CUBA: Struggle Against Homophobia Takes to the Streets

"Governments cannot wait for a social consensus in order to guarantee respect for people's rights," Mariela Castro, head of Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), told IPS on the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia in Cuba Monday.

US-CUBA: Radio, TV Marti Seen as Bust

Despite spending more than half a billion dollars over the last quarter century, U.S. government broadcasts to Cuba have gained only a tiny audience and have had virtually no effect on the island's politics, according to a new report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

CUBA: Drought Looming – Again

As Cuba feels the impact of a drought that is affecting the entire Caribbean region, authorities have stepped up calls for water savings in households and the public sector.

CUBA: Sustainable Agriculture Moves to the Suburbs

Backed by its considerable experience in urban agriculture, Cuba is tackling the challenge of food security through a new initiative that will bring farming to the suburban areas surrounding cities and towns.

CUBA: Keeping the Festival Magic Alive

As the cinema lights switched off, the groups of painters, impromptu filmmakers and craftspeople who filled the parks and plazas of this eastern Cuban town over the past week began to drift away. The musicians who played every night till dawn are gone, and so are the vendors of prawn cocktails, crabmeat pies and roast suckling pig.

CUBA: Children Reach Out Through the Screen to Peers in Post-Quake Haiti

Five girls and five boys are taking time to remember the hurricane that devastated their home town of Gibara in eastern Cuba two years ago, mingling their memories with their dreams, and filming images to make a video message for children in Haiti.

A North-South Pact to Resolve Water, Sanitation Crisis

An international coalition of over 120 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is demanding a North-South partnership to resolve the spreading global crisis in water and sanitation.

CUBA: Corruption, the Real Threat

One of the priorities of the process of change undertaken by Cuban President Raúl Castro is apparently curbing corruption, which threatens to undermine the country from the inside.

CUBA: Skilful Surfing by Digital Culture Project

Buoyant in the storm and sailing for new horizons, the Cuban cultural project Esquife (Skiff) has spent over a decade navigating the rough waters of thought-provoking digital journalism, stirring up opinions rather than wallowing in complacency.

POLITICS-CUBA: Castro Confronts US, EU

Cuban President Raúl Castro has confirmed the worst economic forecasts for his country, in an international context that could become even more complicated following his refusal to address demands on human rights issues.

CUBA: Old Havana Reaches Out to Hearing Impaired

An innovative programme in Old Havana has given the hearing impaired greater access to the historical and cultural wealth of the restored historic city centre.

ECONOMY-CUBA: “What About the Changes?”

Changes to improve the Cuban economy are not happening fast enough to satisfy people's expectations, and instead appear to have got bogged down due to the international financial crisis and the island's internal difficulties in overcoming the impact.

CUBA: Replica Slave Ship Drops Anchor amidst Debate on Racism

A replica of the historic Cuban slave ship Amistad, which was taken over by the Africans aboard in 1839, is visiting Cuba, where academics and community leaders have begun to publicly debate the problem of racial discrimination that has not been stomped out in Cuban society.

CUBA: Human Rights at the Eye of the Storm

Cuba stepped up its state-controlled media offensive Monday in response to what the government calls a well-orchestrated international campaign of misinformation carried out in the last few weeks against this socialist island nation.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Hunger Striker Refuses to Go into Exile

The state news media in Cuba reported Monday on the case of dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on a hunger strike for 13 days and refuses to go into exile in Spain.

CUBA: A Good Old Age in Old Havana

In the centre of Old Havana, historic buildings are being restored without neglecting the occupants who are their heart and soul. The priority is to care for elderly residents with programmes that could become a model for the rest of Cuba, whose population is ageing fast.

LATIN AMERICA: Subdued Response to Cuban Dissident’s Death

The deafening silence of Latin American governments has fallen like another shovelful of earth on the grave of Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata, a bricklayer who died Feb. 23 after nearly three months on hunger strike in prison on the Caribbean island.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissidents Bid Final Farewell to Hunger Striker

Several dozen anti-government opponents gathered Wednesday at the headquarters of the Ladies in White, a Cuban dissident group, in the capital, to hold a "symbolic wake" for Orlando Zapata, a political prisoner who died on the 85th day of a hunger strike.

CUBA: Women Knitting for Change

A neighbour started calling Andrea del Sol "Perseverance," and the name stuck. Since 1998, she and a small group of women from Alamar, on the outskirts of the Cuban capital, have been throwing their combined energies behind a common purpose: "changing things."

Q&A: "Being Poor and White Is Not the Same as Being Poor and Black" in Cuba

The elimination of racism remains unfinished business in Cuba today. "We have to admit that the problem exists, determine its impact on the social model that we defend, and tackle it in depth," says Esteban Morales, an Afro-Cuban economist, political scientist and author of numerous articles and essays on the subject.

CUBA: Wendy – Reconciling the Inner and Outer Image

It was as if she had only closed her eyes for a moment. When Wendy Iriepa came round after surgery over a year ago, she tried to get up as if nothing had happened, but a nurse gently pushed her back into bed. "All done?" she asked, and the nurse replied, "Yes."