Whats On In Cuba News
Freedivers, leftover cables and bits of clay: Cuba gets inventive to save its pristine reefs amid US blockade
With limited resources and sanctions tightening, conservationists are forced to find new ways to protect the coral reefs of Ciénaga de Zapata national parkAt 8am, scuba divers gather to collect plastic and drinks cans from the sea at Cuba’s Ciénaga de Zapata national park. Amid a power crisis that has virtually paralysed the country’s economy, they use an electric trailer to move to a designated spot. In only a few hours, they have collected five sacks of cans and waste.Lack of environmental awareness, invasive species and the climate crisis have long threatened the island’s pristine marine ecosystem but as US sanctions and economic scarcity take their toll on the country, scientists and community conservationists are working with even scarcer resources to protect a vital ecosystem for the Caribbean and the world. Continue reading… Cuba | The Guardian …
Cuba hopes for World Cup respite from US sabre-rattling – but prepares for the worst
With some matches being held in nearby Miami, a Cuban response to US military action could mar the tournamentAs Cuba crumbles under a nearly five-month-long US oil blockade, many on the island hope that the World Cup might save the island from US attack – or at least offer a respite until the competition ends on 19 July.“The beginning of the World Cup will make it more difficult for the United States to carry out a military action in Cuba,” said Carlos Alzugaray, Cuba’s former ambassador to the EU. “Cuba is very close to the US, and can hit many targets inside the US, especially in south Florida, with drones or other weapons.” Continue reading… Cuba | The Guardian …
No electricity, no gas, no sleep: Cubans on edge amid endless outages
Four months into US oil blockade, Cubans see island drained as state electric company fights to provide even a few hours of power a dayThe doctor called from the darkness, a shadowy figure sitting on the stoop of his apartment building. “I want to tell you we’ve been four days without light,” he said. “And without electricity, water is also a problem. And there are mosquitoes everywhere.”From the buildings around came a cacophony, as beyond dark windows people smashed pots against pans. It was a cacerolazo, a traditional form of protest which has now become commonplace in Cuba amid seemingly endless rolling blackouts. Continue reading… Cuba | The Guardian …
I launched Cuba’s first independent magazine. And that’s when my troubles began
My friends and I wanted to tell the story of Cuban life, without interference. Before long, I was being isolated, monitored and interrogatedA version of this essay was previously published in the Dial under the title The Sneeze. Translation by Lily MeyerOne day, in the middle of 2014, my friend Carlos Manuel Álvarez asked me to join him on the newsroom’s balcony. Wind gusted in our eyes. Elbows on the railing, we stared at the sea as we talked. We were killing time because neither of us had a computer to work on. All of them were in use. At OnCuba, the magazine in Havana where we worked, only editors got their own computers. The rest of us had to share, which sometimes meant waiting an hour. Several of my university friends and I had lucked into contributing roles at OnCuba, and even though we weren’t on staff, we were always in the newsroom. It was a way to keep our group together.Sometimes, over beers, we dreamed aloud about a newsroom coup. We wanted to topple Hugo Cancio, the publisher, and turn his resources – a giant office with multiple rooms and a balcony with sea views; computers and internet; money; connections – into the media outlet we wanted. Something with our imprint. Continue reading… Cuba | The Guardian …
The US wants regime change in Cuba. But Havana’s European friends have deserted it too | Paul Taylor
Spain led the opposition to Trump’s Iran war, but on the Cuba blockade, the challenge is absentFor many Europeans of my generation, Cuba was as much a progressive cause as a country.In our selectively idealistic student days (mine were in the mid-1970s), it was a plucky little country that had overthrown a corrupt regime in cahoots with the US mafia. In a popular revolution led by the charismatic Fidel Castro and iconic guerrilla leader Che Guevara, it then withstood a crippling US economic embargo to defend its independence. Hasta la victoria siempre! (Ever onwards to victory!)Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading… Cuba | The Guardian …
Humiliated by Iran, the US wants an easy scalp: keep your eyes on Cuba | Owen Jones
The decision to charge Raúl Castro is grimly reminiscent of the run-up to Trump’s military operation in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Cuban people are suffering needlesslyThe US war machine has turned its sights on Cuba. Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American secretary of state who has long craved the fall of the island’s communist government, made that clear again last week. While professing a preference for a “negotiated settlement”, he said the chances of a deal were “not high”. A couple of months ago, I saw up close the economic devastation already inflicted by decades of US siege – and, since January, by a crippling oil blockade introduced by Donald Trump.The US has now charged the country’s former president Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft over the downing of two planes in 1996. The evidence points increasingly in one direction: it is all grimly reminiscent of the indictment of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, used to justify his kidnapping by US forces.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading… Cuba | The Guardian …
