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Tag: Cuba

  • U.S. Confirms China Has Had A Spy Base In Cuba Since At Least 2019

    U.S. Confirms China Has Had A Spy Base In Cuba Since At Least 2019

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to a Biden administration official.

    The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. intelligence community has been aware of China’s spying from Cuba and a larger effort to set up intelligence-gathering operations around the globe for some time.

    The Biden administration has stepped up efforts to thwart the Chinese push to expand its spying operations and believes it has made some progress through diplomacy and other unspecified action, according to the official, who was familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.

    The existence of the Chinese spy base was confirmed after The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island. The Journal reported China planned to pay a cash-strapped Cuba billions of dollars as part of the negotiations.

    The White House called the report inaccurate.

    “I’ve seen that press report, it’s not accurate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an MSNBC interview Thursday. “What I can tell you is that we have been concerned since day one of this administration about China’s influence activities around the world; certainly in this hemisphere and in this region, we’re watching this very, very closely.”

    The U.S. intelligence community had determined Chinese spying from Cuba has been an “ongoing” matter and is “not a new development,” the administration official said.

    Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío also refuted the report in a Twitter post Saturday.

    “The slanderous speculation continues, evidently promoted by certain media to cause harm and alarm without observing minimum patterns of communication and without providing data or evidence to support what they disseminate,” he wrote.

    President Joe Biden’s national security team was briefed by the intelligence community soon after he took office in January 2021 about a number of sensitive Chinese efforts around the globe where Beijing was weighing expanding logistics, basing and collection infrastructure as part of the People’s Liberation Army’s attempt to further its influence, the official said.

    Chinese officials looked at sites spanning the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific. The effort included looking at existing collection facilities in Cuba, and China conducted an upgrade of its spying operation on the island in 2019, the official said.

    Tensions between the U.S. and China have been fraught throughout Biden’s term.

    The relationship may have hit a nadir last year after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to democratically governed Taiwan. That visit, the first by a sitting House speaker since Newt Gingrich in 1997, led China, which claims the island as its territory, to launch military exercises around Taiwan.

    U.S.-China relations became further strained early this year after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had crossed the United States.

    Beijing also was angered by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in the U.S. last month that included an encounter with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The speaker hosted the Taiwanese leader at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in southern California.

    Still, the White House has been eager to resume high-level communications between the two sides.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to travel to China next week, a trip that was canceled as the balloon was flying over the U.S. Blinken expects to be in Beijing on June 18 for meetings with senior Chinese officials, according to U.S. officials, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because neither the State Department nor the Chinese foreign ministry has yet confirmed the trip.

    CIA Director William Burns met in Beijing with his counterpart last month. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart in Vienna over two days in May and made clear that the administration wanted to improve high-level communications with the Chinese side.

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently spoke briefly with Li Shangfu, China’s minister of national defense, at the opening dinner of a security forum in Singapore. China had earlier rejected Austin’s request for a meeting on the sidelines of the forum.

    AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

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  • Mothers emerge as leaders in Cuban resistance movement

    Mothers emerge as leaders in Cuban resistance movement

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    Havana, Cuba – On June 9, Amelia Calzadilla, a 33-year-old mother of three, posted a video to Facebook. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision that would transform her into one of Cuba’s most prominent new dissidents.

    “I never had any interest in being famous, in being an influencer or a journalist. I’m interested in telling the truth,” she said. Now, Calzadilla is involved in a public battle with the Cuban government, which has been trying to censor her for months.

    She has become part of an emerging force in Cuba’s political resistance: mothers who are making their daily struggles known as the country contends with one of its worst economic crises in recent history.

    In the video, Calzadilla makes a simple request: She asks local authorities to run a gas line to her block. Her family lives in one of the few areas in Havana without government-provided natural gas service, and the bill for her electric stove had shot higher than her monthly salary.

    “I exploded on social media because there was no formal way to submit complaints to anyone who could possibly help,” she said.

    Her video took off, getting tens of thousands of likes in its first 24 hours online.

    Calzadilla began sharing more videos with openly anti-government perspectives about Cuba’s worsening living conditions. It was a risky thing to do: Voicing dissent can not only be taboo but illegal on the island.

    Now, Calzadilla juggles activism on top of caring for three children and working a job in the island’s struggling tourism industry.

    Women like Calzadilla are increasingly filling a void in Cuba’s opposition movement. In 2021, the country experienced historic protests on a scale not seen since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. But the government responded with a crackdown, and human rights groups estimate 1,400 people were ultimately arrested, many of them young men.

    Hundreds have since been sentenced to up to 30 years of prison time. Many of the island’s most visible dissidents have either been arrested or have fled.

    But in recent protests across the island, mothers unable to feed their children have blocked highways with human chains, holding hands with their children and each other.

    And during the country’s frequent blackouts, matriarchs are often seen leading protests through the streets, banging pots and pans sometimes for hours until the electricity resumes. Local media have reported that more than 30 such protests have occurred in small towns over the past several weeks.

    Economic reforms, coupled with the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in foreign tourism and the continued US embargo, have left Cuba’s economy in dire straits. The country is plagued by shortages of basic supplies like food, medicine and fuel, and the median salary in Cuba roughly equates to $19 a month.

    Calzadilla sees the country’s struggles mirrored in her household. “If a mother has a problem, that’s Cuba’s problem, even if it isn’t affecting everyone personally,” she said.

    Previously, Calzadilla explained, she was a vocal defender of Cuban-style communism. She even worked for the Cuban government in the Ministry of the Interior after graduating from the University of Havana. But the changes she observed in her country have spurred her to action, she said.

    “Now, the areas of agriculture, public health, housing and basic goods are in complete crisis, in need of restructuring that isn’t happening,” Calzadilla said.

    She said she believes officials are more interested in keeping up appearances than addressing Cuba’s economic crisis: “I no longer believe they have the consciousness or preparation necessary to resolve these issues.”

    So Calzadilla has taken it upon herself to make dozens of videos and write posts outlining how she believes the current government has mismanaged the country’s finances.

    The Cuban government has responded to the popularity of Calzadilla’s Facebook videos by spreading allegations on national television that she is a contractor for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, citing remittances she received from the US.

    A quarter of Cuban households, however, receive remittances from the US, mostly from relatives. Calzadilla explained that she relies on support from her family in the US to provide food and clothing for her children.

    Calzadilla admits that she has since been afraid of facing a sham trial and being thrown in prison, but the fear does not inhibit her.

    “It’s like the fear of losing your job for anyone in a capitalist country,” she said, brushing it off as a commonplace anxiety.

    Mothers like Calzadilla have been important figureheads in resistance movements across Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Argentina, according to Elva Orozco Mendoza, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut.

    “Mothers feel the effects that certain policies or certain government inaction might have on their children,” she explained. That, in turn, prompts the women to act, and their participation can serve as powerful symbols to protest movements.

    “This larger history of mothers resisting injustice also legitimises their direction,” Orozco Mendoza said. “The public in general tends to think their struggle is legitimate.”

    Elizabeth Leon is among the mothers in Cuba inspired to speak out against what she sees as government injustices. On July 11, 2021, Leon, who is in her 50s, heard shouts erupting on her street, so she walked outside and joined a protest in her neighbourhood.

    One of her sons took a video of what happened next: A police officer struck her repeatedly with a baton, knocking her to the ground. Leon’s three adult sons intervened to defend her, but they ended up beaten too.

    That evening, they took photos of their blood-stained faces, arms and chests. Leon said her shoulder was knocked out of place by the officer’s baton and remains sore to this day.

    “We documented everything and posted it online just to prove that it was real,” she said.

    The next morning, police went door to door, detaining dozens of people. They arrested all four of Leon’s sons.

    One, Adonis, had not even been at the protest. Leon was able to prove he was elsewhere, but it took 52 days to secure his release.

    Her two youngest sons, however, were sentenced in March last year to eight and 10 years in prison. One of them, Frandy Leon, struggles with a learning disability. At age 27, he is functionally illiterate.

