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Tag: Cuba

  • Alaska Airlines Applies To Add Flights To Cuba

    Alaska Airlines Applies To Add Flights To Cuba

    Alaska Airlines has joined several other American airlines in seeking to fill the travel void between the US and Cuba.

    Since President Obama’s efforts to re-establish a relationship with Cuba after nearly half a century of tension, many airlines are happy to try to get their brand in Cuba.

    John Kirby, Alaska Airlines vice president of capacity planning, said in an Alaska Airlines press release, “Together with our 14 global partner airlines, Alaska Airlines offers more than 110 nonstop destinations from Los Angeles.”

    It continued, “As the largest West Coast-based airline, we’re well positioned to offer our customers convenient access to one of the Caribbean’s most popular destinations.”

    From our past. To our future. #iFlyAlaska #AvGeek #flywithahappyface

    A photo posted by Alaska Airlines (@alaskaair) on

    Alaska Airlines has proposed two daily flights to and from Cuba.

    At least eight airlines have submitted applications to add flights to Cuba, including Alaska Airlines.

    Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Silver Airways have all applied to add stops in Cuba.

    However, those who have actually been there and experienced traveling to Cuba might contend that Cuba isn’t quite ready for wave after wave of new tourists.

    For example, Julio Ortiz, who left Cuba in the late 90’s and now visits every once in a while said that in December he traveled back to Cuba and things didn’t go real smoothly.

    He said, “We’re talking about chaos.”

    Roses are red. Violets are blue. We look forward to flying with you! Happy Valentine's Day!

    A photo posted by Alaska Airlines (@alaskaair) on

    He continued, “There’s not enough infrastructure in Cuba that can handle more than 100 flights a day. It’s impossible. All the tourists are going to go — once.”

    That doesn’t sound like something the normal American tourist would be too eager to deal with.

    What do you think about Alaska Airlines and other major carriers wanting to expand into Cuba?

  • Chris Christie Wants to Stop New Jersey to Cuba Flights

    New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to ground flights from his state to Cuba.

    The reason? He wants a woman convicted of killing a state trooper extradited to the United States.

    “It is unacceptable to me as Governor to have any flights between New Jersey and Cuba until and unless convicted cop-killer and escaped fugitive Joanne Chesimard is returned to New Jersey to face justice,” Christie wrote in the letter sent to Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Chairman John Degnan.

    “I will not tolerate rewarding the Cuban government for continuing to harbor a fugitive.”

    The incident he’s referring to took place about four decades ago. Chesimard was convicted of the murder of Werner Ferster in 1977. The killing took place in 1973.

    Chesimard fled to Cuba before she began her life sentence, and has been living in the country ever since under an assumed name.

    Dengen has responded, saying,

    “I understand Gov. Christie’s strongly expressed concerns and will commence an immediate review of the agency’s role in the proposed flight between Newark and Cuba. I expect that review will be completed in a matter of days.”

    United Airlines, who is looking to begin flights from Newark to Cuba, appears to have rejected Christie’s plea, saying,

    “We remain very interested in serving Cuba as soon as we are able to do so, and believe United’s service would benefit the airport and the region.”

    In other Christie news, he also got in on the “Back to the Future Day” “fun” with a tweet about Social Security spending.

  • Pope Francis Gets Castro to Go to Church

    Pope Francis Gets Castro to Go to Church

    Wouldn’t it be funny if the history of relations between the United States and Cuba were bookended in history by two Catholics? On the one end, there is the Cuban Missile Crisis standoff that featured President John F. Kennedy. On the other end, it could very well end up being the Numero Uno Catholic in the world: Pope Francis.

    Like it or not, relations between the United States and Cuba are thawing. And the man who runs that country is placing a lot of credit at the feet of a man who has impressed many here in America too.

    After meeting with the Pope at the Vatican ahead of an upcoming papal visit to Cuba, Cuban President Raul Castro said at a news conference that he and the pope have something in common. ” He is a Jesuit, and I, in some way, am too,” Castro said. “I always studied at Jesuit schools.”

    But Castro went further. One of the last vestiges of what Americans used to call “Godless Communism” shocked the world.

    “When the pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction,” Castro said. “I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries, and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church, and I’m not joking,” he said.

    In fact Castro showed Pope Francis’ influence is reaching pst him, all the way into the Communist Party in his country.

