POLITICS-US: Bush Seen as Out of Touch on Latin America

The policies of the George W. Bush administration lag behind public opinion on a host of issues relating to Latin America, according to a new poll of likely voters across the U.S.

ECONOMY-CUBA: Speculate No More

The Cuban government is seeking to curb excessive food prices in farmers’ markets by cracking down on speculation and theft, which will benefit consumers but may discourage producers, according to economists.

ECONOMY-CUBA: No Calm After the Storm

Contrary to the saying that after a storm comes a calm, in Cuba the shockwaves left by hurricanes Gustav and Ike will prevent any peace of mind for people living not only in the most affected areas but in the whole country for a long time to come, as they ask themselves if the worst is really over yet.

POLITICS: Election Could Herald Changes in U.S. Cuba Policy

Cuba policy spokesmen for the two presidential candidates jousted and sniped at a colloquium in Washington last Friday, offering a choice between further hardening of current policies and some hope for a new vision for U.S. Cuba policy.

CUBA: “Ike” Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Danger

Even before the ravages caused by Hurricane Gustav in the western part of Cuba have been fully assessed, Hurricane Ike made landfall on the northeastern shore of the island on Sunday, swept westwards out to sea on Monday, and is showing signs of powering up before slamming Cuban territory again.

CULTURE-CUBA: The Debate Continues

After an interruption of over a year, the Criterios theoretical-cultural centre has resumed a series of lectures analysing the impact of the Cuban government's cultural policy on the arts, one of the tangible outcomes of the debate that shook society here in early 2007.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissidents Work for Racial Integration

Dissident groups in Cuba are attempting to open up a debate on the problem of racism in the country, in order to promote "full integration" of all the island's citizens, without discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity or skin colour.

CUBA: Fresh Salad – No Longer “Grass for the Chileans”

When leafy vegetables like watercress or cabbage showed up at the local market in the 1970s and 1980s in Alamar, a suburb east of the Cuban capital, locals would say "here’s grass for the Chileans."

CUBA: Founder of Women in White Drops Out

Miriam Leiva, one of the founders of the Cuban movement Women in White, announced Monday that she was leaving the group of wives, mothers and sisters of imprisoned dissidents to dedicate herself to "independent journalism."

CUBA: Putting Their Houses in Order

In Cuba, when talk turns to the housing problem, the personal anecdotes that pour out are as large in number as the country's housing deficit, accumulated over years during which building efforts have not kept up with the need, while the existing houses and buildings continue to crumble.

DEATH PENALTY-CUBA: Sentences Commuted But Treatment Still Harsh

Prisoners in Cuba who were facing the death penalty but have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment or 30 years in jail are still being treated like death row inmates, a dissident organisation complained on Tuesday.

AGRICULTURE-CUBA: Fresh Produce for City-Dwellers

Urban farming has taken off in Cuba over the last two decades, based on low-cost agro-ecological practices and a stable labour force, and could serve as a model for the rest of the agriculture sector in this period of reforms.

HEALTH-CUBA: Lung Cancer Vaccine Available

Cuba’s biotech industry plans to launch on the international market, in the short or medium term, a vaccine for treating lung cancer, which causes the deaths of over one million people a year worldwide.

POLITICS-CUBA: Past, Present and Future Changes

Cuba is paradoxically the same, yet not the same, under President Raúl Castro, who said he would change "everything that should be changed" to perfect the socialist path taken by the revolution nearly half a century ago.

CUBA: Cautious Response to Lifting of EU Sanctions

Cuba reacted cautiously to the announcement that the European Union would lift the diplomatic sanctions adopted after 75 dissidents received lengthy jail terms on charges of conspiring with Washington to destabilise the Cuban state, and three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry were executed, in 2003.

CUBA: Don’t Worry, Be Ready – for Hurricanes

Cuba has decided not to make public announcements of the overall outlook for the coming hurricane season, because it makes little practical difference to people’s lives and tends to create false apprehensions, said José Rubiera, regarded as this Caribbean country’s top expert on hurricanes.

MIGRATION: More and More Cubans Entering US through Mexico

The number of Cuban migrants intercepted in Mexico climbed from 254 in 2002 to 1,359 in 2007. And nearly 1,000 were detained in the first four months of this year alone - the visible face of a people smuggling business that apparently operates in collusion with the police and other corrupt authorities.

CUBA: Government Deports US Citizen Wanted for Child Sex Abuse

The Cuban government deported a U.S. citizen accused of sexually abusing a young girl in Costa Rica, less than two weeks after Washington included the Caribbean island on a list of countries that it says are not doing enough to combat child trafficking.

CUBA: A City Drinks in Change

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.

RIGHTS-US: Mixed Appeals Verdict for "Cuban Five"

Activists plan to protest a federal appeals court ruling Wednesday to uphold the convictions of five Cuban intelligence agents accused of spying in the United States.

POLITICS-US: Obama Draws Line on Cuba, Latin America Policy

In a major policy address on U.S.-Latin American relations, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, pledged Friday to immediately roll back key sanctions imposed by President George W. Bush against Cuba over the last several years and called for a "new alliance of the Americas" in which Washington's southern neighbours would no longer be treated "as a junior partner".