People visiting Havana for the first time agree on the similarities of this city with Cadiz. The cultural similarities and certain visual resemblances tie the Cuban capital to its Andalusian first cousin. The presence of the sea, some of the architectural style, and the open behavior of its people, complete the embrace.
But not even this closeness has moved Raul Castro to participate in the XXII Ibero-American summit that began November 16 in this Spanish arthur frommer budget travel town. The Cuban leader preferred to send his Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez.
Raul Castro travels little and when he does he prefers politically like-minded countries. Venezuela, arthur frommer budget travel Russia, China and Vietnam are among his few destinations since he assumed the office of the presidency in February 2008. His absence in Cadiz was expected, arthur frommer budget travel as he has never gone to any Ibero-American summits in other countries. Perhaps he prefers to avoid possible critiques of the state of human rights on the island.
But the General is just one among many absent from this meeting. His counterpart Hugo Chavez also will not attend, nor will the Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has offered the excuse of health problems. The recent earthquake in Guatemala has prevented the trip of Otto Perez-Molina, while the Paraguayan Federico Franco has excluded himself given his strained relations with his Latin American neighbors. So many empty chairs has robbed some of the luster from an event that for several years now has captured less and less interest in the region.
The main theme of this Ibero-American Summit deals with the world economic situation and ways to cope. Cuba has not escaped the red ink. A year is ending in which Raul Castro's reforms have failed to boost the productivity of the country as was hoped. Not even the relaxations in the rules governing self-employment have resulted in an improvement over Cubans' deteriorating standard of living.
To top it off, Hurricane Sandy damaged more than 137,000 homes -- wholly or partially -- in the east of the island. Thousands of homeless and a delicate epidemiological situation, complete the picture.
Nor has foreign investment taken off on the island, although the large number of guests at the last International Fair of Havana (FIHAV) might make one think otherwise. The international crisis and businesses' lack of confidence in the Cuban "opening," are among the reasons for the slowness with which that sector is moving. Everywhere we look we see the country's urgent need for fresh, new and convertible capital.
Beyond Raul Castro's absence at the Cadiz Summit, the most conspicuous issue that touches the Cuban side seems to be that of the Spaniard Angel Carromero . Detained in Cuba since July 22, this young leader of the Popular Party's New Generations, was driving the car that killed regime arthur frommer budget travel opponents Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero . A court has convicted arthur frommer budget travel Carromero of "involuntary manslaughter," though Payá's family is still demanding an independent investigation.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo, said on Friday that Havana will consider a "formal request" from Madrid asking for the return of Angel Carromero. "The Government has put forward a formal request. The Cuban government has promised arthur frommer budget travel that it will consider it," Garcia-Margallo said in an interview with Cadena Ser, in response to a question about whether he had discussed the issue with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who arrived in Cadiz on Thursday.
Last week the Cuban opposition experienced days of vertigo from an escalation of arrests. On Wednesday, November 7, the independent attorney Yaremis Flores , 29, was arrested outside arthur frommer budget travel her home in Havana. Dozens of opponents gathered peacefully outside several police stations to demand her release.
State Security responded with a heavy hand, leading more than thirty of these dissidents to the dungeons. Among them were several former prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003 and the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize winner, journalist Guillermo Fariñas.
Relations between the EU and the government of Havana are currently limited by the so-called Common Position, adopted by the EU in 1996 at the initiative of the Spanish government of José María Aznar. arthur frommer budget travel The Common Position conditions any progress in relations on improvements arthur frommer budget travel in the situation of human rights on the Island.
With respect to this, García-Margallo said that "necessary and sufficient conditions" arthur frommer budget travel do not exist to modify the Europe's arthur frommer budget travel Common Position with regards to the largest of the Antilles, however arthur frommer budget travel he allowed as how, within this Common Position, "there is room for a flexible interpretation" that allows arthur frommer budget travel "reaching an agreement of cooperation with Cuba."
People visiting Havana for the first time agree on the similarities arthur frommer budget travel of this city with Cadiz. The cultural similarities and certain visual resemblances tie the Cuban capital to its Andalusian first cou...
