Cuba is surrounded by countries used as cartel way stations. But it has distinguished itself as a tough place to traffic drugs — and as an unlikely behind-the-scenes partner with its decades-long rival, the United States.
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.
The political thaw would eliminate the dangerous back channels of defection. The impact on the sport could be immense and, in the words of one team official, "drastic."
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.
The island was a refuge for my Jewish grandparents in the mid-1920s, at a time when the United States was imposing cruel quotas on European Jewish immigration. And I feel a bond, deep and mysterious, to this place, so small and yet so important to modern history.