    “I am from the Cuban Communist Party, that doesn’t allow (religious) believers, but now we are allowing it, it’s an important step,” Castro said.

    Castro said he is “very impressed by [Pope Francis’] wisdom, his modesty, and all his virtues that we know he has.”

    Castro gave much credit for the recent improvement in U.S-Cuba relations to Pope Francis.

    “I thanked the pope for what he did,” he said.

  • Elian Gonzalez: Where Is He 15 Years Later?

    Elian Gonzalez: Where Is He 15 Years Later?

    Elian Gonzalez was a boy torn between two homes.

    Elian Gonzalez, at just six years old in 1999, was taken by his mother aboard a homemade raft with 10 other people who were all trying to escape the harsh economic times in Cuba.

    The raft sank, killing all of the adults, leaving Elian Gonzalez alone on an innertube. He was found about 60 miles north of Miami.

    Elian Gonzalez was turned over to relatives in Miami, who then fought to keep him with them.

    However, Elian Gonzalez’s father back in Cuba fought to have Elian returned to be with him and his wife.

    Finally, President Clinton ordered that he be returned to his father, prompting the midnight raid to snatch Elian that the world, and likely Elian Gonzalez, remembers so vividly.

    Now, Elian Gonzalez is 21 years old and a student of Industrial Engineering at the University of Matanzas near his home in Cardenas, which is about 90 minutes outside of Havana.

    Elian Gonzalez is pretty much a normal college student. He does karate, swims, goes to the movies, hangs out with friends, and even has a Facebook page.

    Elian Gonzalez is also somewhat of a local hero and a symbol of Fidel Castro’s resistance to Bill Clinton and the American community of Cuban refugees.

    In fact, Fidel Castro attended several of Elian Gonzalez’s birthday parties as he was growing up.

    Elian Gonzalez’s father is now a member of the National Congress, and Elian himself is a loyal Fidel Castro supporter and an outspoken member of Cuba’s Militant Union of Young Communists.

    Elian Gonzales has spoken out over the years about America’s embargo against Cuba and how it was the reason his mother risked her life, and many others risked theirs, to find a better life.

    Elian Gonzalez has so far not commented on the historic mending of ties between Cuba and America.

    Do you remember when the raid went down to return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba?

  • Airbnb Is Now Operating in Cuba

    Airbnb Is Now Operating in Cuba

    It appears that Netflix isn’t the only tech company looking to take advantage of the “Cuban Thaw”, the recent decision by the Obama administration to warm up trade and travel relations between the US and Cuba after decades of restrictions.

    Home rental service Airbnb has officially expanded into Cuba.

    “We believe that Cuba could become one of Airbnb’s biggest markets in Latin America,” Kay Kuehne, regional director for Airbnb, told the AP. “We are actually plugging into an existing culture of micro-enterprise in Cuba. The hosts in Cuba have been doing for decades what we just started doing seven years ago.”

    Kuehne says that both the US and Cuba are supportive of Airbnb’s moves.

    If you search the Airbnb website for Cuban accommodations, you’ll turn up more than 1,000 listings. Apparently, the majority (about 40%) are in and around Havana. Only US travelers can book Cuban stays on Airbnb.

    Unlike Netflix, whose core service is hampered by internet access issues enough to make the move into Cuba a bit meaningless at the time being, Airbnb’s core business (travel) is about to be booming.

    As of right now, Americans can only travel to Cuba if their visit falls into one of 12 government-sanctioned reasons. These include family visits, journalistic activities, religious purposes, humanitarian projects, and educational activities. Of course, Americans wanting to head to Cuba for a simple vacation can take liberties with their motivations.

    Airbnb is currently available in over 190 countries and 34,000+ cities. It’s likely that Cuba will soon become one of Airbnb’s most popular destinations.

    Images via Emmanuel Huybrechts, Wikimedia Commons and Airbnb

  • Netflix Is Now Available in Cuba

    Netflix Is Now Available in Cuba

    It appears that Netflix is one of the first tech companies to take advantage of the “Cuban Thaw”, the recent decision by the Obama administration to warm up trade and travel relations between the US and Cuba after decades of restrictions.

    Starting today, Netflix is officially available in Cuba. Like in the US, a Netflix subscription in Cuba will cost $7.99 a month.

    “We are delighted to finally be able to offer Netflix to the people of Cuba, connecting them with stories they will love from all over the world,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. “Cuba has great filmmakers and a robust arts culture and one day we hope to be able to bring their work to our global audience of over 57 million members.”

