CUBA: Petrochemical Complex Poses Major Environmental Challenge

As it gears up for the creation of a major petrochemical complex of regional scope, this Cuban city faces the challenge of ensuring the sustainability of development that could compromise the health of the Bay of Cienfuegos, its main natural resource.

Petrochemical Complex Poses Major Environmental Challenge

Cuba is preparing a series of environmental measures to protect the Bay of Cienfuegos from the upcoming expansion of its oil refinery.

Restoring the Cuban City with a French Colonial Air

The city of Cienfuegos, known in Cuba as the "Pearl of the South", is unique for its spotless cleanliness, the orderly grid pattern of its streets, its 19th century architecture and its air of "Grande Dame" elegance. Now its past splendours, ravaged by time or left to deteriorate because of economic difficulties, are being restored.

CUBA: Castro Says Migration Policy to Be Eased

Cuban President Raúl Castro’s announcement of coming changes to migration policy appears to be the result of repeated demands by the population for freedom to travel, a right ensnared for decades in the Cuba-United States conflict.

Cubans Aren’t Racist, But…

"I'm not racist, but at night, if I see three black men coming, I cross the street"; "I have a black friend, but I'd never accept him as my brother-in-law"; "Who me, racist? Not at all! But my daughter marrying a black man..." These are the kinds of comments that can frequently be heard in Cuba, where discrimination of any kind is prohibited by law.

CUBA: Communist Academic Recovers His Party Card

Cuban historian and columnist Esteban Morales, who was reinstated as a member of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) after being expelled a year earlier for writing articles about corruption in the country, said he would continue exercising his right to express criticism, as the duty and moral obligation of "any revolutionary intellectual."

CUBA: Women Face Challenges in Growing Self-Employment Sector

"Coffee! Get your plastic bags here! Cream cheese, the very best...!" The voices blend in with the cries of other vendors and the noise typical of Cuban markets. Elisa, 64, was one of the hawkers until she was fined for selling her products without a permit. "I paid dearly for it," she says.

CUBA: Budget Vacations in Touch with Nature

To survive the summer heat and enjoy restful vacations in natural settings, the government's network of cabin resorts is a popular alternative among families in Cuba, few of whom can afford the high cost of hotels, which until 2008 were off-limits to Cubans.

CUBA: Microcredit Knocks on Door…Softly

A microcredit system could begin operating in Cuba as part of reforms adopted by the government of Raúl Castro to modernise the country's socialist economic system.

CUBA: South-South Diplomacy Props Up Economic Modernisation

The diplomatic offensive undertaken by Cuba in recent weeks is propping up the most important medium-term development programmes implemented as part of what the Raúl Castro government describes as the "updating" of the economic system without abandoning socialism.

CUBA: Outcome of Airline Corruption Trial Revealed

A Havana court handed down sentences of three to 15 years to 15 officials and employees of Cubana de Aviacion airline and a tourism agency jointly owned by Chilean investors and the Cuban government, in a corruption case that was veiled in a shroud of secrecy.

POLITICS-CUBA: Reforms Up Against the Clock

President Raul Castro, who turned 80 Friday, is facing the challenge of making the Cuban economy more efficient without abandoning socialism – a course that involves overcoming conservative resistance to change and new forms of working and even thinking.

CUBA: Rainy Season Off to a Poor Start

Despite major underground water reserves and the start of the rainy season, people in the central region of Cuba are anxiously scanning the skies in the face of scant rainfall, which is needed to ease a drought that has become more severe in recent years.

BOOKS: Victims of Quiet Terror Campaign Against Cuba Speak Out

The death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan earlier this month was hailed by people across the United States and around the world as a fitting end for a self-confessed mass murderer.

Q&A: Prompting Cubans to Think and Talk

"I talk to deal with problems. In Cuba, there is too much formal, repetitive discourse and not enough directed at people, with their anxieties and joys," said Manuel Calviño, the host and writer of a television programme that tries not to add to that deficit.

A Sugar Boost for the Cuban Economy

Cuba hopes to revive its sugar industry as part of the recently announced economic changes and take advantage of good international prices for what was once the Caribbean island’s main export.

Cuban Gov’t Refutes Claims About Dissident’s Death

The Cuban government refuted reports by dissident groups that claimed that Juan Wilfredo Soto died as a result of a beating by police. The authorities stated that he died from "acute pancreatitis."

CUBA: Changes in Property, Travel Rules Announced

The new economic development guidelines to be put in effect over the next five years in Cuba, published Monday by the Communist Party, include reforms allowing the sale of real estate and cars and a possible loosening of restrictions on travel abroad by Cubans.

CUBA: Professionals Awaiting their Chance

Cuba’s opening to private enterprise still leaves out many professionals who have yet to find a way to use their skills and potential in non-state industries, although they have not lost hope that the rules of the game will change.

Cuba’s Communist Party to Adopt Reforms

Cuba's governing Communist Party (PCC) will meet over the weekend to decide on the direction and scope of far-reaching reforms aimed at modernising the country's socialist economy over the next few years.

CUBA: Balancing Bane and Blessing of Oil

Cuba is sticking to its plans to begin oil exploration this year in its territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and has assured neighbouring countries that "every reasonable" safety and environmental protection measure will be taken, in an area still haunted by the disastrous effects of the crude oil spill in 2010.