Millions of sandals- and shorts-wearing Europeans, Canadians and Latin Americans flock here each year for the wide beaches and free-flowing rum. Although the accommodations are modern, the Cuba experience also offers a step back in time, to a slow-moving land of belching 1950s cars and peeling Spanish mansions.
Both sides admitted they had "profound differences" but they decided to see each other again. They must still discuss a date or location for their next meeting.
HAVANA, Cuba – U.S. and Cuban officials launched historic talks to shed their Cold War-era hostility Wednesday, complimenting each other on the first day's progress despite persistent differences over migration policy.
HAVANA, Cuba — The first scheduled meeting between U.S. and Cuban officials to reestablish diplomatic relations may not lead immediately to the opening of embassies here and in the United States, a senior State Department official said Monday.
The U.S. diplomatic opening with Cuba has spurred a seemingly unintended consequence: A flood of Cubans taking to makeshift rafts to get to the United States illegally due to concerns that a quick path to legal residency may end.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Before President Barack Obama announced last week that Washington and Havana would restore diplomatic ties, one U.S. official had already been working on a special project -- call it insemination diplomacy -- to unite the two countries.
MEXICO CITY — With shouts of "Viva Fidel!" Cuban President Raúl Castro said on Saturday that the easing of tensions with the United States did not mean he was going to jettison the communist ideals that his brother brought to the island a half-century ago.
Despite the unusually close diplomatic ties between Caracas and Havana (even their intelligence services are interlinked), President Nicolás Maduro appears to have been caught completely off guard by this week's dramatic announcement.
Under President Raúl Castro, arbitrary arrests have "increased dramatically" in recent years and detainees are often beaten and threatened in custody, according to Human Rights Watch. On Dec. 10, Universal Human Rights Day, Cuban authorities detained 240 people arbitrarily, according to the dissident group Patriotic Union of Cuba.
As shipping executive Jay Brickman was leaving for Miami International Airport for his 50-minute charter flight to Havana, he had no clue the earth was about to shake under his feet.