    In order to access Netflix in Cuba, you’ll need access to an international payment method as well as reliable internet – so Netflix won’t immediately become a staple in the majority of Cuban households. But it’s a significant move, and a quick one, considering the “thaw” has just begun.

    Netflix first launched in Latin America in 2011, and recently doubled its traffic share in the region.

    Image via Netflix, Twitter

  • Google Expands Its Offerings In Cuba

    Google Expands Its Offerings In Cuba

    As you’re probably aware, there’s a trade embargo that prevents U.S. exports to Cuba. That’s not stopping Google from launching some of its free services there.

    Google launched Chrome in Cuba in August, and just announced that it’s now offering Google Play and Google Analytics there. It will, however, only be offering free stuff: the free version of Analytics and free apps/games on Google Play.


    Back in June, Eric Schmidt wrote a lengthy post about Cuba, the embargo, and the country’s Internet:


    Based on all of this, it will be surprising if Google doesn’t continue to launch additional services in the country.

    Image via YouTube

  • Beyonce And Jay-Z Cleared Of Charges They Violated US Sanctions With Trip To Cuba

    One year and four months after they took a trip to Cuba to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, Beyonce and Jay-Z have been cleared by the US Treasury Department of charges that they violated US sanctions on the country. On Wednesday the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General issued a report that said the superstar couple’s trip to the Communist-run country did not violate US sanctions against Cuba, which includes the ban of US citizens from traveling to the island as tourists unless the trip is under a special license.

    A formal investigation into the reasons behind the visit of Beyonce and Jay-Z to Cuba was declined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which grants special licenses to people or organizations traveling to Cuba to sponsor educational exchange programs. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General then concluded that this was “reasonable.”

    The report went on to say that Beyonce and Jay-Z were licensed to visit Cuba under the “people-to-people” educational exchange program and that there was no evidence that the couple abused it. Beyonce and Jay-Z’s activities in Cuba, as reported by the media, were reviewed by federal investigators. These activities included walking tours of Havana’s neighborhoods and Cuba’s top art school as well as dinners in private homes and stops at dance clubs, where they listened to live music and danced.

    The report concluded that, “All of these activities serve the US foreign policy goal of helping the Cuban people by facilitating exchanges with them and supporting the development of independent activity and civil society.”

    It was in April 2013 when three Cuban-American Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, raised an outcry over Beyonce and Jay-Z’s trip to Cuba. They contended that the US Government was becoming lax on restrictions for travel to the Communist country.

    Listen to Jay-Z’s “Open Letter” inspired by his trip to Cuba (explicit)

  • Fidel Castro As Young Rebel Leader in “Papa”

    Fidel Castro and his rebel alliance are featured in a new movie, “Papa” based on the friendship of Ernest Hemingway and Denne Bart Petitclerc during Cuba’s turbulent 50’s.

    This film is incredibly special and different than any other made about Hemingway in that it is the first one that has been allowed to actually film in Cuba, the island Hemingway lived on and loved from 1939-1960.

    “It was an absolute passion to actually make it in Cuba where everything that is in the script happened, where the finca (farm) is where (Hemingway) lived, where his boat was, all the spots from the Morro castle to Cojimar where he fished,” director Bob Yari said. “It’s all here, so trying to duplicate it somewhere else was not very appealing.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC_1CpN7Z-M

    Since there have been decades of tension between Cuba and the US, not to mention Washington’s 52-year-long embargo, other films set in Cuba, like “The Godfather Part II” and “Havana” were forced to film in alternate locations like the Dominican Republic instead of Cuba.

    Filming in the highly secured and paranoid location did have its downside. For instance, notices and call sheets had to be printed out and slipped under hotel doors due to sketchy internet access on the island.

    Despite some inconveniences, “Papa” did enjoy some benefits of filming on the island that seems to be locked in time to the era featured in the movie. There were a plethera of iconic 1950’s cars and clothing readily available for the crew and many willing local extras.

    Filming on the exact location where these events actually happened was inspiring for Adrian Sparks who has played Hemingway on stage for years. He was able to “channel” the legendary author with the help of some of Hemingway’s actual belongings.

    “To be playing a section of the film where he’s struggling with writer’s block, I’m standing on exactly the square foot of ground that he stood on, with his typewriter in front of me, playing the scene. It wasn’t acting, it was channeling,” Sparks said. “It was just allowing him to come through.”

