, 2006
EVEN from his sickbed — or what delirious crowds in Miami last Monday had for a time believed was his deathbed — Fidel Castro was obsessed with how history would judge him. In a statement outlining a new provisional government headed by his brother Raúl, he [...]