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By Gore Vidal
$15.00
By Molly Ivins
$9.72
$23
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Library of Congress
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A 72-year-old former State Department employee and his 71-year-old wife were arrested Thursday on charges of spying for the Cuban government. An undercover FBI agent reportedly tricked the couple into giving up their secret after they allegedly had been engaged in espionage for 30 years.
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Flickr / hoyasmeg
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The Organization of American States lifted its 47-year suspension of Cuba on Wednesday, on the condition that Havana undergo democratic reforms in line with OAS principles. Cuba, however, has rejected re-entry, declaring, “Before returning to the OAS, the North and South Seas will join and a serpent will be born from an eagle’s egg.”
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Eugene Robinson — (Editor’s note: Eugene Robinson is the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary.) It’s hard to argue with the results thus far from President Obama’s “no drama” approach to governing, but I think he should learn to chew a little scenery when the occasion demands.
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AP photo / Marianna Kambon, Summit of the Americas pool
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Could it be that diplomacy works better than a my-way-or-the-highway approach when dealing with adversarial nations? Judging by President Obama’s apparent progress with the Cuban government, the answer would seem to be yes.
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Did the nationwide “tea parties” on April 15 constitute a much-needed boost for the Republican base? Was the Obama administration right to release the latest batch of torture memos from the Bush years?
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Library of Congress
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Barack Obama is so good at making friends. First Iran, of axis-of-evil fame, embraced the president’s flirtations, and now Cuba’s revolutionary in chief has warmed to El Diablo del Norte. Fidel Castro on Tuesday praised Obama’s recent overtures, but said many other U.S. policy changes are needed. His brother and president, Raul, is open to negotiations.
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By Eugene Robinson — In 10 trips to Cuba, I have met Afro-Cubans who told me with conviction of their opportunities under the Castro regime. But I’ve also heard bitter complaints about deep-seated racism that many black Cubans believe is getting worse.
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.everythingcuba.com
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The Obama administration is relaxing some of the restrictions on travel to and business with Cuba, launching a new initiative that will allow American telecom companies to set up cell phone and other services on the island nation.
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AP photo / Lynne Sladky
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By Reese Erlich — A majority of Florida’s Cuban-Americans, including many former hard-liners, have come to oppose a U.S. embargo strategy that has proved futile over the decades.
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AP photo / Andy Wong
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By Chris Hedges — All efforts to save the planet will be useless if we do not cut population growth. By 2050, the planet will have between 8 billion and 10 billion people, according to a recent U.N. forecast. And yet studies, books and documentaries that deal with various crises fail to discuss the danger of all those billions of hungry people looking for a better life.
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AP photo / Brennan Linsley, pool
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So, President Obama has made it clear that he wants the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba closed in a year, but that leaves at least one huge question unanswered: Where will the prisoners go? Looks like Spain might be one option.
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By William Pfaff — John Kenneth Galbraith once warned that U.S. foreign policy suffers from institutional rigidity with a “strong commitment to error.” What better proof than the planned surge in Afghanistan?
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wsj.com
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The 50-year U.S. relationship with revolutionary Cuba may warm up this winter, with some on the island seeing an Obama presidency as an indicator of potential change in the two countries’ diplomatic and trade status. A Havana barber is quoted as holding hope for reconciliation despite the fact that Obama “is a capitalist and likely an imperialist.”
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By Eugene Robinson — President-elect Obama will have more urgent matters to deal with after he takes the oath of office. But somewhere on his long to-do list, he should make a note to finally bring five decades of counterproductive American policy toward Cuba to a definitive end.
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AP photo / Andre Penner
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In a summit that celebrated the absence of the U.S. on its guest list, Latin American leaders met in Brazil to discuss a post-U.S. hegemonic world. The talks, which centered on the “demise” of the capitalist model, also snubbed former colonizing nations Portugal and Spain in a further demonstration of the increasing political autonomy of the region.