    Leon’s lawyer told her there was a chance she could fight for the release of her eldest son, José Antonio — who sits in jail, awaiting sentencing — but it would mean throwing the two youngest brothers under the bus, possibly extending their sentences.

    Leon decided to share her predicament online, as well as through local underground journalism collectives, in a bid to raise awareness and free the three sons who remain incarcerated. She also uses Facebook to post videos and updates about her sons’ cases.

    Each son has two or three young children, and Leon’s extended family has suffered with three fewer salaries to rely on. Adonis and the girlfriends of those in prison now raise their children together in Leon’s house, which is falling apart at the seams.

    Nearly all of the furniture is ripped and leaking stuffing. The stairs at the entrance have crumbled, making the only way to enter the home a rickety wooden ladder. And several walls have fallen away, replaced with plastic sheets to shield the rooms from rain.

    At mealtimes, the kids eat first, and the adults make due with the leftovers. The family’s allotment of bread, powdered milk and rice, provided through the government, is not enough to keep even the youngest children fed. Leon has begun to sell off items from her home to buy packets of hot dogs.

    “I had no choice but to turn to online activism even though it could hurt my case,” Leon said. “They’re punishing us for living — for living and having nothing.”

    In her grief, Leon has consulted a santería religious leader and constructed an altar near the entryway of the home, featuring plastic dolls and old photographs meant to bring positive transformations to the lives of those within.

    “I’ll do anything at this point,” she said as she turned to the huddle of children behind her and attended to their lunch: milk with bread rolls.

    Several hours later, when the electricity would go out once more, Leon would be out on the street again, back where everything began, banging her pots and pans.

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  • Cuban baseball team draws ire, support in Little Havana

    Cuban baseball team draws ire, support in Little Havana

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    MIAMI (AP) — Jose Vilela fled Cuba for the United States when he was 14 years old after spending six months in a concentration camp. Like many of his compatriots, he settled in Miami’s Cuban neighborhood, Little Havana.

    Vilela, now 68, paced Sunday afternoon outside loanDepot Park, the Miami Marlins’ home stadium, where the Cuban national baseball team later lost to the United States 14-2 in the World Baseball Classic semifinals.

    For prideful expats eager to separate sports from politics, the country’s first ever baseball game in Miami was cause for celebration.

    But for Vilela and hundreds of others, it was reason to protest the political oppression they escaped.

    Vilela stalked the stadium Sunday, yelling outside for anyone associated with the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who embraced Soviet-style communism, to leave the community. That included many Cuban players who are technically government employees.

    “We don’t want them here,” Vilela said. “None. People that work for the Castro family. We don’t want them. They can go any place they want. Go to New York. Go to California. Not Miami. I hope this is the last time they come here.”

    Three protestors were escorted out of the ballpark after running onto the field during the game.

    In the sixth inning, a demonstrator waved a flag that said “Libertad Para Los Presos Cubanos Del 11 de Julio, which means “Freedom for the Cuban Prisoners of July 11” — referring to the day thousands of Cubans took to the streets in the island in 2021 to protest shortages of goods, power blackouts and economic hardship. Hundreds of people who participated are in prison. Saturday, the crowd erupted in “¡Libertad!” chants as that protestor exited the field.

    All day, there had been a heavier police presence outside the ballpark than for previous games in the tournament. About 15 Miami police officers rode around on bicycles.

    Yosvel Gonzalez was born in Cuba and wore an orange and teal jersey of the late Cuban-born Marlins pitcher José Fernández, who died in a boating accident in 2016. Gonzalez said he expected the environment during the game to be tense, but he’s rooting for Team Cuba.

    “I love this country because they gave me freedom and political asylum when I got here,” he said of the United States. “But my land is my land. I don’t care which government is in power.”

    Fan reactions during the game were mixed. Some yelled “¡Libertad!” throughout. Some cheered when the Cuban baseball team scored in the first and fifth innings. “USA” chants broke out often.

    Players and managers have tried to keep the focus on the sport itself.

    “We’re just here for baseball, for the sport,” Cuba manager Armando Johnson said after the game, adding that the team did not pay attention to the demonstrators. “That’s what I do … I’m not a police officer.”

    When asked if he as a Cuban is bothered that many Cubans don’t identify with the team, Johnson reiterated that he was focused on his job.

    “It feels bad, but I don’t judge,” he said. “Like I said, everyone has his or her way of thinking. We are on the field and we come here just to play baseball and the sport. That’s what we wanted to do here.”

    There are reminders throughout the community in Little Havana of Cuba’s government.

    Bull Bar, a shuttered spot in walking distance from the ballpark, was once a popular bar during Miami Hurricanes football games. It has a large poster on its wall that says “Freedom for Cuba” with a picture of a boot stomping on the island. Vendors were on street corners near the bar as early as 10 a.m. Sunday to sell apparel for both Team USA and Team Cuba.

    Many shirts displayed the words “Patria y Vida,” meaning “homeland and life,” in opposition of Castro’s rallying cry “homeland or death.”

    “Their claim is that we’re all Cuban, and that’s not true,” said Marilyn Almaguer, who fled the island in 1996 as sympathizers of the government threw eggs and rocks at her. “With that government there, we cannot be all Cubans.”

    While soccer is largely the most popular sport in Latin America, baseball dominates in Cuba.

    The island has a rich pool of baseball talent and history of success in the sport. Cuba’s baseball team won Olympic gold medals in 1992, 1996 and 2004, but mass defections by players have limited the islands’ ability to remain competitive on the international stage. The Cuban baseball team failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

    High-performing athletes on the island earn a salary from the government to train and compete, but Cuba has prohibited professional sports in the island since the Cuban revolution 60 years ago.

    Longtime sanctions by the U.S. make it largely impossible for Cubans to play professionally for an American team without defecting. Meanwhile, Cuba historically has not allowed Cuban players who defected on their national team rosters.

    The United States for the first time is letting Cuban-born MLB stars play for their homeland in the WBC, making this a rare mixed roster of current Cuban players and defectors. Chicago White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada and White Sox center fielder Luis Roberts were met with some boos during pregame player introductions.

    “The biggest lack of respect to this country that has opened up its doors for us,” Almaguer said of the MLB players. “They claim to be fleeing a dictatorship, and this country gave them an opportunity. Gave them everything, and now they want to play for the same team that suppressed them. They’re laughing at the United States by doing that.”

    Not all Cuban-born MLB players chose to take advantage of the change of policy.

    Randy Arozarena, outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays, was born and raised in Cuba but chose to represent Mexico, where he lived in his early 20s, in the tournament.

    “To me, Mexico is special,” Arozarena said, “since when I left Cuba, Mexico is a country that received me with arms open.”

    Alfredo Despaigne, Team Cuba’s captain, said having fans cheering against the team won’t be a bother.

    “That’s natural in baseball,” he said. “ It doesn’t affect us. I played for nine years in Japan and we had fans supporting our team and others supporting other teams. So everyone is free to feel and to think whatever they want. It won’t affect us.”

    Ramon Saul Sanchez, an organizer of Sunday’s protests, said he is not against the Cuban baseball players. Sanchez, 68, has been separated from his family since moving to the Little Havana area 55 years ago.

    “We all want to support the Cuban baseball team,” Sanchez said. “Right now, it’s more complex because it’s also playing the U.S. baseball team as well. And we have our heart divided between the two countries. But there is the most important issue here that we know that behind this game is not simple sports, but a lot of politics.”

    ___

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • US routs Cuba 14-2 to reach World Baseball Classic final

    US routs Cuba 14-2 to reach World Baseball Classic final

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    MIAMI (AP) — Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and an unrelenting U.S. lineup kept putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, a dynamic display of the huge gap between an American team of major leaguers and Cubans struggling on the world stage as top players have left the island nation.

    Turner homered twice to give him a tournament-leading four, driving in four runs to lead the U.S. to a 14-2 rout Sunday night and advance the defending champion Americans to the World Baseball Classic final.