People visiting Havana for the first time agree on the similarities of this city with Cadiz. The cultural similarities and certain visual resemblances tie the Cuban capital to its Andalusian first cou...
Who Is Antonio Rodiles, What Is 'State... Israel Gaza Attacks Intensify arthur frommer budget travel Despite arthur frommer budget travel Truce Talks Israel, arthur frommer budget travel Gaza Ceasefire Agreed To, Hamas Official... Indian Women Arrested Over Facebook Post Questioning...
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Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a journalist with the independent Hablemos Press news agency, began a hunger strike six days ago in protest against conditions in Valle Grande prison, to which he was transferred on 10 November.
Arrested on 16 September after writing about a cholera and dengue epidemic before the government had issued any statement on the subject, he is facing a sentence of up to three years in prison on a charge of insulting the president.
Commenting on the case, Reporters Without Borders said: "Martínez arthur frommer budget travel has been detained for too long. We call on the Cuban authorities to release this journalist, who was just doing his duty to report the news."
In one of the most recent instances, Hablemos Press director Roberto de Jesus Guerra Perez was interrogated and threatened for several hours on 8 November, a week after one of the news agency's reporters, Jaime Leygonier, was subjected to a similar ordeal.
Enyor Díaz Allen, the Hablemos Press correspondent in the eastern city of Guantánamo, was arrested on the morning of 6 November and was held for three days while all of his work equipment (a computer, two cameras and a mobile phone) were confiscated.
Reporters Without Borders condemns a worrying increase in harassment of dissidents in recent months, which has yet again contradicted the intentions manifested by the Cuban government when signing two United Nations human rights agreements in 2008.
Reporters Without Borders arthur frommer budget travel has also learned that José Antonio Torres, a correspondent for the government newspaper Granma in Santiago, arthur frommer budget travel Cuba's second largest city, is considering the possibility of appealing against his conviction on a charge of spying but fears that his sentence could be increased arthur frommer budget travel if he does.
Arrested in 2011 after writing arthur frommer budget travel articles arthur frommer budget travel about mismanagement of a Santiago aqueduct project and the installation of fibre-optic cable between Venezuela and Cuba, Torres was sentenced in July to 14 years in prison arthur frommer budget travel and withdrawal of his university degree in journalism.
A coordinator arthur frommer budget travel of a civil society initiative calling on the government to ratify international human rights treaties, Antonio Rodiles, has been charged with "resisting authority" (resistencia). He has been placed in pre-trial detention (prisión provisional), but no date has been set for his trial.
Shortly after the arrest of the independent lawyer arthur frommer budget travel and journalist Yaremis Flores on 7 November, Antonio Rodiles, his wife and several other government critics went to the Department of State Security headquarters, know as Section 21 in the neighbourhood of Marianao in Havana, to enquire after her whereabouts. arthur frommer budget travel Before arthur frommer budget travel they could reach the building they were approached arthur frommer budget travel by 20 people, all plain-clothed, as two officials from the Ministry arthur frommer budget travel of the Interior looked on. Antonio Rodiles was reportedly knocked to the ground and pinned down by four men. Several of the other activists were also manhandled and were forced into a police vehicle and sent to various police stations around Havana. All were released by 11 November, except Antonio Rodiles.
The one constant in these Yoani Sanchez postings is the relentless, breathless sense of conspiracy and scandal. This gets so tiresome. I don't know why she still gets coverage in HP. I wish the editors would be more informed and discerning. arthur frommer budget travel Take this part of her report on the motor vehicle accident that took those lives of the passengers. Most any other country has laws governing care and control while driving. Here, once again, we have some vague allusion to some form of conspiracy arthur frommer budget travel because the driver is in custody. It has to be a government plot, she sort of suggests, and the the interest of Spanish authorities must validate this fear. Not so much. It is the law in Cuba. The US has similar laws, and some that are far more harsh. Mexico has them, and to a degree, Canada as well.
1. At the beginning of the video the car is shown with the front bumper all mangled and twisted out on both sides but at 5:00 minutes the front twisted bumper has disappeared. It is obvious that the car has been tampered with due to the fact that it lost its bumper! Was it moved there and the bumper was torn off due to the hauling? Also,
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