Cuba – News Stories About Cuba - Page 24

Feb 20, 2008 7:19 AM CST

Fidel Faithful Likely to Keep Power

Cubans unsure if leader's resignation will change anything

(Newser) - Life went on as normal in Havana after Fidel Castro announced his resignation yesterday, and Cuba experts aren't sure how much real impact his decision will have, the New York Times reports. Cuba's National Assembly is due to choose a new Council of State on Sunday and power is expected...

South Florida Quiet After Castro Resigns

Feb 19, 2008 5:16 PM CST

South Florida Quiet After Castro Resigns

Exile leaders stress need for democracy on island nation

(Newser) - Few South Florida Cubans bothered to celebrate Fidel Castro's retirement today, the Miami Herald reports. Exile leaders dismissed the power shift to Castro's brother Raul as politics as usual for the island nation. "Just because he has given up a title, doesn't mean he has given up power,''...

US Should
Have Hugged Castro to Death

OPINION

Feb 19, 2008 12:23 PM CST

US Should Have Hugged Castro to Death

Dictator relied on angry giant to the north to keep people afraid

(Newser) - Fidel Castro has left power, but his legacy endures because the US never did what it took to eliminate his regime: embrace it. Fidel survived for decades because his people were afraid of the angry superpower to the north, writes Newsweek’s Christopher Dickey. Had America embraced him, the Cuban...

Fidel Steps Down After 50 Years

Feb 19, 2008 4:07 AM CST

Fidel Steps Down After 50 Years

Cuban leader announces retirement

(Newser) - Fidel Castro has resigned after nearly 50 years as Cuba's leader, the AP reports. "I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," the 81-year-old wrote in a letter published in the Communist Party's online...

Castro Rails on Bush Address

Jan 30, 2008 1:51 PM CST

Castro Rails on Bush Address

Long-silent Cuban leader rips into State of the Union speech

(Newser) - President Bush’s latest State of the Union address was his worst yet, according to Fidel Castro, full of “demagoguery, lies, and a total lack of ethics.” Castro hasn’t shown himself since 2006 emergency surgery, but a scathing essay was published in his name in today’s...

Cuba's Underground Housing Boom

Jan 28, 2008 2:58 PM CST

Cuba's Underground Housing Boom

Socialist system camouflages complicated black market

(Newser) - A booming black market in real estate is operating in Cuba, even though the government owns most property. Prices are soaring as property changes hands in a complex, illegal system called permuta, reports the New York Times. Housing swaps are permitted in Cuba, with government approval; permuta involves trading up...

Brazil Prez: Fidel 'Healthy, Lucid'

Jan 16, 2008 9:07 AM CST

Brazil Prez: Fidel 'Healthy, Lucid'

Lula signs economic pacts to help Cuba through transition

(Newser) - After meeting with Fidel Castro, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday the 81-year-old leader was "incredibly lucid," healthy, and "ready to assume his political role in Cuba and the role he has in history." Lula met earlier with Raul Castro, who has been...

US Lets Cuban Terror Slide
in Florida

Jan 14, 2008 8:19 PM CST

US Lets Cuban Terror Slide in Florida

5 anti-Castro groups planning coup get free ride from FBI

(Newser) - At least five anti-Castro paramilitary groups are operating on US soil, planning to overthrow the Cuban regime—and getting a free ride from Washington despite bolstered anti-terrorist laws that would back a crackdown. Holed up in Florida training camps, the Cuban exiles have been linked to commando raids, hotel bombings,...

Ex-CIA Agent Agee Dies in Cuba Exile

Jan 9, 2008 4:23 PM CST

Ex-CIA Agent Agee Dies in Cuba Exile

Critic of US policy wrote exposé of alleged spy agency misdeeds

(Newser) - Philip Agee, an ex-CIA spook who became a critic of US policies in Cuba, has died in Havana after surgery at age 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969, and in 1975 published a book detailing the agency's alleged unethical policies against Latin American leftists. Agee moved to Cuba in...

Fidel Flirts
With Retiring —Again

Dec 29, 2007 8:26 AM CST

Fidel Flirts With Retiring —Again

Says he once longed to 'cling to power,' but life has changed him

(Newser) - Fidel Castro is hinting at retirement again, this time in a letter read aloud to Cuba's parliament yesterday by his brother Raul, the BBC reports. The letter expanded on a much-discussed comment he made last week about not "clinging to power." This time he admits that he...