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AP photo / Brennan Linsley, pool
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By Stanley Kutler — The U.S. government’s failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center for alleged terrorists continues to haunt and color our standing in the world.
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Collage: AP photo / Chip Somodevilla, pool / Wikimedia Commons
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James G. Blight and janet M. Lang —
The leading issue in the current face-off between Barack Obama and John McCain is the economy. Once elected and inaugurated, however, a U.S. president’s politics become global literally overnight.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Cuba may have just hit the oil jackpot, with a revised estimate of its reserves doubling. That means the small island nation has about as much oil as the United States. American conservatives may soon have to choose between their love of oil and the half-century-old embargo that would keep Cuba’s petroleum away. How do you say “drill, baby, drill” en Español?
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Two new books resurrect the seductions and corruptions of pre-revolutionary Cuba.
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AP photo / Seth Wenig
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The most explicit anti-capitalist analysis of the U.S.‘s proposed bailout of major finance firms is not domestic, but rather international. A cadre of left-leaning leaders in Latin America is ramping up criticism of Bush’s crony capitalism, arguing that the U.S. economic crisis was caused by the driving logic of American imperialism: fast money at the expense of the poor.
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AP photo / Rob Carr
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New Orleans residents began fleeing the city this weekend in preparation for Hurricane Gustav to hit the Louisiana coast just three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin underscored the severity of the situation, telling locals they had to evacuate starting at 8 a.m. Sunday but would be wise to start earlier.
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In “One Minute to Midnight,” Michael Dobbs’ definitive book on the 1962 crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, the question of lessons learned and unlearned remains as acute as ever.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Forty-six years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he wants “to rebuild our positions in Cuba” by strengthening economic cooperation with the island nation. The push could be a retort to America’s resolve to build a missile shield on Russia’s doorstep.
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Flickr / Sami Keinanen
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As a symbolic gesture, the European Union has lifted sanctions against Cuba. The United States was irked by the decision, which had no practical effect since the sanctions have been suspended for years.
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AP photo / Brennan Linsley, pool
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees appeared in court at the U.S. naval base’s Camp Justice for an arraignment that effectively sets the legal wheels in motion for the war crimes trials of Mohammed and his alleged 9/11 co-conspirators.
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By Eugene Robinson — Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor—and thus prolong his rule—the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions have accomplished precisely nothing.
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commons.wikimedia.org and Flickr / seiu_international
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Semi-retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro thinks Barack Obama is “the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race,” so he must have been disappointed to hear that Obama would continue an embargo against the island nation. That policy, Castro wrote in a column that appeared in state newspapers, is “a formula for hunger for [Cuba].”
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AP photo / Carlo Allegri
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One of the most hotly anticipated contenders at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is “Che,” Steven Soderbergh’s lengthy biopic of iconic Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, featuring Benicio del Toro in the title role. However, whether the excitement surrounding the “Che” screening at the French film fest is any indication that moviegoers will flock to the (currently) 4-hour-plus production remains to be seen.
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Flickr / soggydan
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In keeping with his image as a president for yesterday, John McCain promised a crowd in Florida he would do nothing to upset the policy of isolation that has proved so ineffective in regard to Cuba. “Florida will be yours!” shouted a grateful foe of the Castro regime.
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Flickr / Lauras512
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Raul Castro would like to see his island produce more food. Currently, Cuba imports the vast majority of its basic food products, at increasing expense, despite plenty of arable land. Private farmers and collective growers are hoping new reforms make it easier to produce food more efficiently, and that’s not just good news for Cuba. With rice rationing at Costco, that’s good news for the world.
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Imprisoned for six years without being charged or given a trial, Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj was finally released from the U.S. Navy prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, late last week. Haj, “emaciated,” according to his attorney, because of a hunger strike that began in January 2007, was taken to a hospital and later arrived home in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
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What will history say about the implacable anti-imperialist and unrepentant revolutionary who has held power in Cuba for nearly 50 years? The publication of Fidel Castro’s and Ignacio Ramonet’s “My Life: A Spoken Autobiography” helps us understand the man and his myth.
