Havana, Feb 24 (IANS/EFE) Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died Tuesday in a Havana hospital after an 85-day hunger strike to demand that authorities acknowledge his status as a Amnesty International (AI) designated prisoner of conscience, opposition sources said. Citing confirmation from family members, the sources told EFE that Zapata died between 3.30...
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Havana, Feb 22 (IANS/EFE) Cuban National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon said he did not believe that the meeting of US diplomats with Cuban dissidents earlier this weekend, after talks with the government about immigration, ruptures the dialogue between Washington and Havana. ‘I don’t think that it has to interrupt it, except if in his...
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Havana, Feb 20 (IANS/EFE) Cuban and US diplomats have discussed here a proposal for a new migration accord that Havana presented last July, officials said. ‘Both sides evaluated how the existing migration accords are working,’ the Cuban government said in a statement Friday. ‘They also discussed aspects contained in the new proposal for a...
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Havana, Feb 19 (IANS/EFE) The unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation has said that four political prisoners were released from prison in January, but it added that ‘political repression continued increasing, in the form of arbitrary arrests for several hours or several days’. ‘In the month of December 2009, we document...
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Havana, Feb 17 (IANS/EFE) After 75 days on hunger strike, Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo has been was transferred to a prison hospital in Havana due to his ‘grave condition’, said a dissident group. Elizardo Sanchez, chairman of the unofficial Cuban Human Rights Commission, Tuesday said Zapata’s family confirmed the transfer from the...
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Havana, Feb 16 (IANS/EFE) Outstanding figures from Russian ballet with the Bolshoi Theatre performed in Havana after a 30-year absence at a gala event where they shared the stage with dancers from the National Ballet of Cuba, or BNC. The performance Saturday at the Teatro Karl Marx was one of the most anticipated events...
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Havana, Feb 12 (IANS/EFE) Russian and Cuban foreign ministers have emphasised here the ‘enormous potential’ and the ‘strategic’ nature of relations between their two countries. Sergei Lavrov arrived in Cuba for a three-day visit and presided at a meeting with Bruno Rodriguez, after which they signed three accords. ‘Our relations continue to develop very...
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Havana, Feb 6 (IANS/EFE) Cuba has detained 37 dissidents in eastern Camaguey province for showing solidarity with an ailing political prisoner, a human rights group said. Elizardo Sanchez, chairman of the NGO Cuban Human Rights Commission, told foreign journalists Friday that 23 people were ‘brutally beaten’ and arrested Wednesday after a street demonstration. Fourteen...
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Havana, Jan 29 – The situation in Haiti after the devastating earthquake Jan 12 is a shame for humankind, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has said. The Cuban minister said the abject poverty caused by colonialism, foreign occupation and plundering of Haiti’s natural resources were causing the current serious social situation, Prensa Latina reported...
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Havana, Jan 29 (IANS/EFE) Cuba received 2.43 million foreign visitors last year, up 3.5 percent from 2008, but revenue from tourism fell 11 percent. The 2.3 million tourists who came to the communist-ruled island in 2008 spent $2.74 billion, which fell to $2.43 billion in 2009, according to the National Statistics Office. Canada accounted...
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Havana, Jan 28 (IANS/EFE) Cuba has said the US was not making enough effort to improve bilateral relations with the communist country. President Barack Obama’s administration is not taking basic steps to improve relations, although it has reduced the ‘anti-Cuban rhetoric’ from Washington and eliminated some restrictions on travellers, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez...
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Havana, Jan 27 (IANS/EFE) US gallery owner Gilbert Brownstone has donated to Cuba nine drawings and engravings on paper by renowned artists including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Andy Warhol, Cuban state media reported. The grant will eventually comprise 120 works of art, the state media said, with the first lot also containing pieces...
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