    Looks like it could be a huge success despite a few inconveniences and will be an amazing insight into Castro’s Cuba of the 50’s.

    Image Via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fidel Castro: The Man Who Will Not Die

    Fidel Castro: The Man Who Will Not Die

    Fidel Castro is something of an anomaly. Among the personalities from the Cold War period, he is one of the very few left alive. Perhaps that is because Fidel Castro can’t be killed.

    When Castro came to power in 1959, he became a folk hero in Cuba. Plenty of Cubans came to hate his policies and fled the country. But the image of Castro is still a common sight throughout Cuba, even though he no longer has any official role in government.

    Castro’s prowess as a ladies man is legendary in his country. He has had nine children by a variety of women, and is known to have had many one-night stands.

    And it was one of these women who nearly killed Castro in what we now know was one of many assassination attempts.

    Her name was Marita Lorenz, and he is a German woman who had an affair with Castro starting in 1959. She is still alive and living in New York City. She said that she became pregnant with Castro’s baby and that he forced her to have an abortion. She agreed to help the CIA kill Castro.

    Castro’s victory in Cuba toppled the American-backed government there, and paved the way for Soviet presence in the Western hemisphere. The U.S. government wanted Castro gone, and fast.

    Marita Lorenz snuck some poison pills into his room. He discovered her plot and handed her a gun. He told her to just kill him herself. She couldn’t.

    According to some sources, there were as many as 638 attempts on Castro’s life. The CIA vehemently denied this for decades.

    The United States Senate eventually, in 1975, convened a committee called the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. It was charred by Senator Frank Church, and would come to be known simply as The Church Committee.

    The Church committee reviewed intelligence documents and eventually verified that there were at least 8 attempts on Castro’s life by the CIA.

    Some of the ideas floated by the CIA to kill Castro were a bit comical by today’s standards. One featured an exploding cigar. a booby-trapped seashell on the ocean bottom for when Castro went diving, poisoning his cigars. There was one plot that would not kill him, but simply make his beard fall out.

    The CIA thought that these attempts would endear them to President Kennedy.

    Eventually, President Gerald Ford signed an Executive Order that prohibited assassinations by any American entity.

    Fidel Castro has outlived all his enemies, and many of his friends. Even a natural cause like intestinal bleeding has not stopped him. When he recovered from that, then-president George W. Bush said, “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away”. Castro replied: “Now I understand why I survived Bush’s plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Elian Gonzalez Leaves Cuba, Slams the U.S.

    If you’re thinking that it doesn’t seem that long ago that young Elian Gonzalez was making headlines after being found in an inner tube off the coast of Florida, think again. It is now 14 years later and that cute little 6-year-old is a 20-year-old young man. He is now making headlines again after offering up a harsh criticism of the United States.

    As you may remember, Gonzalez’s mother tried to escape Cuba with her son and twelve others in November of 1999. Gonzalez’s mother and all but two others perished. Two fishermen found Gonzalez and the two other survivors and turned them over to the U.S. Coast Guard.

    Members of Gonzalez’s family that lived in the U.S. took the young boy in, but it wasn’t long before Gonzalez’s father sought his return. Juan Miguel Gonzalez was separated from his son’s mother and had no knowledge that she planned to take their son and flee the country. Juan Miguel wanted his son back and the Miami relatives fought to keep the boy.

    It took months of going through the legal process before the Miami relatives were ordered to hand over Elian Gonzalez so he could return to his father in Cuba. When they refused, Immigration and Naturalization Service agents stormed the house in April 2000 and took the young boy at gunpoint:

    Since that day, Gonzalez has mostly stayed out of the eye of the public until he left Cuba to travel to Ecuador this week. CNN caught up with him at a youth conference, which is when he slammed the United States and essentially blamed the country for his mother’s death.

    “Just like her, many others have died attempting to go to the United States. But it’s the U.S. government’s fault. Their unjust embargo provokes an internal and critical economic situation in Cuba,” Gonzalez said. The United States has had a trade embargo against Cuba since the 1960s. “But, despite that, Cuba, even with all its problems has progressed over the years. The progress we’ve made is all thanks to Cuba’s courage, our dignity, our continued fight for a more just model.”