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AP photo / Jorge Rey
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Be it through changes in cell phone restrictions or proposed legislation recognizing same-sex unions and transgender rights, Cuba’s political future is looking up for many of its citizens.
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AP photo / J. Pat Carter
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Sen. John McCain, campaigning in Indianapolis, said Cuba won’t be better off under Fidel Castro’s fraternal successor, Raul Castro, whom he called “worse in many respects than Fidel was,” and the Republican front-runner voiced the hope that Fidel will meet his commie maker, Karl Marx, “very soon.”
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Now that Fidel Castro’s got a bit more time on his hands, documentary überdirector Michael Moore has a suggestion for how he might spend his first official weekend out of office—as long as he’s got a penguin suit handy.
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AP photo / Javier Galeano
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By Robert Scheer — The Cuban president, who is resigning after five decades in power, has caused his people suffering, but the giant to the north bears even greater responsibility for the island’s plight.
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“Here is the deal: By any objective measure U.S. policy towards Cuba over the last 50 years has been a failure,” says Rep. Jim McGovern, who organized a bipartisan effort to pressure the Bush administration to rethink Cuba policy in light of Fidel Castro’s resignation. But according to Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, America’s attempts to isolate Cuba economically and diplomatically won’t go away “any time soon.”
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AP photo / Javier Galeano
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Fidel Castro announced on Tuesday that he “neither will aspire to nor will I accept the position of president of the Council of State and commander in chief.” He had stayed in firm control of Cuba for nearly 50 years despite all the best efforts of a superpower some 90 miles away. In the end, he was forced from office not by coup or assassination, but trouble with his intestine.
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AP photo / Str
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Although Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would apparently disagree, 81-year-old Cuban President Fidel Castro says he’s not well enough to appear in public to speak to Cubans during the lead-up to Sunday’s parliamentary elections, but he is still able to express himself through writing.
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By Marie Cocco — The Supreme Court will soon revisit the constitutionality of Guantanamo Bay, where hundreds of men languish without any real legal recourse.
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guardian.co.uk
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Web site Wikileaks has uncovered a 238-page manual that addresses almost every aspect of detainees’ lives at the Guantanamo detention facility. Cooperative prisoners, for example, should be allowed three showers a week instead of two, the manual says.
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President Bush pays tribute to Hispanic heritage month by headbanging along with a live performance of “Guantanamera.” Interestingly, the song’s name means “girl from Guantánamo,” a reference the president would probably rather avoid.
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Brooks Kraft / Corbis
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Ever a fan of failed policy, President Bush has reiterated his support of the embargo against Cuba, which, one might recall, was enacted more than four decades ago to force Fidel Castro from power. Bush also praised the patient (and sometimes violent) Cuban dissidents, who, he said, one day “will be the nation’s leaders.”
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AP photo / Jose Goitia, file
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Joining in the exciting game of apocalyptic Mad Libs that President Bush kicked off with his recent pronouncement that a nuclear-equipped Iran could start World War III, Cuban leader Fidel Castro has swapped out “Iran” for “Bush” and turned Bush’s accusation back at him in this latest round of doomsday fun.
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AP photo / Javier Galeano
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By Robert Scheer — If the CIA thought that executing the guerrilla would kill what he stood for, it mostly assuredly has been proved wrong. Witness the current state of politics in Latin America, not to mention the reverence this week that marked the 40th anniversary of his death.
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AP photo / Javier Galeano
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Forty years after his death at the hands of CIA operatives and Bolivian troops, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara has become a legend and an icon, as evidenced by the familiar image of his face emblazoned on the T-shirts of college students everywhere. To mark the anniversary of his assassination, the BBC interviewed Felix Rodriguez, an ex-CIA agent who received the order to have Guevara shot.
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en.rian.ru
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Despite widespread speculation that Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died recently, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has assured the global community that Castro is, in fact, alive and doing better. Cuban officials, meanwhile, also say Castro is recovering but haven’t said if and when he would return to office.
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