    Goldschmidt also homered and had four RBIs and Cedric Mullins went deep in a game interrupted three times by fans running on the field to display protest signs.

    “The team kind of represents the government over there, and people aren’t too happy about it,” U.S. manager Mark DeRosa said.

    The U.S. plays Japan or Mexico in Tuesday night’s championship, trying to join the Samurai Warriors as the only nations to win the title twice.

    “I think it took us a little bit of time, but now we kind of found our stride a little bit,” Turner said.

    Turner has a tournament-leading 10 RBIs. He followed his go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam a night earlier against Venezuela with a solo homer in the second inning off Roenis Elias (0-1) and a three-run drive in the sixth against Elian Leyva.

    “I kept saying every time he went deep, who is the idiot that’s hitting him ninth?” DeRosa said.

    Cuba went ahead when its first four batters reached off Adam Wainwright (2-0) without getting a ball out of the infield. After forcing in a run with a walk to Alfredo Despaigne, the 41-year-old right-hander recovered to strand the bases loaded.

    “I put myself in that situation in the first place by making horrible PFP plays — or not making PFP plays,” Wainwright said in a reference to pitchers’ fielding practice and two grounders he failed to come up with.

    American batters had 14 hits, including eight for extra bases, and seven walks as they scored in seven of eight innings — five with multiple runs. Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the first on a 112 mph rocket high over the left-field wall. He added a two-run single in the fifth.

    “For me that was one of my favorite home runs I’ve ever hit in my entire life,” Goldschmidt said.

    St. Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado left after he was hit on his right hand by a pitch in the fifth inning, briefly raising another injury concern before X-rays came back as negative. Mets closer Edwin Díaz sustained a season-ending knee injury during the celebration that followed Puerto Rico’s win on Wednesday and Houston second baseman Jose Altuve broke a thumb when hit by a pitch while playing for Venezuela on Saturday.

    Fans in the sellout crowd of 35,779 at loanDepot Park sounded evenly split between the U.S. and Cuba. Several hundred people gathered before the game outside the ballpark in Miami’s Little Havana section to protest the presence of the Cuban team, whose country has been under communist rule since 1959.

    Play was briefly interrupted in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings when fans ran onto the field. The first held a banner that read “Libertad Para Los Presos Cubanos del 11 de Julio (Freedom for the Cuban Prisoners of July 11)” referring to the date of 2021 demonstrations.

    “There were provocations, but we never paid attention to it,” Cuba manager Armando Johnson said.

    Cuban fans roared in the early going when their team’s first four batters strung together three infield hits and a bases-loaded walk. Wainwright allowed one run and five hits in four innings. Cardinals teammate Miles Mikolas followed with four innings and Aaron Loup finished.

    An Olympic gold medalist in 1992, 1996 and 2004, Cuba’s national team has faltered as many top players left for MLB. Cuba failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

    Cuba this year is for the first using some players under contract to MLB clubs, including Chicago White Sox Gold Glove centerfielder Luis Robert and third baseman Yoán Moncada — who were booed. But many Cuban big leaguers were absent.

    “We would like for the other players to join,” Johnson said. “They should think about it and return to Cuba.”

    SECOND GUESSED

    DeRosa on what he did after Saturday night’s come-from-behind quarterfinal win over Venezuela.

    “I was reading how horrible a manager I was on social media first,” he said.

    OTHER SIDE OF THE BRACKET

    In the other semifinal, Japan starts 21-year-old sensation Roki Sasaki against Mexico and the Los Angeles Angels’ Patrick Sandoval on Monday night.

    TRAINER’S ROOM

    Moncada left after the third baseman collided in the sixth inning with left fielder Roel Santos, who caught Kyle Schwarber’s fly. Moncada was hit on the ribs but is OK, Johnson said.

    UP NEXT

    Arizona RHP Merrill Kelly is likely to start the final. ___

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • US reopening visa and consular services at embassy in Cuba

    US reopening visa and consular services at embassy in Cuba

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    HAVANA — The United States Embassy in Cuba is reopening visa and consular services Wednesday, the first time it has done so since a spate of unexplained health incidents among diplomatic staff in 2017 slashed the American presence in Havana.

    The Embassy confirmed this week it will begin processing immigrant visas, with a priority placed on permits to reunite Cubans with family in the U.S., and others like the diversity visa lottery.

    The resumption comes amid the greatest migratory flight from Cuba in decades, which has placed pressure on the Biden administration to open more legal pathways to Cubans and start a dialogue with the Cuban government, despite a historically tense relationship.

    They are anticipated to give out at least 20,000 visas a year, though it’s just a drop in the bucket of the migratory tide, which is fueled by intensifying economic and political crises on the island.

    In late December, U.S. authorities reported stopping Cubans 34,675 times along the Mexico border in November, up 21% from 28,848 times in October.

    Month-to-month, that number has gradually risen. Cubans are now the second-largest nationality after Mexicans appearing on the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows.

    The growing migration is due to a complex array of factors, including economic, energy and political crises, as well deep discontent among Cubans.

    While the vast majority of Cuban migrants head to the U.S. via flights to Nicaragua and cross by land at the U.S. border with Mexico, thousands more have also taken a dangerous voyage by sea. They travel 90 miles to the Florida coast, often arriving in rickety, precariously constructed boats packed with migrants.

    The exodus from Cuba is also compounded by rising migration to the U.S. from other countries like Haiti and Venezuela, forcing the U.S. government to grapple with a growingly complex situation on its southern border.

    The renewal of visa work at the embassy comes after a series of migration talks and visits by U.S. officials to Havana in recent months, and may also be the sign of a slow thawing between the two governments.

    “Engaging in these talks underscores our commitment to pursuing constructive discussions with the government of Cuba where appropriate to advance U.S. interests,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement in November following an American delegation’s visit to Cuba.

    The small steps are far cry from relations under President Barack Obama, who eased many American Cold War-era sanctions during his time in office and made a historic visit to the island in 2016.

    Visa and consular services were closed on the island in 2017 after embassy staff were affflicted in a series of health incidents, alleged sonic attacks that remain largely unexplained.

    As a result, many Cubans who wanted to legally migrate to the U.S. have had to fly to places like Guyana to do so before migrating or reuniting with family.

    While relations have always been tense between Cuba and the U.S., they were heightened following the embassy closure and the Trump administration’s tightening of sanctions on Cuba.

    Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. has eased some restrictions on things like remittances and family travel from Miami to Cuba, but has fallen short of hopes by many in Cuba that a Biden presidency would return the island to its “Obama era.”

    Restrictions on tourist travel to Cuba, and imports and exports of many goods, remain in place.

    Also kindling tensions has been the Cuban government’s harsh treatment of participants in the island’s 2021 protests, including hefty prison sentences doled out to minors, a constant point of criticism by the Biden administration.

    Cuban officials have repeatedly expressed optimism about talks with the U.S. and steps to reopen visa services. Cuban Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Cossio said in November that ensuring migration through safe and legal pathways is a “mutual objective” by both countries.

    But Cossio also blamed the flight of tens of thousands from the island on U.S. sanctions, saying that “there’s no doubt that a policy meant to depress the living standards of a population is a direct driver of migration.”

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  • 2 cruise ships rescue more migrants off Florida coast

    2 cruise ships rescue more migrants off Florida coast

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    MIAMI (AP) — Crew members aboard two cruise ships rescued around two dozen migrants in small boats, the latest episode of hundreds making or attempting landings in the Florida Keys over the past several days, authorities said.

    Crew members aboard Celebrity Beyond rescued 19 migrants from a crowded boat Monday, and crew members aboard Carnival Celebration spotted five people in distress on a small vessel about 29 miles (46 kilometers) northwest of Cuba.

    Once the migrants were rescued from their drifting boat, the Carnival Celebration crew members contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, which took them into custody offshore, said Matt Lupoli, a spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Line.