    Gonzalez further emphasized Cuba’s troubles with the U.S. when he talked about people wanting to meet him. “Wherever I go there’s always a child, an old woman that comes to me and wants to meet me,” he said. “Not because I am famous but because they suffered with my family.”

    The young man also offered up a lot of praise for Fidel Castro, who was President of Cuba during the controversy and fully supported Juan Miguel’s efforts in getting his son back. “Fidel Castro for me is like a father,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t profess to have any religion but if I did my God would be Fidel Castro. He is like a ship that knew to take his crew on the right path.”

    A photo of Elian Gonzalez now, all grown up:

    [Image via Twitter]

  • Cubans Using Thumb Drives to Exchange Information

    Citizens of the Republic of Cuba remain mostly disconnected from the internet in the communist country, though have been inventive in finding ways to access and exchange information online.

    The Republic of Cuba, along with China, Laos and Vietnam, is one of the world’s four remaining socialist states espousing communism. Whereas China has a great firewall, Cuba plainly has little internet access.

    At a meeting of the Inter American Press Association in Denver, Yoani Sanchez related the present state of Cuban press and media, comparing Raul Castro and Fidel Castro’s governments. “They play the good and the bad policeman but in the end they are two policemen,” Sanchez explained. Plainly, Raul is adept at arresting and beating those who speak out against the country, much like Fidel did.

    Legal internet access does exist in Cuba. About 200 internet cafes had popped up in the nation in 2013, though the connections are slow, heavily censored, and cost about 5 dollars an hour, which is roughly a third of an average monthly salary in Cuba.

    Regardless, people are able to blindly post things to Twitter with smartphones, which Sanchez describes as being akin to sending a message in a bottle. One cannot really be sure if the tweet was actually posted, or who is reading it.

    Interestingly, Sanchez has developed quite a following on Twitter, as a new Cuban mandate allows people to travel abroad without permission. Sanchez has visited over a dozen countries this year to speak out against the Cuban government, where she can actually see her tweets. Still, when she returns home, she’s essentially anonymous to her compatriots, regarding any internet presence.

    Sanchez, 38, also pointed out that thumbs drives are integral for the exchange of information in Cuba. She joked that when Cuba is free, the country will have to establish a monument to the thumb drive, which she said has done better to help the country than many of the people now honored by statues there.

    Image via Twitter.

  • Oscar Hijuelos, Pulitzer-Winning Author, Dies at 62

    Pulitzer-winning author Oscar Hijuelos died on Saturday in Manhattan at age 62. According to his wife, writer and editor Lori Marie Carlson, the Cuban-American writer collapsed on a tennis court and never regained consciousness.

    Hijuelos won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1990 for his book The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. He was the first Latino to be awarded what is perhaps the most distinguished prize in the literary world.

    Hijuelos was born in New York City in 1951 to Cuban immigrant parents. He was said to have been more American-Cuban than Cuban-American. He often wrote about the immigrant experience.

    The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love centers around two brothers – Cesar and Nestor Castillo – who immigrated to the US from Cuba in 1949. The two musicians settled in New York City, and through their story, Hijuelos offered readers a rich glimpse of Cuban-American life in the 1950s.

    The novel was adapted to film in 1992 and to a musical stage play in 2005.

    Hijuelos graduated from the City University of New York in 1975, and earned his M.A. in creative writing a year later. From 1977 to 1984, he worked in an advertising agency by day and wrote fiction by night.

    His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983, and told the story of a Cuban-American family living in New York’s Spanish Harlem in the 1940s.

    In 1985, Hijuelos won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship that allowed him to focus full time on researching the 1950s Cuban music that would feature so heavily in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.

    He went on to write several more novels and, in 1992, published his memoir: Thoughts Without Cigarettes.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Diana Nyad Plans to Meet with Swimmers Doubting Her Feat

    Diana Nyad wants to dispel any doubts her fellow endurance athletes may have about the authenticity of her 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida.

    Nyad’s swim, the fulfillment of a lifelong goal for the 64 year-old marathon swimmer, was tracked online via GPS technology by her team. That data is fueling speculation on the part of some in the distance swimming community. While supporters argue that the speed the swimmer picked up in the middle of the Florida Straits was due to favorable currents, skeptics say this simply isn’t possible, at least not to the extent indicated by the GPS data.

    In a formal statement on behalf of Nyad, her spokeswoman Alexandra Crotin said that “Diana is proud of what she and her team accomplished last week, and she is committed to complete transparency.”

