Salon.com > Nick Miroff

Can Kerry make friends with Cuba?

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:25:00 +0000

HAVANA, Cuba — At the last Summit of the Americas, held in Colombia in April, Washington’s rivals in Latin America and its political allies had the same piece of advice for better US diplomacy in the region: get over your Cuba fixation.

Now, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) likely to be confirmed as the next secretary of state, theUnited States will have a top diplomat who has been a frequent critic of America’s 50-year-old effort to force regime change in Havana.

In recent years, Kerry has been the Senate’s most prominent skeptic of US-funded pro-democracy efforts that give financial backing to dissident groups in Cuba and beam anti-Castro programming to the island through radio and television programs based in Miami.

Sandy’s forgotten victim: The Caribbean Islands

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:10:00 +0000

HAVANA, Cuba — Hurricane Sandy cut an island-hopping path of destruction through some of the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the Caribbean last week, bringing catastrophic crop losses and new worries of hunger and disease.

Authorities in several countries are still adding up Sandy’s costs, but the storm appears to be one of the most devastating to the region in years. Eastern Cuba and southern Haiti were especially hard hit by searing winds and flash floods.

At least 69 deaths have been reported across the Caribbean so far, including 52 in Haiti and 11 in Cuba. The toll could rise as emergency responders and relief workers reach more rural and mountainous areas.

After battering Jamaica Wednesday, the storm made landfall early Thursday in Santiago de Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane with gusts topping 110 miles per hour. Its ferocious winds shredded roofs in the island's second-largest city (population 500,000) and sent soggy masonry crashing down into the streets.

Mass exodus in store for Cuba?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:07:00 +0000

HAVANA, Cuba — The predictions of a mass exodus began soon after the Cuban government announced this week it was moving to scrap the odious travel restrictions that have micromanaged the comings and goings of Cubans for more than 50 years.

Since islanders won’t need an “exit permit” to travel anymore — just a passport — many expect a flood of visa applications at foreign embassies once the new policy takes effect Jan. 14.

Maybe so. But probably not.

The reality is that for years the vast majority of Cubans who wanted to travel — and could afford to — were not denied the exit permit to leave the country. More than 30,000 a year emigrate from the island, mostly to the United States. They include the more than 7,000 who arrive illegally, typically across the US-Mexican border or by boat. Any Cuban who reaches US territory is eligible for US residency under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act.

How the US keeps Cuba offline

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:14:00 +0000

HAVANA, Cuba — Fear not, web-deprived Cubans. The US government has a new plan to breach the firewall of communist censorship and let free data flow through.

First though, it needs to block your access to some really cool software.

That was the scrambled message of the past week. First, Cubans found themselves barred from using Google Analytics — a free, web-traffic analysis tool — by the US trade embargo. A few days later, they learned that American officials are spending millions on new programs to boost “the free and decentralized flow of information” to the island.

A reminder, once more, that the Great Software Maker of the North giveth, and also taketh away.

Both developments may end up deepening the frustrations of would-be web users in Cuba, who are often trapped between an internet-fearing government and US policies that seem to be making matters worse.

Why we’re not seeing a “Cuban Autumn”

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:01:00 +0000

HAVANA, Cuba -- The uprisings that have rocked the Middle East this year appear to be inspiring a new wave of protests on this island.

But while the Arab Spring is still in full effect in many countries, opponents of the Castro government have gained little momentum for a "Cuban Autumn."

In recent weeks, anti-government activists have staged several public demonstrations in Havana and eastern Cuba. News and video clips of the events were posted on social-networking sites and broadcast on Miami television channels.

They show small groups of activists banging cookware, chanting anti-Castro slogans and "Freedom!" until police and state-security agents arrive to whisk them away.

In some of the videos, larger crowds of Cubans stand around watching the protesters, but they do not join in.

The incidents come after a period of relative calm that followed the Castro government's move last year to release scores of imprisoned political prisoners, with the Catholic Church playing a mediating role. The amnesty briefly ameliorated criticisms by Western governments and human-rights groups of Cuba's one-party socialist system and its treatment of non-violent dissenters.