    “The ship resumed on its voyage with its scheduled itinerary unaffected and Carnival Celebration returned to Miami on Tuesday morning after a week-long Caribbean cruise,” Lupoli said in an email.

    Capt. Kate McCue, the skipper of Celebrity Beyond, posted video of Monday’s rescue on social media. In the video, she said that she turned the ship around after her chief officer noticed a glimmer on the horizon that turned out to be the migrants.

    After the migrants were aboard the ship, crew members provided them with blankets, a change of clothes, food and a medical evaluation, she said. The Coast Guard was contacted.

    “Thank you to all the crew who made this rescue possible,” McCue wrote.

    Celebrity Cruises released a statement Tuesday thanking crew members.

    “We are grateful for our crew’s quick action, and the lives saved as a result,” the company said.

    The rescues were made amid a wave of migrant landings in the Florida Keys in the past several days that the local sheriff’s office has called a “crisis.”

    Over the weekend, 300 migrants arrived at the sparsely populated Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Key West. The park was closed so that law enforcement and medical personnel could evaluate the group before moving them to Key West.

    Separately, 160 migrants arrived by boats in other parts of the Florida Keys over New Year’s weekend, and on Monday, around 30 people in two new groups of migrants were found in the Middle Keys.

    “This shows a lack of a working plan by the federal government to deal with a mass migration issue that was foreseeable,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said Monday in a news release.

    U.S. Border Patrol and Coast Guard crews patrolling South Florida and the Keys have been experiencing the largest escalation of migrations by boat in nearly a decade, with hundreds of interceptions in recent months. Most of the migrants are from Cuba and Haiti and are escaping economic turmoil, food shortages and soaring inflation.

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  • 2 cruise ships rescue more migrants off Florida coast

    2 cruise ships rescue more migrants off Florida coast

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    MIAMI — Crew members aboard two cruise ships rescued around two dozen migrants in small boats, the latest episode of hundreds making or attempting landings in the Florida Keys over the past several days, authorities said.

    Crew members aboard Celebrity Beyond rescued 19 migrants from a crowded boat Monday, and crew members aboard Carnival Celebration spotted five people in distress on a small vessel about 29 miles (46 kilometers) northwest of Cuba.

    Once the migrants were rescued from their drifting boat, the Carnival Celebration crew members contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, which took them into custody offshore, said Matt Lupoli, a spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Line.

    “The ship resumed on its voyage with its scheduled itinerary unaffected and Carnival Celebration returned to Miami on Tuesday morning after a week-long Caribbean cruise,” Lupoli said in an email.

    Capt. Kate McCue, the skipper of Celebrity Beyond, posted video of Monday’s rescue on social media. In the video, she said that she turned the ship around after her chief officer noticed a glimmer on the horizon that turned out to be the migrants.

    After the migrants were aboard the ship, crew members provided them with blankets, a change of clothes, food and a medical evaluation, she said. The Coast Guard was contacted.

    “Thank you to all the crew who made this rescue possible,” McCue wrote.

    Celebrity didn’t respond immediately to an emailed inquiry.

    The rescues were made amid a wave of migrant landings in the Florida Keys in the past several days that the local sheriff’s office has called a “crisis.”

    Over the weekend, 300 migrants arrived at the sparsely populated Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Key West. The park was closed so that law enforcement and medical personnel could evaluate the group before moving them to Key West.

    Separately, 160 migrants arrived by boats in other parts of the Florida Keys over New Year’s weekend, and on Monday, around 30 people in two new groups of migrants were found in the Middle Keys.

    “This shows a lack of a working plan by the federal government to deal with a mass migration issue that was foreseeable,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said Monday in a news release.

    U.S. Border Patrol and Coast Guard crews patrolling South Florida and the Keys have been experiencing the largest escalation of migrations by boat in nearly a decade, with hundreds of interceptions in recent months. Most of the migrants are from Cuba and Haiti and are escaping economic turmoil, food shortages and soaring inflation.

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  • Today in History: December 27, Soviets take Afghanistan

    Today in History: December 27, Soviets take Afghanistan

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    Today in History

    Today is Tuesday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2022. There are four days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Dec. 27, 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin (hah-FEE’-zoo-lah ah-MEEN’), who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.

    On this date:

    In 1822, scientist Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France.

    In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

    In 1904, James Barrie’s play “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” opened at the Duke of York’s Theater in London.

    In 1932, New York City’s Radio City Music Hall first opened.

    In 1945, 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank.

    In 1958, American physicist James Van Allen reported the discovery of a second radiation belt around Earth, in addition to one found earlier in the year.

    In 1985, Palestinian gunmen opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports in terrorist attacks that killed 19 people; four attackers were slain by police and security personnel. American naturalist Dian Fossey, 53, who had studied gorillas in the wild in Rwanda, was found hacked to death.

    In 1995, Israeli jeeps sped out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, capping a seven-week pullout giving Yasser Arafat control over 90 percent of the West Bank’s 1 million Palestinian residents and one-third of its land.

    In 1999, space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew returned to Earth after fixing the Hubble Space Telescope.

    In 2001, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    In 2002, a defiant North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons; the U.N. nuclear watchdog said its inspectors were “staying put” for the time being.

    In 2016, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh AH’-bay), accompanied by President Barack Obama, visited Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where he offered his “sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives” in Japan’s 1941 attack; Abe did not apologize, but conceded his country “must never repeat the horrors of war again.” Actor Carrie Fisher died in a hospital four days after suffering a medical emergency aboard a flight to Los Angeles; she was 60.

    Ten years ago: An Indian-born man, Sunando Sen, was shoved to his death from a New York City subway platform; suspect Erika Menendez later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. (Authorities say Menendez pushed Sen because she thought he was Muslim; Sen was Hindu.) Retired Army general Norman Schwarzkopf, 78, died in Tampa, Florida.

    Five years ago: Freezing temperatures and below-zero wind chills socked much of the northern United States. Houston Astros star second baseman Jose Altuve was named AP Male Athlete of the Year after leading the team to its first World Series title. A power outage struck parts of Disneyland in California, forcing some guests to be escorted from stalled rides.

    One year ago: U.S. health officials cut isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans infected with the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts needed to quarantine; officials said the guidance was in keeping with growing evidence that people with the coronavirus were most infectious in the two days before and the three days after symptoms developed. Defense officials said a U.S. Navy warship, the USS Milwaukee, remained in port in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with about two dozen sailors – or nearly a quarter of its crew – testing positive for COVID-19.

    Today’s Birthdays: Actor John Amos is 83. Rock musician Mick Jones (Foreigner) is 78. Singer Tracy Nelson is 78. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 74. Jazz singer-musician T.S. Monk is 73. Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is 71. Rock musician David Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 70. Actor Tovah Feldshuh is 69. Journalist-turned-politician Arthur Kent is 69. Actor Maryam D’Abo is 62. Actor Ian Gomez is 58. Actor Theresa Randle is 58. Actor Eva LaRue is 56. Wrestler and actor Bill Goldberg is 56. Bluegrass singer-musician Darrin Vincent (Dailey & Vincent) is 53. Rock musician Guthrie Govan is 51. Musician Matt Slocum is 50. Actor Wilson Cruz is 49. Actor Masi Oka is 48. Actor Aaron Stanford is 46. Actor Emilie de Ravin is 41. Actor Jay Ellis is 41. Christian rock musician James Mead (Kutless) is 40. Rock singer Hayley Williams (Paramore) is 34. Country singer Shay Mooney (Dan & Shay) is 31. Actor Timothee Chalamet is 27.

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  • Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

    Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

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    HAVANA (AP) — As Belkis Fajardo, 69, walks through the dense streets of downtown Havana with a small bag of lettuce and onions in hand, she wonders how she’ll feed her family over the holidays.

    Scarcity and economic turmoil are nothing new to Cuba, but Fajardo is among many Cubans to note that this year is different thanks to soaring inflation and deepening shortages.

