America and Cuba

Category: Articles

  • And Still They Come In The Name Of Liberty

    Migration from Cuba to the United States is at a peak. Photo: NBC 6 South Florida

    October 7, 2022—The name of the small boat said it all: Libertad. On the stern, the words “Si, se puede” said a lot. They reflected the passengers’ determination to make a new life. Yes, we can.

    They reached U.S. shores around 3:00 a.m. on the shores of Key Biscayne, just outside of Miami.

    The vessel fit 26 passengers. Looking at the boat, it’s a wonder how they would have fit in the boat for the trip. When there’s a will, there’s a way.

    https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/cuban-migrants-land-on-key-biscayne/2876620/

    Fleeing Cuba

    Cubans have been fleeing from the communist island in record numbers in recent months.

    In a sense, the trend is not new. They’ve escaped to brighter shores since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. Once in control, it didn’t take Castro long to nationalize private property and punish opponents. That drove Cubans to flee for secure shores by the tens of thousands. Some estimates suggest 250,000 Cubans fled the island in the years following the revolution.

    Cuban Migration to the United States Spikes

    Political repression in Cuba never really stopped. Neither did the quest for a better life—a life where one could speak freely and make a decent living.

    This year the number of international migrants reaching U.S. borders swelled to new highs.

    From October 2021 to August 2022, U.S. border patrol agents encountered 2.49 million migrants along various borders. Of those migrants, 197,870 came from Cuba, according to encounter statistics from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    Most of them coming are single adults. They don’t all come on boats arriving in Florida. Many arrive along the Southwest Land Border. Others are found along the Northwest Land Border in cities like Detroit, Buffalo and Seattle.

    It is often a dangerous and expensive voyage. And still, they come.

  • Cuban Diplomats Disrupt U.S.-Held Event at United Nations

    Cuban Diplomats Disrupt U.S.-Held Event at United Nations

    October 18, 2018–As U.S. diplomats held an event at the United Nations to discuss political repression in Cuba on Tuesday, Cuban diplomats disrupted speakers by banging the tables and shouting.

    “This is a sick joke,” Kelley E. Currie, U.S. representative to the UN Economic and Social Council said at the outset of the meeting as noisemakers interrupted her opening statement. Pressing on, Currie outlined her concerns about the Cuban government’s detention of its citizens for political purposes.

    Political Prisoners

    According to Currie, Cuba authorities arbitrarily detained 5,000 of its nationals for political reasons in 2017. She said the government sentenced many “on arbitrary charges like contempt of Cuban authorities” and classified others for being “pre-criminal” or socially dangerous.

    “More and more, Cuban repression relies on raids on homes and offices, short-term detentions and public denunciations known as repudio,” Currie said, adding, “which I think is what we may be seeing right now.”

    Boisterous shouting continued throughout the event as other panelists spoke of their experiences.

    Why Highlight Cuba Alone?

    Currie later held a press conference and complained about the disruptions of the event. “If the diplomats behave this way, how do the police behave?” she asked. “It has no place in the United Nations.”

    One reporter asked her why the United States focused its attention on Cuba when other countries also practice political repression.

    The matter of political prisoners in Cuba is “under highlighted and needs attention,” Currie said. “We feel it’s important to shine a light on a regime that is undermining security across Latin America,” Currie said, referring to Cuba’s influence in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

    Watch Here

    For more, watch the 49-minute event here.

     

  • Investigators Search for Cause Plane Crash Outside Havana

    Investigators Search for Cause Plane Crash Outside Havana

    May 21-As Cuba ended its official two-day mourning period following the loss of life in a May 18 plane crash outside of Havana, investigators from Cuba, Mexico and the Boeing Corp. began searching for the cause of the crash.

    Cuba’s national airline, Cubana de Aviacion, had rented the 39 year-old Boeing 737 airplane from a Mexican charter company named Damojh Aerolíneas, also called Global Air. Of the 110 people killed in the crash, 104 were passengers and six were Mexican crew members. Three people survived the crash and are in critical condition in a Havana hospital.

    About half the people who died were from the Cuban province of Holguín, 400 miles east of Havana, where the plane was headed.

    Mexican-Owned Plane Had Previous Problems

    The plane itself had been previously barred from an airport in the South American nation of Guyana after its crew had overloaded the plane destined for Cuba with cargo.

    According to a news story by the Associated Press, Cuban Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez told reporters the Cuban airline had been “renting the plane for less than a month under an arrangement in which the Mexican company was entirely responsible for maintenance of the aircraft.”

    The official added that it is routine for Cuba to rent planes because the U.S. embargo on Cuba makes it difficult for its airlines to purchase its own aircraft.