    The closed-door meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 10, but Crotin declined to answer questions about exactly when and where it will happen. Neither did she offer any information as far as who would be in attendance.

    Much of the discussion of the validity of Nyad’s record-breaking swim has happened in a community forum on the Marathon Swimmers website. Some members have performed intensive analysis of the GPS data, made associated speed and pace projections, and created maps that illustrate their conclusions.

    Nyad has disclosed that in wearing certain gear designed to protect her from jellyfish stings, she didn’t follow the regulations of the Channel Swimming Association, which are standard in her sport.

    What does Twitter have to say about the controversy? The overall response has been positive and supportive of Nyad, with many holding her up as an example of what women can accomplish in their 60s and beyond.

    photo credit

  • Ariel Castro Is Dead, And Twitter Thinks It Somehow Effects Cuba

    The nation was rocked today at the startling news that Ariel Castro was found dead in his jail cell, hanging from the ceiling in a successful suicide attempt. For those unfamiliar with Ariel Castro, he is the despicable human who held three girls captive in his home for ten years, where he proceeded to wreak unspeakable horrors upon them. When one of the girls managed to escape by gaining the attention of a neighborhood man, the women were freed and Castro quickly arrested, tried, and sent to jail for life plus 1,000 years on 937 counts, including rape and kidnapping.

    In retrospect, Castro’s suicide is not particularly surprising; a suicide note was recovered in his home earlier this year, and he had previously contemplated committing suicide for “the sake of his victims.” The death of such a terrible person is also not particularly upsetting, although the justice lost on account of his premature departure from Earth is somewhat upsetting. (This writer is particularly hopeful that his spot in Hell is a particularly warm one.)

    What is much more surprising and upsetting about this story is the twitter reactions that came from the story’s breaking. Much to many a person’s displeasure (and inevitable face-palm), the folks of Twitter repeatedly confused Ariel Castro with Fidel Castro. (You know, the Cuban dictator.) The disturbingly wide-spread mistake resulted in some cringe-worthy tweets, some of which have been compiled below.

    As the folks at College Humor put it in their cleverly-named “Twidiots” section, “Look, guys. Let’s break it down. Fidel Castro was the leader of Cuba for almost fifty years. Ariel Castro was the creep who kept three women as prisoners in his house in Cleveland for a decade. Very, very different fellas. Still confused? Then we cannot help you.”

    As time has passed, some of the tweets have come to light as jokes. However, that is not the case for all, and it leaves one wondering just how serious some of them are.

    Image courtesy of the official Twitter website.

  • Diana Nyad: 64-year-old Swimming Cuba to Florida

    Diana Nyad, the 64-year-old woman who has attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida, which is 103 miles, for 35 years may finally reach her goal in 3 days. This is the fifth attempt for Nyad, who says it will also be her last. She was 20 hours into the swim on Sunday morning when her blog quoted her handler Bonnie Stoll as saying, “This is the first time we’ve ever reached international waters without a crisis.”

    If successful, she would become the first person ever to swim the 103 miles without a wet-suit, flippers or shark cage. Previous attempts were busted by dehydration, strong currents and excruciating jelly fish stings to her tongue. This time she is wearing a special prosthetic mask to prevent jellyfish stings. “It’s a two-edged sword for me. It’s cumbersome, it’s difficult to swim with, but it doesn’t matter. I am safe. There’s no other way.” she said of the mask.

    She told CBS News‘ Elaine Quijano, “I just hadn’t reached the end. I hadn’t reached the wall where there’s nothing more to give. If I don’t make it, I will this time be able to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘There’s nothing more.’”

    She entered the water at 8:59 am on Saturday morning, and on Sunday morning was still going strong.”She is doing remarkably well in that jellyfish suit,”John Berry, the operations chief told the blog. “And she is going at her expected pace in it, which is 47 strokes per minute.” She is being followed by a 35-member crew on two sail boats, who monitor her health and update her social media accounts and blog.

    In 1997, 22-year-old endurance swimmer Susie Maroney completed the swim from within a shark cage. However, many other swimmers have attempted without a shark cage, but have been turned back. In addition to protection from sharks, the cage provides a barrier from waves and other weather hazards.

    Nyad, a Key West resident, feels a bond with Cubans and hopes her efforts can help mend the damaged relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.