    “We’ll see what we can scrap together to cook for the end of the year,” Fajardo said. “Everything is really expensive … so you buy things little-by-little as you can. And if you can’t, you don’t eat.”

    Basic goods such as chicken, beef, eggs, milk, flour and toilet paper are difficult and often impossible to find in state stores.

    When they do appear, they often come at hefty prices, either from informal shops, resellers or in expensive stores only accessible to those with foreign currency.

    It’s far out of the range of the average Cuban state salary, approximately 5,000 pesos a month, or $29 USD on the island’s more widely used informal exchange rate. Nearby, a pound of pork leg was selling for 450 pesos (around $2.60.)

    “Not everyone can buy things, not everyone has a family who sends remittances (money from abroad),” Fajardo said. “With the money my daughter earns and my pension, we’re trying to buy what we can, but it’s extremely hard.”

    In October, the Cuban government reported that inflation had risen 40% over the past year and had a significant impact on the purchasing power for many on the island.

    While Fajardo managed to buy vegetables, rice and beans, she still has no meat for Christmas or New Years.

    The shortages are among a number of factors stoking a broader discontent on the island, which has given rise to protests in recent years as well as an emerging migratory flight from Cuba. On Friday, U.S. authorities reported stopping Cubans 34,675 times along the Mexico border in November, up 21% from 28,848 times in October.

    The dissatisfaction was made even more evident during Cuba’s local elections last month, when 31.5% of eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot — a far cry from the nearly 100% turnout during Fidel Castro’s lifetime.

    Despite being the highest voting abstention rate the country had seen since the Cuban revolution, the government still hailed it as “a victory.” However in an address to Cuban lawmakers last week, President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the government’s shortcomings in handling the country’s complex mix of crises, particularly food shortages.

    “I feel an enormous dissatisfaction that I haven’t been able to accomplish, through leadership of the country, the results that the Cuban people need to attain longed-desired and expected prosperity,” he said.

    The admission provoked a standing ovation in the congressional assembly, made up solely of politicians from Díaz-Canel’s communist party.

    But Ricardo Torres, a Cuban and economics fellow at American University in Washington, said he saw the words as “meaningless” without a real plan to address discontent.

    “People want answers from their government,” he said. “Not words — answers.”

    For years, the Caribbean nation has pushed much of the blame for its economic turmoil on the United States’ six-decade trade embargo on Cuba, which has strangled much of the island’s economy. However, many observers, including Torres, stress that the government’s mismanagement of the economy and reluctance to embrace the private sector are also to blame.

    On Friday, a long line of Cubans waited outside an empty state-run butchery, waiting for a coveted item: a leg of pork to feed their families on New Year’s Eve.

    About a dozen people The Associated Press asked for an interview said they were scared to speak, including one who said “it could have consequences for us.”

    Estrella, 67, has shown up to the state butcher every morning for more than two weeks, waiting her turn to buy pork to share with her children, grandchildren and siblings. So far, she’s come up dry.

    Although pork is available to buy from private butchers, it’s often far more expensive than at state-run facilities, which subsidize prices.

    So she waits, hopeful that she’ll be able to cook Cuba’s traditional holiday dish.

    “If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to buy it today,” she said. “If we’re not, we’ll come back tomorrow.”

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  • Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

    Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

    [ad_1]

    HAVANA — As Belkis Fajardo, 69, walks through the dense streets of downtown Havana with a small bag of lettuce and onions in hand, she wonders how she’ll feed her family over the holidays.

    Scarcity and economic turmoil are nothing new to Cuba, but Fajardo is among many Cubans to note that this year is different thanks to soaring inflation and deepening shortages.

    “We’ll see what we can scrap together to cook for the end of the year,” Fajardo said. “Everything is really expensive … so you buy things little-by-little as you can. And if you can’t, you don’t eat.”

    Basic goods such as chicken, beef, eggs, milk, flour and toilet paper are difficult and often impossible to find in state stores.

    When they do appear, they often come at hefty prices, either from informal shops, resellers or in expensive stores only accessible to those with foreign currency.

    It’s far out of the range of the average Cuban state salary, approximately 5,000 pesos a month, or $29 USD on the island’s more widely used informal exchange rate. Nearby, a pound of pork leg was selling for 450 pesos (around $2.60.)

    “Not everyone can buy things, not everyone has a family who sends remittances (money from abroad),” Fajardo said. “With the money my daughter earns and my pension, we’re trying to buy what we can, but it’s extremely hard.”

    In October, the Cuban government reported that inflation had risen 40% over the past year and had a significant impact on the purchasing power for many on the island.

    While Fajardo managed to buy vegetables, rice and beans, she still has no meat for Christmas or New Years.

    The shortages are among a number of factors stoking a broader discontent on the island, which has given rise to protests in recent years as well as an emerging migratory flight from Cuba. On Friday, U.S. authorities reported stopping Cubans 34,675 times along the Mexico border in November, up 21% from 28,848 times in October.

    The dissatisfaction was made even more evident during Cuba’s local elections last month, when 31.5% of eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot — a far cry from the nearly 100% turnout during Fidel Castro’s lifetime.

    Despite being the highest voting abstention rate the country had seen since the Cuban revolution, the government still hailed it as “a victory.” However in an address to Cuban lawmakers last week, President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the government’s shortcomings in handling the country’s complex mix of crises, particularly food shortages.

    “I feel an enormous dissatisfaction that I haven’t been able to accomplish, through leadership of the country, the results that the Cuban people need to attain longed-desired and expected prosperity,” he said.

    The admission provoked a standing ovation in the congressional assembly, made up solely of politicians from Díaz-Canel’s communist party.

    But Ricardo Torres, a Cuban and economics fellow at American University in Washington, said he saw the words as “meaningless” without a real plan to address discontent.

    “People want answers from their government,” he said. “Not words — answers.”

    For years, the Caribbean nation has pushed much of the blame for its economic turmoil on the United States’ six-decade trade embargo on Cuba, which has strangled much of the island’s economy. However, many observers, including Torres, stress that the government’s mismanagement of the economy and reluctance to embrace the private sector are also to blame.

    On Friday, a long line of Cubans waited outside an empty state-run butchery, waiting for a coveted item: a leg of pork to feed their families on New Year’s Eve.

    About a dozen people The Associated Press asked for an interview said they were scared to speak, including one who said “it could have consequences for us.”

    Estrella, 67, has shown up to the state butcher every morning for more than two weeks, waiting her turn to buy pork to share with her children, grandchildren and siblings. So far, she’s come up dry.

    Although pork is available to buy from private butchers, it’s often far more expensive than at state-run facilities, which subsidize prices.

    So she waits, hopeful that she’ll be able to cook Cuba’s traditional holiday dish.

    “If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to buy it today,” she said. “If we’re not, we’ll come back tomorrow.”

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  • Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

    Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

    [ad_1]

    HAVANA — As Belkis Fajardo, 69, walks through the dense streets of downtown Havana with small bag of lettuce and onions in hand, she wonders how she’ll feed her family over the holidays.

    Scarcity and economic turmoil are nothing new to Cuba, but Fajardo is among many Cubans to note that this year is different thanks to soaring inflation and deepening shortages.

    “We’ll see what we can scrap together to cook for the end of the year,” Fajardo said. “Everything is really expensive … so you buy things little-by-little as you can. And if you can’t, you don’t eat.”

    Basic goods such as chicken, beef, eggs, milk, flour and toilet paper are difficult and often impossible to find in state stores.

    When they do appear, they often come at hefty prices, either from informal shops, resellers or in expensive stores only accessible to those with foreign currency.

    It’s far out of the range of the average Cuban state salary, approximately 5,000 pesos a month, or $29 USD on the island’s more widely used informal exchange rate. Nearby, a pound of pork leg was selling for 450 pesos (around $2.60.)

    “Not everyone can buy things, not everyone has a family who sends remittances (money from abroad),” Fajardo said. “With the money my daughter earns and my pension, we’re trying to buy what we can, but it’s extremely hard.”

