Cuba

Despite the rhetoric and the photo-ops, the Trinidad Summit of the Americas postponed any real discussion of U.S. policy toward Cuba. In the U.S., the extremist embargo has been a sop to the right-wing and Florida electorate. But in countries like Mexico, Chile and Brazil, the Latin policy of never taking Havana to task for its atrocious human-rights record is a sop to the domestic left.

JORGE CASTAÑEDA AND ANDRÉS MARTINEZ, Fellows at the New America Foundation: For once Barack Obama can't be accused of pushing for ambitious change. The minor adjustments he has made to American policy towards Cuba simply take us back to the days of the Clinton administration, a time when the trade embargo and the travel ban had already proven to be counterproductive anachronisms. They still are.

Steve Clemons, a director at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank that favours ending the ban, today predicted that passage through Congress was more likely next year than this. Mel Martinez, a Republican senator from Florida, ...

For years, two tidbits of conventional wisdom have dominated debates among Cubanologists (a tropical subspecies of former Kremlinologists). First, that Deputy Prime Minister and economic czar Carlos Lage has been in charge of running the island economy since the early '90s, and, despite differences of opinion regarding his performance, was seen as one of the most likely successors to Fidel Castro's brother and successor, Raúl. Second, that Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque was not only in charge of the international relations Fidel Castro took

In the words of Steve Clemons, a Latin America expert at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank, Cuba is “the lowest hanging ripe fruit on America’s tree of foreign policy options. Change is easy there -- and overdue. ...

But Steve Clemons, with the New America Foundation, says Lugar's report is a sharp indictment of nearly five decades of failure in trying to shift Havana's behavior through sanctions and embargoes. "I think the ... thing about the Lugar report is he ...

The Cuban revolution turned 50 years old last week, and its founder and undertaker was still around to celebrate the anniversary, though not in the best of health or spirits. This makes it a good opportunity to summarize what the revolution has brought to Cuba and what is has meant for Latin America.

On the eve of its 50th anniversary, the Cuban Revolution -- or what is left of it -- can contemplate a bewildering paradox that sums up the results of one of Latin America's most daring political feats of all time. Never before has Havana harvested diplomatic successes of the sort it has enjoyed in the last few months. Yet never before has the survival of the regime -- and the Cuban people's acceptance of the domestic sacrifices it demands of them -- been so much in… more

If you live in Galveston, Texas, Hurricane Ike will be remembered for its destruction. But history may remember the ninth named storm of the 2008 season for swinging the 2008 presidential campaign.

That's because Ike devastated a little island off Florida named Cuba. In fact, Cuba sustained damage from four hurricanes: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. Gustav hit the Western end of Cuba as a Category 4 storm. Ike entered the east of Cuba as a strong Category 3 then shredded the full length of the island for three days.… more