  • Fidel Castro Not Dead, Speaks Out Against Health Rumors

    Fidel Castro recently turned 86, and rumors of his poor health, or even death, had begun to pop up in media across the world. The former Cuban leader used to publish a semi-regular opinion column for the Cuban state press, but stopped writing the pieces in June of this year.

    Today, Castro has finally spoken out regarding his health and possible death. Through the Cuban state press newspaper Granma, the revolutionary released a statement saying that he is in good health and doesn’t “even remember what a headache feels like.”

    In his statement, Castro critisized the “imperialist propaganda” of the Western media, stating that it is owned by the “privileged and wealthy. Specifically, Spain’s ABC newspaper was singled out for publishing a report from a Venezuelan doctor who stated Castro had suffered a massive stroke and would not be seen again publicly. Castro went on to criticize the U.S. media’s coverage of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis.

    The article was accompanied by photos, such as the one above, proving that Castro is not dead. The photos are credited to Alex Castro, Fidel’s son.

    Castro was the leader of the 26th of July Movement, which over threw the government of Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. In the decades since, Castro has maintained control of the country through the Communist Party of Cuba and a single-party socialist system of government. He stepped aside as the leader of the Communist Party in 2006, when his health began to deteriorate and he required emergency surgery to correct intestinal bleeding. Castro’s brother, Raul, has been in charge of the country since that time.

  • Fidel Castro Turns 86, Maintains Silence

    Today marks the 86th birthday of Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary and decades-long leader of the Caribbean country. Castro has maintained silence and stayed out of view for two months now, prompting speculation about his health or possible death. A report by Reuters states that the last statement heard from Castro was his opinion column published in the Cuban state press on June 19.

    Fidel Castro was the leader of the 26th of July Movement, which over threw the government of Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. In the decades since, Castro has maintained control of the country through the Communist Party of Cuba and a single-party socialist system of government.

    Castro has survived assassination attempts and coups throughout his years as Cuba’s leader. According to a 2007 Reuters report, it was revealed that year that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency worked with mobsters to attempt to assassinate Castro in the early 1960’s. When asked about Castro, U.S. President George W. Bush said, “One day the good lord will take Fidel Castro away.” Castro mocked Bush in response. From the Reuters report:

    He fired back at Bush’s latest remark with irony.

    “Now I understand why I survived Bush’s plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me,” Castro, a self-declared atheist, said in a statement sent to the foreign media late on Thursday.

    Castro stepped down as leader of the Cuban revolution and has largely stayed out of the spotlight since his health began to deteriorate back in 2006. At that time, Castro underwent emergency surgery to correct intestinal bleeding and ceded power to his brother, Raul Castro on what was supposed to be a temporary basis. Since that time, Raul Castro has been in charge of the country. Speculation about Castro’s health has been constant in the years since.

  • United Nations Changes Its Mind, Now Favors Internet Freedom

    The United Nations has been in a funny place for a while now in regards to the Internet. By funny, of course, I mean terrifying. There has been talk of the UN pushing for the Internet to be put in the hands of a multi-national governmental organization instead of the current NGO multi-stake holder approach. The UN taking control could lead to a disastrous toll on Internet freedom, but the UN apparently also believe that it should be free. Make up your mind, guys!

    In what’s being heralded as a “landmark resolution” by Reuters, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Thursday that said free expression and free speech on the Internet is a basic human right. Of course, the UN Human Rights Council has no real power over such things and member nations can still oppress their people all they want. It’s more like the UN just said, “Please Mr. Bad Government, let your people talk about what they want on Twitter. It’s totally cool if you don’t want them to, but we just think it would be nice.”

    It’s still nice to see a multinational group affirming what most of us already knew – access to the Internet and being able to freely express ourselves online should be a basic right in all countries. Unfortunately, that is not the case as we still see countries like India, Japan, China and others all trying to crack down on their citizens’ use of the Internet to share information.

    The UN also channeled a bit of Uncle Ben yesterday by essentially saying that the great power that comes with the Internet must be coupled with great responsibility. In essence, they feel that governments and ISPs should step up efforts to protect children from the horrors of online gambling and pornography.

    In somewhat of a hilarious moment, China and Cuba also put their weight behind the resolution. Both countries begrudgingly said that the Internet is important to “accelerating progress towards development.” The irony of China, a country that routinely blocks Web sites that even remotely criticize the state, standing up for Internet freedom is palpable.

