Tag Archives: Cuba

The Miami Herald reports: President Donald Trump says his administration’s new policy on Cuba aims to “empower” the citizens of that country. The president tweeted while en route to Miami, where he’ll announce his plans for halting the flow of U.S. cash to Cuba’s military and security services while maintaining diplomatic relations. The tweet reads, “Headed to Miami to announce …

The Daily Caller reports: President Donald Trump is set to announce a rollback of former President Barack Obama’s policies toward Cuba, The Daily Caller has learned. Two sources told TheDC that the development is due to the behind-the-scenes efforts of Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and Republican Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart. This information coming …

Politico reports: President Barack Obama is ending a longstanding immigration policy that allows any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay and become a legal resident, a senior administration official said Thursday. The repeal of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy is effective immediately, according the official. The decision follows months of negotiations focused in part on getting …

The Hill reports: President Obama and Vice President Biden will not attend the funeral of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the White House said Monday. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters to “stay tuned” as to which top U.S. officials, if any, would attend the funeral, scheduled for Dec. 4. Top Republicans have urged Obama not to attend …

The Hill reports: President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he will reverse President Obama’s thaw with Cuba if the island nation’s government does not make reforms. Trump is pledging to follow through on a campaign promise to undo Obama’s decision to open diplomatic and commercial ties with Cuba if the communist government doesn’t adopt changes. The statement comes less than three …

This afternoon Sen. Marco Rubio decided that it wouldn’t be hypocritical in the least to point out Fidel Castro’s history of oppressing gays. Has he somehow forgotten his own lengthy track record of opposing LGBT rights? We sure haven’t forgotten his vote against ENDA, his support for DOMA, his fundraising for ex-gay torture advocates, his robocalls for NOM, his promise …

“Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too …

“At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans – in Cuba and in the United States – with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and …

The New York Times reports: Fidel Castro, the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, died Friday. He was 90. His death …

Their site was unreachable for hours. Talking Points Memo reports: The editor-in-chief of Newsweek confirmed Friday that the magazine’s website was on the receiving end of a denial-of-service attack Thursday night, following the publication of a story accusing one of Donald Trump’s companies of violating the Cuban trade embargo. Editor-In-Chief Jim Impoco noted that the attack came as the story …

Newsweek reports: A company controlled by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro’s presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings. Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 …

CNN reports: When JetBlue Flight 387 touched down Wednesday in Cuba, it was the first direct commercial flight between the US and the island in over a half-century. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Santa Clara, Cuba, flight is the latest symbol of the thawing of relations between the former Cold War adversaries, who restored diplomatic ties in 2015. Until now, …

From the Associated Press: Gathered around a keyboard in Los Angeles, conductor Ernesto Lima Parets stopped his singers and told them to try again. The five men who make up the gay Cuban choir Mano a Mano performed Gloria Estefan’s “Mi Tierra” (“My Homeland”) with perfect harmony. But he wanted them to feel it. “You must imagine what it means …

From the Washington Blade: The daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro on Saturday led in a march in Havana that commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Mariela Castro, director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education that is known by the Spanish acronym CENESEX, joined transgender actress Candis Cayne and hundreds of others who marched from the oceanfront …

The Hill reports: U.S. airlines are in vicious competition for the chance to provide direct service to Cuba, even as the impact of the new business on their bottom lines is unclear. Last month, the Department of Transportation opened bidding from airlines to operate 20 daily round-trip flights to Havana, and 10 flights to nine smaller airports on the island. …

CNN reports: It may have only been rock ‘n’ roll — but Cubans seemed to like it. On Friday, the Rolling Stones became the first major international rock band to play in Cuba, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to a free concert at a decrepit sports complex on the road to the airport. For years, following the Cuban revolution, …

Via press release: Today, Connecticut Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano released the following statement on President Obama’s homage to Che Guevara while visiting Communist Cuba: “Che Guevara’s history is not one to be embraced, but shunned. He was responsible for mass murder, oppression, homophobia, chauvinism and absolute suppression of political dissent. Guevara helped Fidel Castro bring totalitarianism within 100 miles …

Teabagistan is aflame with the usual screaming today after President Obama posed for photos with a giant mural of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara visible in the background. Media Matters points out that Ronald Reagan once delivered a speech with a huge bust of Vladimir Lenin looming over his head. And then there was that time George W. Bush posed for …

President Obama has just landed in Havana for his historic visit to Cuba. Watch below. Via Yahoo News: The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban …

From the band’s announcement: The Rolling Stones will perform a groundbreaking concert in Havana, Cuba on Friday March 25, 2016. The free concert will take place at the Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana and will be the first open air concert in the country by a British Rock Band. Always exploring new horizons and true pioneers of rock, the Stones, …