Fidel's Fit
to Run for Re-election

Dec 25, 2007 8:20 AM CST

Fidel's Fit to Run for Re-election

Forget retirement: Raul says big brother is good to go

(Newser) - Fidel Castro is gaining weight, exercising regularly, has "full use of his mental faculties," and is running for re-election, says his brother Raúl. Raúl was stumping for Fidel yesterday in his electoral district of Santiago de Cuba, where he needs to be reelected to the National...

Boat Slayings Suspect Blabs
in Prison

Dec 20, 2007 4:52 PM CST

Boat Slayings Suspect Blabs in Prison

Inmate says man confessed to aiding in four murders

(Newser) - A jailhouse confession could doom two suspects in the murder of four people in the Joe Cool fishing boat case, the AP reports. A fellow inmate says suspect Guillermo Zarabozo came clean about the September killings, claiming that accomplice Kirby Archer shot the victims and that Zarabozo dumped the bodies...

Fidel Hints He's Ready to Retire

Dec 18, 2007 5:01 AM CST

Fidel Hints He's Ready to Retire

Talks of elder statesman role

(Newser) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has clearly hinted at retirement for the first time since he fell ill 16 months ago, Reuters reports. He handed over power to his brother Raul last year on a temporary basis. "My elemental duty is not to hold on to positions and less...

Flooding Claims 9 in Caribbean

Dec 13, 2007 7:37 AM CST

Flooding Claims 9 in Caribbean

Tropical storm batters Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

(Newser) - Tropical Storm Olga set off flash floods in the Dominican Republic yesterday, killing at least 8 people, reports Reuters. Another man died in a mudslide in nearby Puerto Rico. The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression by the end of the day, and predicted to head between Jamaica and...

Huckabee Flip-Flops on Cuba Embargo

Dec 11, 2007 9:49 AM CST

Huckabee Flip-Flops on Cuba Embargo

Candidate tells exiles he'd strengthen ban he once sought to scrap

(Newser) - Mike Huckabee vowed yesterday that he'll strengthen the embargo against Cuba—an about-face from a 2002 letter he wrote President Bush seeking to lift the ban for economic reasons, reports the Los Angeles Times. The change, presented in Miami to a Cuban audience, is just part of the candidate's recent...

Cuban Vote
Signals Future of Castro

Nov 20, 2007 7:44 PM CST

Cuban Vote Signals Future of Castro

He could resign by leaving name off ballot next year

(Newser) - National parliamentary elections—which could mark a formal end to Fidel Castro's rule—will be held on Jan. 20, the AP reports. The ailing Castro must be re-elected to Cuba's National Assembly to regain his position as president. If he withholds his name from the ballot, "he is effectively...

Secret Poll: Cubans Want Vote

Nov 19, 2007 11:26 AM CST

Secret Poll: Cubans Want Vote

Three-quarters would like say in Castro succession

(Newser) - Three-quarters of Cubans surveyed in an unorthodox poll want to vote on Fidel Castro’s successor, 79% say the current government can't fix the country’s problems, and 83% want changes in the economic system, USA Today reports. The 600 respondents weren’t told they were being polled—and the...

Hurricane Noel Toll Hits 108

Nov 2, 2007 3:54 AM CDT

Hurricane Noel Toll Hits 108

Furious storm slammed Caribbean, but is expected to spare Florida

(Newser) - Tropical storm Noel was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane last night, and has claimed 108 lives, making it the deadliest Atlantic storm this year. The island of Hispaniola suffered nearly all the fatalities, with 66 reported in the Dominican Republic and 40 in Haiti, most of them in or...

RIP Che, but
Not in His
Tomb in Cuba

Oct 31, 2007 3:11 PM CDT

RIP Che, but Not in His Tomb in Cuba

Guevara burial site not nearly as advertised, New Republic reports

(Newser) - Thousands came to Che Guevara's Cuban mausoleum in July to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the revolutionary’s death—but they were paying respects at the wrong resting place. A French journalist claims that Fidel Castro’s government never actually found the Argentine’s body—as was triumphantly announced 10...

Noel Deaths and Damage Mount

Oct 31, 2007 2:29 PM CDT

Noel Deaths and Damage Mount

59 dead in the Caribbean as the storm takes aim at the Bahamas

(Newser) - The death toll from Tropical Storm Noel rose to 59 in the Caribbean today, with the storm moving on from Cuba and headed towards the Bahamas, the Miami Herald reported today. The Dominican Republic's government reported 41 dead with 20 more missing, and Haitian authorities, who had previously reported no...