    In October, the Cuban government reported that inflation had risen 40% over the past year and had a significant impact on the purchasing power for many on the island.

    While Fajardo managed to buy vegetables, rice and beans, she still has no meat for Christmas or New Years.

    The shortages are among a number of factors stoking a broader discontent on the island, which has given rise to protests in recent years as well as an emerging migratory flight from Cuba.

    The dissatisfaction was made even more evident during Cuba’s local elections last month, when 31.5% of eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot — a far cry from the nearly 100% turnout during Fidel Castro’s lifetime.

    Despite being the highest voting abstention rate the country had seen since the Cuban revolution, the government still hailed it as “a victory.” However in an address to Cuban lawmakers last week, President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the government’s shortcomings in handling the country’s complex mix of crises, particularly food shortages.

    “I feel an enormous dissatisfaction that I haven’t been able to accomplish, through leadership of the country, the results that the Cuban people need to attain longed-desired and expected prosperity,” he said.

    The admission provoked a standing ovation in the congressional assembly, made up solely of politicians from Díaz-Canel’s communist party.

    But Ricardo Torres, a Cuban and economics fellow at American University in Washington, said he saw the words as “meaningless” without a real plan to address discontent.

    “People want answers from their government,” he said. “Not words — answers.”

    For years, the Caribbean nation has pushed much of the blame for its economic turmoil on the United States’ six-decade trade embargo on Cuba, which has strangled much of the island’s economy. However, many observers, including Torres, stress that the government’s mismanagement of the economy and reluctance to embrace the private sector are also to blame.

    On Friday, a long line of Cubans waited outside an empty state-run butchery, waiting for a coveted item: a leg of pork to feed their families on New Year’s Eve.

    About a dozen people The Associated Press asked for an interview said they were scared to speak, including one who said “it could have consequences for us.”

    Estrella, 67, has shown up to the state butcher every morning for more than two weeks, waiting her turn to buy pork to share with her children, grandchildren and siblings. So far, she’s come up dry.

    Although pork is available to buy from private butchers, it’s often far more expensive than at state-run facilities, which subsidize prices.

    So she waits, hopeful that she’ll be able to cook Cuba’s traditional holiday dish.

    “If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to buy it today,” she said. “If we’re not, we’ll come back tomorrow.”

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  • Kennedy Center honoree Tania León on journey from childhood in Cuba to biggest musical stages

    Kennedy Center honoree Tania León on journey from childhood in Cuba to biggest musical stages

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    Kennedy Center honoree Tania León on journey from childhood in Cuba to biggest musical stages – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    Tania León’s passion for music has been center stage since her childhood in Cuba. Throughout her career, she composed music and conducted orchestras on the world’s biggest stages. Now, at 79, she is being recognized as one of this year’s Kennedy Center honorees. CBS News lead national correspondent David Begnaud sat down with the pianist to learn more about her musical journey that led to the distinct honor.

    Be the first to know

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  • Democratic lawmakers visit Havana, meet with Cuban president

    Democratic lawmakers visit Havana, meet with Cuban president

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    HAVANA — A delegation of at least three U.S. lawmakers visited Havana and met with Cuba’s government this week, American and Cuban officials confirmed.

    Reps. James McGovern (D-MA), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Troy Carter (D-LA) met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, leaders in Cuba’s congress and its foreign minister, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba told The Associated Press on Sunday.

    It’s one of just a handful of such visits to the island in recent decades. While officials provided few details about what was discussed, Díaz-Canel and Cuba’s Congress tweeted photos of the meetings.

    One photo shows Rep. McGovern shaking hands with the Cuban leader and another shows the politicians meeting with other Cuban officials.

    “We addressed our differences and topics of shared interest. We affirmed our willingness to improve bilateral relations,” tweeted Díaz-Canel Saturday, also noting he expressed the importance of ending the U.S. government’s six-decade trade embargo on the island.

    The meeting comes following a number of visits in past months by Biden administration officials to discuss migration. The talks mark a gradual easing of tensions, which were relaxed during the Obama administration and tightened under the Trump administration.

    Cuba is facing the greatest exodus from the island in a decade, fueled by compounding economic, energy and political crises.

    In the past year, Cuban arrivals to the U.S.-Mexico border have skyrocketed, and a growing number of boats packed with migrants have been found off of Florida’s coast.

    In October, Cubans replaced Venezuelans as the second most numerous nationality after Mexicans arriving at the border. U.S. authorities stopped Cubans 28,848 times, up 10% from the previous month, the latest data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows.

    It also comes weeks before the U.S. plans to resume visa and consular services on the island, which had been stalled after a series of health incidents involving American diplomats in 2017.

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  • Felipe Valls Sr., founder of iconic restaurant central to Miami’s Cuban community, dies at 89 | CNN

    Felipe Valls Sr., founder of iconic restaurant central to Miami’s Cuban community, dies at 89 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Cuban businessman Felipe Valls Sr., founder of the iconic Versailles restaurant in Miami, Florida, died Saturday, his granddaughter, Nicole Valls confirmed to CNN. He was 89 years old.

    Nicole Valls did not provide further details on her grandfather’s death, but said the family’s spokespeople are expected to provide more information at a later time.

    After Valls opened his restaurant on Miami’s emblematic Calle Ocho 51 years ago, it became a vital gathering place for exiled Cubans who could congregate over flaky guava pastelitos and other familiar dishes.

    The landmark spot in the city’s Little Havana neighborhood is still a usual point of concentration for activists and members of the Cuban community in South Florida. It also serves as a meeting point for demonstrations on political issues involving the island.

    Miami Mayor Francis Suarez mourned Valls’ loss on Saturday, describing the businessman as “an extraordinary human being who served his family, his beloved Miami, and the freedom of Cuba with supreme devotion.”

    Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a tweet Valls was “the true embodiment of the American dream.”

    “As a leader, philanthropist and brilliant businessman, he shaped (Versailles) into the pulse of our community for over five decades,” the mayor wrote.

    Those sentiments were echoed by Florida State Representative Daniel Perez, who tweeted his condolences for the loss of “an icon in our community.”

    Media outlets, including CNN, have visited Versailles over the years to gauge the opinions of the Cuban community on various issues and significant events such as Fidel Castro’s death in 2016, when crowds filled the streets around the cafe, banding pots and pans and popping champagne, according to CNN affiliate WSVN.

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  • Cuba says at least 5 dead after boat heading to US crashes

    Cuba says at least 5 dead after boat heading to US crashes

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    HAVANA — A boat off northern Cuba traveling toward the United States sank Saturday after a collision with a Cuban coast guard ship, and at least five people died, Cuban officials said Saturday.

    The craft reportedly flipped over after the crash near Bahía Honda, about two hours from the capital of Havana.

    Among the five known dead were a minor and three women, while about two dozen people were rescued, the state media outlet Cubadebate said.

    Further details were not released, with Cuban officials telling the state channel that an investigation was underway.

    The incident comes amid the biggest migratory flight from the Caribbean island in four decades, spurred by a deepening economic, political and energy crisis.

    Cuba’s Interior Ministry threw blame on the U.S., saying the deaths were a “another consequence” of American policy toward Cuba, including the 60-year embargo.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. sent condolences to the families of those deceased.

    “As we expand safe and legal pathways for migration, we warn against attempting dangerous and sometimes fatal irregular migration,” said a tweet from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, which has yet to resume full operations on the island.

    The vast majority of Cubans who are leaving go by plane to Nicaragua, then travel overland to the U.S. border, often in Texas and Arizona.

    But a growing number have fled by boat on the dangerous 90-mile journey to the southern coast of the United States. Between October 2021 and August 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted more than 4,600 Cubans traveling by boat, almost six times more than in all of 2020.

    It is the largest exodus since 1980, when around 125,000 Cubans traveled by sea to the U.S. over six months, known as the Mariel crisis.

