Cuba, using its homegrown vaccines, is one of the first nations to begin vaccinating very young children.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/17/cuba-begins-vaccinating-children-as-young-as-two-against-covid-19
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By:
MIAMI — President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to slap targeted individual sanctions on Cuba regime officials, bucking the progressive voices in his own party who called for an end to the embargo.
Biden’s response to Cuba — which also includes measures to bring increased internet access to the island and calls for more international pressure on the totalitarian government — was outlined Wednesday night in a call with Democratic Cuban-American activists in Miami who had been calling for more action ever since the July 11 uprisings on the island.
But it’s the proposal to extend the targeted sanctions of the Magnitsky Act, originally passed in response to Russian government oppression and then extended to governments such as Venezuela, that has most encouraged activists who want more pressure on Cuba.
“This is huge,” said Sasha Tirador, a top Miami political operative who was briefed on the plans Wednesday night.
“No administration has ever announced that they will hold each individual who violates human rights on the island of Cuba accountable,” she said.
Tirador and others on the call had been initially frustrated that Biden didn’t immediately react with a response plan for Cuba after the uprisings as Cuban-American Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio, also a Miami resident, began questioning the administration’s resolve.
The conservative criticism of Biden’s Cuba response has escalated significantly in recent days, with several high-profile commentators, congressional lawmakers and 2024 Republican White House hopefuls using the unrest to hammer the administration’s foreign policy — all while galvanizing the GOP around anti-communist themes.
They’ve also called for Biden to green light a proposal to launch high-altitude balloons to beam internet access into the island, but the president and administration officials have been cool to the idea because they’re not sure it works. Instead, on the call Wednesday night, officials with the administration said they’re working on an alternative way to provide internet access or what are called virtual private networks, or VPNs, to allow Cubans on the island to communicate freely without the regime spying on them.
Around the same time that Miami Democrats were being briefed, Fox News’ Sean Hannity came to Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood and devoted his hour-long, weeknight show entirely to Cuba’s protests, hosting the program live from Calle Ocho and featuring guests that included Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Rep. MarĂa Salazar (R-Fla.).
Accusing the president of “great cowardice,” Hannity asked at one point in the broadcast: “What is the Biden doctrine? To kiss the ass of every single, solitary dictator in the world?”
Administration officials last week began to speed up efforts to develop a Cuba plan following the widespread anti-government protests in more than 40 cities across the island.
Prior to the protests, Biden’s team repeatedly made clear that Cuba policy was not a foreign policy priority for the administration. But the protests made the communist-run island nation an unavoidable subject.
On Monday, the Biden administration announced it would form a working group that will consider remittances for Cuban families and look into increasing the staff at the U.S. embassy in Havana.
Multiple people close to the White House confirmed last week that U.S. officials were exploring using Magnitsky, which also allows the U.S. to impose economic sanctions on individuals believed to be engaged in human rights abuses and corruption.
“As @POTUS directed, we will apply hard-hitting sanctions on Cuban officials who orchestrated these human rights violations,” Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, posted on Twitter on Thursday, following a meeting with a Cuban human rights activist.
Sen. Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Cuban American Democrat, has been a key figure in talks with the administration, multiple people close to the White House said. Menendez, of New Jersey, has called for the Biden administration to keep strong sanctions against Cuba and work to build international support against the Cuban regime.
“I think it’s important that the administration send a clear message that violence and repression against peaceful protestors is not only condemnable but it can have actions against them,” Menendez told POLITICO last week.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/22/biden-sanctions-cuba-500534
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Marc Caputo and Sabrina Rodriguez
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday ran into opposition from a prominent Florida Democrat after she called for the U.S. to end its embargo on Cuba, underlining divisions within the party on how to respond to the communist country’s recent upheaval.
“We also must name the U.S contribution to Cuban suffering: our sixty-year-old embargo,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted. “I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against every day people.”
Former Florida congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell publicly chastised the New York congresswoman’s position on Twitter, pointing to “failed policies of a communist regime that has violated human rights, imprisoned & killed dissidents.”
“This is a matter of national security. The US must act,” Mucarsel-Powell tweeted.
The starkly differing positions exemplify a split between progressive and moderate Democrats on the Cuban embargo. Ocasio-Cortez has risen to prominence in the House as part of a progressive coalition. Mucarsel-Powell, who has been advising House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Cuba policy, was ousted from her heavily Latino South Florida district in 2020, when Hispanic voters broke hard for Republicans as they pounded Democrats for being socialists. While Miami Democrats ran from the term, Ocasio-Cortez has aligned with Democratic socialists.