    Cuba on the other hand approved, but didn’t like it. The country’s diplomat said that the resolution failed to address that only 30 percent of the world’s population have access to the Internet. He also decided to get a little testy with the U.S. by bemoaning the resolution’s lack of address towards the fact that the U.S. houses the non-profits that control the Internet. The country apparently feels that ICANN being in the U.S. is equatable to the U.S. ruling the Interent, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

    The real concern should be with the fact that the UN draws up a resolution like this while the same organization is holding a meeting on taking over the Internet later this year. It almost seems like the multi-national organization is trying to look good after a House hearing thoroughly trashed the idea of a UN takeover by saying it was the worst thing that could ever happen to the Internet.

    We’ll continue to follow this story as I’m sure China has a few more chuckles up its sleeve as it proclaims the importance of the Internet while blocking Google search results to Tiananmen Square. For your enjoyment, here’s the full resolution in glorious, embeddable text:

    United Nations Human Rights Council: Internet free expression resolution

  • Google Blocks Cuba From Gaining Analytics Access

    Google Analytics is one of the most popular web analytics packages around. The fact that the standard version of Google Analytics is free plays a big part in its adoption, but more than that, it’s a very robust platform that can provide a great deal of insight concerning your site’s performance. Furthermore, the fact that over 10 million sites have Google Analytics installed demonstrates the software suite’s popularity.

    However, if you try to access Google Analytics from Cuba, you’re greeted with the following response:

    We’re: unable to grant you access to Google Analytics at this time.

    A connection Has Been Established Between your current IP address and acountry sanctioned by the U.S. government. For more information, see http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/ .

    Essentially, Google is respecting the sanctions against Cuba, ones that have been in place for 50 years, and by doing so, they aren’t allowing people from Cuba to access their service. A spokesperson for Google acknowledged as much:

    As a US company, we comply with US export controls and trade sanctions that limit us from offering certain services in certain countries,” Google said in an emailed reply to an AFP inquiry. “In order to abide by these laws, our terms of service have always prohibited the use of Google Analytics in sanctioned countries,” it said. “There’s now a technical block in place as well.”

    The Cuban press does not support Google’s course of action, calling it “outrageous censorship.” The report also reveals Google has blocked access to other services like Google Earth, Google’s Desktop Search tool and Google Code Search. While this hasn’t been confirmed by Google, if you’re going to obey such embargos, then blocking access to multiple services only makes sense.

    Is Google doing the “right thing” by blocking access to these services or should they approach as a global entity instead of as an American?

  • Ozzie Guillen Suspended For 5 Games, Apologizes

    Ozzie Guillen Suspended For 5 Games, Apologizes

    Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has incensed the Cuban community in Miami with comments he made to Time Magazine about his feelings toward dictator Fidel Castro, and today he’ll have to eat a little bit of crow.

    “I respect Fidel Castro,” Guillen said in the magazine interview. “You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that (SOB) is still here.”

    The comments caused a backlash against Guillen and have several people calling for his resignation. The chairman of the Florida Hispanic Legislative Caucus says he wants “punitive measures” taken against the outspoken manager. All this comes at possibly the worst time, since the Marlins have recently debuted a new stadium in Little Havana in the hopes of drawing bigger crowds this season.

    In the wake of scheduled protests today, Guillen has made plans to publicly apologize to Miami and the Cuban community, saying he is embarrassed by his words.

    “I want the people there. Whoever feels about it, ask me any questions. I want you to ask what you ask, because I feel bad? Yes. I feel embarrassed? Yes,” Guillen said yesterday.

    UPDATE: The Marlins have announced they are suspending Guillen for five games.

    “The Marlins acknowledge the seriousness of the comments attributed to Guillen,” team reps said in a statement.”The pain and suffering caused by Fidel Castro cannot be minimized especially in a community filled with victims of the dictatorship.”

    During his apology today, Guillen spoke in Spanish: “I feel like I betrayed my Latin community,” Guillen said, according to ESPN’s translation of his comments in Spanish. “I am here to say I am sorry with my heart in my hands and I want to say I’m sorry to all those people who are hurt indirectly or directly.”

    Guillen says the suspension takes a backseat to the damage he’s done to his relationship with the Cuban community and that he is willing to do anything he can to repair it.

    “I will do everything to try to make things be better,” he said. “I’m willing to do everything in my power, in the Marlins power, to do everything I can to help this community.”