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  • Pakistan: Oldest prisoner freed from Guantanamo, back home

    Pakistan: Oldest prisoner freed from Guantanamo, back home

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    ISLAMABAD — A 75-year-old from Pakistan who was the oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center was released and returned to Pakistan on Saturday, the foreign ministry in Islamabad and the U.S. Defense Department said.

    Saifullah Paracha was reunited with his family after more than 17 years in custody in the U.S. base in Cuba, the ministry added.

    Paracha had been held on suspicion of ties to al-Qaida since 2003, but was never charged with a crime. Last year in May, he was notified that he had been been approved for release. He was cleared by the prisoner review board, along with two other men in November 2020.

    As is customary, the notification did not provide detailed reasoning for the decision and concluded only that Paracha is “not a continuing threat” to the United States, according to Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, who represented him at his hearing at the time.

    The DOD said in its Saturday statement that the U.S. appreciates “the willingness of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility.”

    In Pakistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said it had completed an extensive inter-agency process to facilitate Paracha’s repatriation.

    “We are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family,” the ministry said.

    Paracha, who lived in the United States and owned property in New York City, was a wealthy businessman in Pakistan. Authorities alleged he was an al-Qaida “facilitator” who helped two of the conspirators in the Sept. 11 plot with a financial transaction.

    He has maintained that he didn’t know they were al-Qaida and denied any involvement in terrorism.

    The U.S. captured Paracha in Thailand in 2003 and held him at Guantanamo since September 2004. Washington has long asserted that it can hold detainees indefinitely without charge under the international laws of war.

    In November 2020, Paracha, who suffers from a number of ailments, including diabetes and a heart condition, made his eighth appearance before the review board, which was established under President Barack Obama to try to prevent the release of prisoners who authorities believed might engage in anti-U.S. hostilities upon their release from Guantanamo.

    At the time, his attorney, Sullivan-Bennis, said she was more optimistic about his prospects because of President Joe Biden’s election, Paracha’s ill health and developments in a legal case involving his son, Uzair Paracha.

    The son was convicted in 2005 in federal court in New York of providing support to terrorism, based in part on testimony from the same witnesses held at Guantanamo whom the U.S. relied on to justify holding the father.

    In March 2020, after a judge threw out those witness accounts and the U.S. government decided not to seek a new trial, the younger Paracha was released and sent back to Pakistan.

    In its statement on the elder Paracha’s repatriation, the DOD said 35 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay as of Saturday, and that of 20 of them are eligible for transfer.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Thomas Strong in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Illegal border crossings to US from Mexico hit annual high

    Illegal border crossings to US from Mexico hit annual high

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    SAN DIEGO (AP) — A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.

    Migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 times in August and 18.5% from 192,001 times in September 2021.

    In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released late Friday night. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019.

    Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were stopped in September, compared to about 58,000 from Mexico and three countries of northern Central America that have historically accounted for most of the flow.

    The remarkable geographic shift is at least partly a result of Title 42, a public health rule that suspends rights to see asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

    Due to strained diplomatic relations, the U.S. cannot expel migrants to Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua. As a result, they are largely released in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

    Title 42 authority has been applied 2.4 million times since it began in March 2020 but has fallen disproportionately on migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

    U.S. officials say Venezuelan migration to the United States has plunged more than 85% since Oct. 12, when the U.S. began expelling Venezuelans to Mexico under Title 42. At the same time, the Biden administration pledged to admit up to 24,000 Venezuelans to the United States on humanitarian parole if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport, similar to how tens of thousands of Ukrainians have come since Russia invaded their country.

    The first four Venezuelans paroled into the United States arrived Saturday — two from Mexico, one from Guatemala, one from Peru — and hundreds more have been approved to fly, the Homeland Security Department said.

    “While this early data is not reflected in the (September) report, it confirms what we’ve said all along: When there is a lawful and orderly way to enter the country, individuals will be less likely to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and try to cross the border unlawfully,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.

    The expansion of Title 42 for Venezuelans to be expelled to Mexico came despite the administration’s attempt to end the public health authority in May, which was blocked by a federal judge.

    Venezuelans represented the second-largest nationality at the border after Mexicans for the second straight month, being stopped 33,804 times in September, up 33% from 25,361 times in August.

    Cubans, who are participating in the largest exodus from the Caribbean island to the United States since 1980, were stopped 26,178 times at the border in September, up 37% from 19,060 in August.

    Nicaraguans were stopped 18,199 times in September, up 55% from 7,298 times in August.

    The report is the last monthly reading of migration flows before U.S. midterm elections, an issue that many Republicans have emphasized in campaigns to capture control of the House and Senate. Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee released a one-sentence statement Saturday in response to the numbers: “You’ve got to be kidding.”

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  • After Hurricane Ian left Cuba in the dark, protestors took to the streets. Now the government is set to charge them | CNN

    After Hurricane Ian left Cuba in the dark, protestors took to the streets. Now the government is set to charge them | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Protestors in Cuba who have been taking to the streets after Hurricane Ian damaged the island’s already faltering power grid could face criminal charges, Cuba’s Attorney General’s office said Saturday.

    In a note published in the island’s communist party newspaper, Granma, prosecutors said they were investigating cases of arson and vandalism of state property, streets closures and “insults to officials and forces of order.”

    Additionally, parents of minors who take part in the protests could face charges of child endangerment, according to the note.

    Anti-government protests are usually quickly broken up by police in Cuba, but after Hurricane Ian worsened the island’s critical power shortages, Cubans across the island have taken to the streets to complain.

    After forming in the Southern Caribbean Sea, Hurricane Ian made landfall late last month as a Category 3 hurricane in Cuba just southwest of La Coloma in the western Pinar del Rio province.

    The hurricane’s fierce winds and rain left at least three people dead, state media said, and knocked out power to the entire island.

    Two of the deaths occurred in Pinar del Rio, where a woman died after a wall collapsed on her and a man died after his roof fell on him, state media said.

    The state-run National Electric System turned off power in Havana to avoid electrocutions, deaths and property damage until the weather improved. But the nationwide blackouts were caused by the storm and were not planned.

    The storm exacerbated an economic crisis that has been gripping Cuba, leading to shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Blackouts across the island were regular all summer, which led to rare scattered protests against the government. Those protests picked up after the hurricane made life harder for Cubans already struggling.

    Often at night, protestors in cities and towns have banged on pots and pans, angry at government power cuts. Some protestors have called for electrical service to be restored while others have demanded that Cuban leaders step down.

    The recent protests have not reached the scale as those of July 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets demanding change, in the largest anti-government demonstrations since the 1959 revolution.

    After days of power cuts by the government last year, residents in the small city of San Antonio de los Baños ran out of patience. On July 11, 2021, they took to the streets in a moment of rare public dissent on the island.

    Cubans across the nation were able to live stream and view in real time the unfolding protests in San Antonio de los Baños – and join in.

    Almost immediately thousands of other Cubans were demonstrating. Some complained the lack of food and medicines, others denounced high-ranking officials and called for greater civil liberties. The unprecedented protests spread to small cities and towns.

    While Cuban officials have long blamed US sanctions for the island’s woes, protestors during the summer of 2021 raged squarely against their own government for their worsening living conditions.

    In a speech on state-run TV, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed the island’s economic problems on US sanctions, said the protests were the result of a subversion campaign directed from abroad and called on Cubans loyal to the revolution to take back the streets. The state cracked down.

    Cuban prosecutors said this summer that close to 500 people were convicted and sentenced in connection with the protests, in the largest mass trials on the island in decades. Prison terms ranged between four and 30 years for crimes that included sedition.

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  • Hurricane Ian knocks out power in Cuba:

    Hurricane Ian knocks out power in Cuba:

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    Hurricane Ian knocked out power across all of Cuba and devastated some of the country’s most important tobacco farms when it slammed into the island’s western tip as a major hurricane Tuesday. At least two people were reported killed.

