Tag Archives: Cuba

Trump Registered His Corporate Trademark In Cuba To Build Resorts After Vowing Not To Do Business There

The Miami Herald reports: Despite earlier promises in Miami that he would not do business in Cuba until the island was “free,” Donald Trump applied in 2008 to register his Trump trademark in the Caribbean nation for a variety of commercial activities, including investing in real estate, hotels, casinos and golf courses. A search of the Cuban Industrial Property Office …

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Man Charged For Spraying Cuban Embassy With AK-47

The Associated Press reports: A man armed with an assault rifle was arrested after opening fire outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington early Thursday, his bullets tearing holes into the walls and pillars near the front entrance in what authorities suspect was a hate crime. The gunfire broke out around 2 a.m. outside the embassy in northwest Washington. Metropolitan Police …

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Cuban Media Hails Sanders’ Praise, Omits His Criticisms

The Miami Herald reports: Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders views on the Cuban revolution have earned him a storm of criticism in the U.S. But there’s one place where his comments have received glowing, front-page reviews: Cuba. Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, prominently displayed a report about Sanders and his praise of “some of the social programs implemented by the historic …

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Sanders Defends Comments On Fidel Castro [VIDEO]

CNN reports: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday stood by his partial defense of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, stating bluntly: “The truth is the truth.” The senator from Vermont has faced a wave of bipartisan criticism since his interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired Sunday night in which he praised a “literacy program” the Cuban government launched in its first …

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Bernie Sanders Under Fire Over “Praise” For Fidel Castro

The Miami Herald reports: Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution wasn’t entirely bad, Democratic presidential front runner Bernie Sanders said in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night. “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but, you know, it’s simply unfair to say everything is bad,” Sanders said in an interview with journalist Anderson Cooper. The comments — sure …

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CUBA: Activists Arrested At Unsanctioned Pride March

Miami’s ABC News affiliate reports: An independently organized show of gay pride ended with several arrests in Havana on Saturday afternoon. The march started in Old Havana’s Parque Central, where activists had been urged to meet at 4 p.m. Under significant police presence, some with dogs, activists and their supporters started arriving with gay flags and other rainbow-type expressions. Half …

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CUBA: Government Cancels LGBT Pride Parades

Michael Lavers reports at the Washington Blade: The organizer of Cuba’s annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia marches on Monday announced they have been cancelled. The marches were to have taken place in Havana on May 11 and the city of Camagüey on May 17. The National Center for Sexual Education, directed by Mariela Castro [photo], the daughter …

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Trump Cancels MLB Deal With Cuba Because Obama

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration canceled a four-month-old deal between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation Monday, saying that the federation was part of the Cuban government and trade with it was illegal under current law. The announcement came less than two weeks after the start of the 2019 baseball season, and just days after the …

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Cuba Drops Marriage Equality From New Constitution

The Associated Press reports: Cuba’s government said Tuesday that language promoting the legalization of gay marriage will be removed from the draft of a new constitution after widespread popular rejection of the idea. Gay rights advocates had proposed eliminating the description of marriage as a union of a man and woman, changing it to the union of “two people … …

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CUBA: New President Backs Same-Sex Marriage

The BBC reports: Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has backed same-sex marriage. The Cuban leader, who took over from Raúl Castro on 19 April, said he was in favour of recognising “marriage between people without any restrictions”. In an interview with TV Telesur, he said doing so was “part of eliminating any type of discrimination in society”. It comes as Cuba …

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REPORT: Cuba To Get 248-Room LGBT Resort

According to the Mexican news site ContraMuro.com and Forbes Mexico, a 248-room LGBT resort featuring five bars and three restaurants will open next year on or near (this is unclear) Cuba’s resort island Cayo Guillermo. The “luxurious five-star” hotel is reportedly the project of MGM Mutha Hotels, which currently operates about two dozen resorts in Europe and India, and already …

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CUBA: Draft Constitution Opens Path To Marriage

Reuters reports: The draft of Cuba’s new constitution opens the path to same-sex marriage, a government official said on Saturday, which would make the country that once persecuted homosexuals an unlikely leader in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. In the early years of Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, many homosexuals were sent to correctional labor camps, part of an institutionalized …

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CUBA: Boeing 737 Crashes On Takeoff In Havana

The Associated Press reports: A Boeing 737 operated by state airline Cubana crashed on takeoff from Jose Marti International Airport in Havana on Friday with 104 passengers and nine crew aboard, coming to rest in a farm field where firefighters sprayed the charred fuselage with hoses. There was no immediate word on casualties. Officials said the plane was headed to …

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CUBA: Constitutional Reform To Include Marriage Push

The Washington Post reports: Mariela Castro [photo], a Cuban lawmaker and daughter of Communist Party chief Raul Castro, says she will push for gay marriage to be included in a constitutional reform process expected to begin in July. The reform is expected to encompass a wide range of modernizing changes to Cuba’s 1976 constitution, which was designed for a Soviet-style …

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Brain Abnormalities Found In Cuba Attack Patients

The Associated Press reports: Doctors treating the U.S. Embassy victims of mysterious, invisible attacks in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain the hearing, vision, balance and memory damage, The Associated Press has learned. It’s the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led …

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US Tightens Economic Embargo On Cuba

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Wednesday tightened the economic embargo on Cuba, restricting Americans from access to hotels, stores and other businesses tied to the Cuban military. A lengthy list of rules, which President Trump promised in June to punish the communist government in Havana, came just as Mr. Trump was visiting leaders of the communist …

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LISTEN: What US Diplomats In Cuba Heard

The Associated Press reports: It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. But not quite. A high-pitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. Listen closely: Some hear multiple, distinct tones colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect. The Associated Press has obtained a recording of what some U.S. Embassy workers heard in Havana, part of the series …

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CUBA: State Department Halts US Visas Indefinitely, Reduces Personnel Over Sonic Attacks On Diplomats

The Associated Press reports: The United States is warning Americans against visiting Cuba and ordering more than half of U.S. personnel to leave the island, senior officials said Friday, in a dramatic response to what they described as “specific attacks” on diplomats. The decision deals a blow to already delicate ties between the U.S. and Cuba, longtime enemies who only …

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CUBA: More Sonic Attacks At US Embassy

The Associated Press reports: Mysterious incidents affecting the health of American diplomats in Cuba continued as recently as August, the United States said Friday, despite earlier U.S. assessments that the attacks had long stopped. The U.S. increased its tally of government personnel affected to 19. The new U.S. disclosures came the same day that the union representing American diplomats said …

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CUBA: State Department Reveals Staffers Suffered Severe Hearing Loss From “Acoustic Attack” [VIDEO]

CNN reports: The US believes several State Department employees at the US embassy in Havana were subjected to an “acoustic attack” using sonic devices that left at least two with such serious health problems they needed to be brought back to the US for treatment, several senior State Department officials told CNN. One official said the employees could have suffered …

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