Cubans took to the streets in historic protests and demonstrations against the six-decade-old regime this past week, leading to hundreds of arrests.
President Joe Biden’s administration has been slow to react to the unrest despite urgent calls for action from both sides of the aisle.
Meanwhile, Florida Democrats see an opportunity for Biden to help bring democracy to Cuba and, as a result, attract the Hispanic voters who fled the party in the November election.
Biden on Thursday called Cuba a “failed state” in his sharpest recent comments on the island situated just 90 miles from Floridian shores.
Marc Caputo contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/15/aoc-cuba-tweet-florida-dem-499802
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Jonathan Custodio
Cuban government imposes internet blackouts and jams communications. Also, the rise of socially conscious sports stars.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2021/7/17/cuba-protesters-move-from-social-media-to-the-streets
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By:
The historic protests in Cuba stem from frustration over acute shortages and the communist governemnt’s failure to improve the economy amid the pandemic.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-exploded-protests-goes-us-embargo-pandemic-rcna1399
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Carmen Sesin
As protests continue in Cuba over the country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the surrounding economic fallout, the Cuban government has moved to restrict access to social media and messaging platforms. According to NetBlocks, an organization that tracks internet access, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram have all been at least partially blocked on the Caribbean island since Monday.
Confirmed: Social media and messaging platforms restricted in #Cuba from Monday on state-run internet provider ETECSA; real-time network data corroborate reports of internet disruptions amid widening anti-government protests; incident ongoing
#CubaSOS
https://t.co/7eGwPS1Mqfpic.twitter.com/kY3G1qMAse
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) July 12, 2021
As of Tuesday afternoon, it appears the restrictions are still in place, with Reuters reporting that people in Havana don’t have access to mobile data at the moment. We’ve reached out to Facebook and Telegram for confirmation on the outages, and we’ll update this article when we hear back from the companies.
Mobile internet access is relatively new to Cuba. It was only in late 2018 that the country’s socialist government started rolling service out across the island. At the time, President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the politician protestors are demanding resign, said greater internet access would help Cubans “defend their revolution.” However, Cuba’s approach to dissent is not new. We’ve seen governments in countries like Mynamar and Iran use similar strategies when they faced protests in the past.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/cuba-blocks-internet-access-220656055.html?src=rss
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Igor Bonifacic
A defiant Cuban president lashed out at the U.S. embargo in response to protests over economic shortages during the pandemic.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuban-president-defiant-blames-embargo-after-massive-protests-n1273716
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Daniella Silva
US sanctions and coronavirus crisis lead to food shortages and high prices, sparking one of the biggest such demonstrations in memory
Thousands of Cubans have marched on Havana’s Malecon promenade and elsewhere to protest against food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis, in one of biggest anti-government demonstrations in memory.
Many young people took part in the Sunday afternoon protest in the capital, which disrupted traffic until police moved in after several hours when a few protesters threw rocks.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/12/thousands-march-in-cuba-in-rare-mass-protests-amid-economic-crisis
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Associated Press
Florida governor declares state of emergency in 15 counties, including site of collapsed condo
Tropical Storm Elsa was made landfall in Cuba on Monday, after 180,000 people were evacuated from southern regions amid fears of heavy flooding.
The storm swept over western Cuba near Havana with strong rain and winds, and forecasters said it would move on to the Florida Keys on Tuesday and Florida’s central Gulf coast by Wednesday.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/05/tropical-storm-elsa-cuba-florida-evacuations
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Edward Helmore and agencies
Cuba is now confronting new and dire economic challenges along with historic ones.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/4/17/as-cuba-turns-page-on-castro-era-economic-reform-gains-urgency
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By:
The tiger is one of four born on March 12 – white tigers are a genetic variation of orange Bengal tigers.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/15/rare-white-tiger-born-at-cubas-havana-zoo
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By:
Prisoners were moved from Camp 7, which held those previously detained in a network of clandestine CIA facilities where they were subjected to brutal interrogation techniques.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/u-s-shuts-once-secret-guantanamo-prison-unit-moves-prisoners-n1262999
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cuba-says-us-sanctions-have-caused-nearly-56b-in-losses-cuba-sanctions-donald-trump-bruno-rodriguez-island-b1233935.html
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Via AP news wire
Cuba plans to restart its tourism industry by sending visitors to five narrow islands that will offer all-inclusive vacations.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-devised-way-have-tourists-separate-population-here-s-how-n1232662
Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you.
The Article Was Written/Published By: Associated Press