    Cuba’s Electric Union said in a statement that work was underway to gradually restore service to the country’s 11 million people during the night. Power was initially knocked out to about 1 million people in Cuba’s western provinces, but later the entire grid collapsed.

    By Wednesday, the Energy and Mines Ministry announced it had restored energy to three regions by activating two large power plants in Felton and Nuevitas and was working to get others back on line.

    But the capital, Havana, and other parts of western Cuba remained without power on Wednesday in the wake of the major hurricane, which had advanced northward to Florida.

    Ian hit a Cuba that has been struggling with an economic crisis and has faced frequent power outages in recent months. It made landfall as a Category 3 storm on the island’s western end, devastating Pinar del Río province, where much of the tobacco used for Cuba’s iconic cigars is grown.

    Tens of thousands of people were evacuated and others fled the area ahead of the arrival of Ian, which caused flooding, damaged houses and blew toppled trees. Authorities were still assessing the damage, although no victims had been reported by Tuesday night.

    Ian’s winds damaged one of Cuba’s most important tobacco farms in La Robaina.

    Cubans face Hurricane Ian in Pinar del Rio, Cuba
    A vintage car passes by debris caused by the Hurricane Ian as it passed in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, September 27, 2022.

    Alexandre Meneghini / REUTERS


    “It was apocalyptic, a real disaster,” said Hirochi Robaina, owner of the farm that bears his name and that his grandfather made known internationally.

    Robaina, also the owner of the Finca Robaina cigar producer, posted photos on social media of wood-and-thatch roofs smashed to the ground, greenhouses in rubble and wagons overturned.

    State media said Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the affected region.

    Cuba’s Meteorology Institute said the city of Pinar del Río was in worst of the hurricane for an hour and a half.

    “Being in the hurricane was terrible for me, but we are here alive,” said Pinar del Rio resident Yusimí Palacios, who asked authorities for a roof and a mattress.

    Officials had set up 55 shelters, evacuated 50,000 people, and took steps to protect crops, especially tobacco.

    The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Cuba suffered “significant wind and storm surge impacts” when the hurricane struck with top sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph).  

    Cubans face Hurricane Ian in Pinar del Rio, Cuba
    People pass by an electric transformer laying on the street in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, on September 27, 2022.

    Alexandre Meneghini / REUTERS


    Local government station TelePinar reported heavy damage at the main hospital in Pinar del Rio city, tweeting photos of collapsed ceilings and downed trees. No deaths were reported.

    “I spent the hurricane at home with my husband and the dog. The masonry and zinc roof of the house had just been installed. But the storm tore it down,” said Mercedes Valdés, who lives along the highway connecting Pinar del Río to San Juan y Martínez. “We couldn’t rescue our things … we just ran out.”

    Hurricane Ian continued northward through the Gulf of Mexico, making landfall along the west coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon after strengthening to a Category 4, approaching the top of the scale.

    Coastal areas around Fort Myers, Florida were warned by the National Hurricane Center to brace for a storm surge that could see water levels rise 12 to 16 feet above normal levels, if the peak surge coincided with high tide. The next high tide in the region was expected at about 7 p.m. local time.

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  • Hurricane Ian nears Cuba on path to strike Florida as Cat 4

    Hurricane Ian nears Cuba on path to strike Florida as Cat 4

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    HAVANA (AP) — Hurricane Ian was growing stronger as it barreled toward Cuba on a track to hit Florida’s west coast as a major hurricane as early as Wednesday.

    Ian was forecast to hit the western tip of Cuba as a major hurricane and then become an even stronger Category 4 with top winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) over warm Gulf of Mexico waters before striking Florida.

    As of Monday, Tampa and St. Petersburg appeared to be the among the most likely targets for their first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921.

    “Please treat this storm seriously. It’s the real deal. This is not a drill,” Hillsborough County Emergency Management Director Timothy Dudley said at a news conference on storm preparations in Tampa.

    Authorities in Cuba were evacuating 50,000 people in Pinar del Rio province, sent in medical and emergency personnel, and took steps to protect food and other crops in warehouses, according to state media.

    “Cuba is expecting extreme hurricane-force winds, also life-threatening storm surge and heavy rainfall,” U.S. National Hurricane Center senior specialist Daniel Brown told The Associated Press.

    The hurricane center predicted areas of Cuba’s western coast could see as much as 14 feet (4.3 meters) of storm surge Monday night or early Tuesday.

    In Havana, fishermen were taking their boats out of the water along the famous Malecon, the seaside boardwalk, and city workers were unclogging storm drains ahead of the expected rain.

    Havana resident Adyz Ladron, 35, said the potential for rising water from the storm worries him.

    “I am very scared because my house gets completely flooded, with water up to here,” he said, pointing to his chest.

    In Havana’s El Fanguito, a poor neighborhood near the Almendares River, residents were packing up what they could to leave their homes, many of which show damage from previous storms.

    “I hope we escape this one because it would be the end of us. We already have so little,” health worker Abel Rodrigues, 54, said.

    On Monday night, Ian was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 km/h), about 105 miles (169 kilometers) southeast of the western tip of Cuba, with top sustained winds increasing to 105 mph (169 km/h).

    The center of the hurricane passed to the west of the Cayman Islands, but no major damage was reported there Monday, and residents were going back into the streets as the winds died down.

    “We seem to have dodged the bullet” Grand Cayman resident Gary Hollins said. “I am a happy camper.”

    Ian won’t linger over Cuba but will slow down over the Gulf of Mexico, growing wider and stronger, “which will have the potential to produce significant wind and storm surge impacts along the west coast of Florida,” the hurricane center said.

    A surge of up to 10 feet (3 meters) of ocean water and 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain was predicted across the Tampa Bay area, with as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) inches in isolated areas. That’s enough water to inundate coastal communities.

    As many as 300,000 people may be evacuated from low-lying areas in Hillsborough County alone, county administrator Bonnie Wise said. Some of those evacuations were beginning Monday afternoon in the most vulnerable areas, with schools and other locations opening as shelters.

    “We must do everything we can to protect our residents. Time is of the essence,” Wise said.

    Floridians lined up for hours in Tampa to collect bags of sand and cleared store shelves of bottled water. Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a statewide emergency and warned that Ian could lash large areas of the state, knocking out power and interrupting fuel supplies as it swirls northward off the state’s Gulf Coast.

    “You have a significant storm that may end up being a Category 4 hurricane,” DeSantis said at a news conference. “That’s going to cause a huge amount of storm surge. You’re going to have flood events. You’re going to have a lot of different impacts.”

    DeSantis said the state has suspended tolls around the Tampa Bay area and mobilized 5,000 Florida state national guard troops, with another 2,000 on standby in neighboring states.

    President Joe Biden also declared an emergency, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance to protect lives and property. The president postponed a scheduled Tuesday trip to Florida because of the storm.

    Playing it safe, NASA planned to slowly roll its moon rocket from the launch pad to its Kennedy Space Center hangar, adding weeks of delay to the test flight.

    The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced Monday night that the football team was relocating football operations to the Miami area in preparation for next weekend’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Buccaneers said the team will leave Tampa on Tuesday.

    Flash flooding was predicted for much of the Florida peninsula, and heavy rainfall was possible for the southeast United States later this week. With tropical storm force winds extending 115 miles (185 kilometers) from Ian’s center, watches covered the Florida Keys to Lake Okeechobee.

    Bob Gualtieri, sheriff of Pinellas County, Florida, which includes St. Petersburg, said in a briefing that although no one will be forced to leave, mandatory evacuation orders are expected to begin Tuesday.

    “What it means is, we’re not going to come help you. If you don’t do it, you’re on your own,” Gualtieri said.

    Zones to be evacuated include all along Tampa Bay and the rivers that feed it. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch urged residents not to ignore any evacuation orders.

    “This is a very real threat that this storm poses to our community,” Welch said.

    The hurricane center has advised Floridians to have survival plans in place and monitor updates of the storm’s evolving path.

    ___

    Associated Press contributors include Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; and Julie Walker in New York.

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