Cuba

October 24, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Obama today made the following statement following President Bush's speech on U.S. policy toward Cuba:

"After more than a year of sitting on the sidelines, President Bush has finally recognized that this is a moment of great potential for Cuban freedom. But the cause of freedom will not be advanced by counter-productive threats or conventional thinking.

We need to provide the Cuban people with more uncensored access to the outside world.    » read more »

October 24, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - President Bush delivered a speech today on Cuba policy after almost eight years of offering Cuban Americans empty promises, having repatriated some 8,000 Cuban refugees fleeing the Castro regime during his tenure. [New York Times, 10/23/07; AP, 10/24/07; New York Sun, 1/18/06]    » read more »

September 17, 2007 -- (Lincoln, NE) Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman announced plans to lead a delegation of Nebraska agriculture representatives to Cuba this fall. The trade mission will take place Sunday, Nov. 4 to Tuesday, Nov. 6.    » read more »

9-9-2007, MIAMI - Calling for broad, sweeping reforms to America's policy toward Cuba, Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd today unveiled his comprehensive Cuba policy in Miami, FL. Dodd, who has long led the fight to reform policy in Cuba, said that now is the time to reform our nation's Cuba policy, and that the current system has only served to strengthen Castro's regime.    » read more »

09/01/2007, CARSON, Calif. -- Cuban forward Maykel Galindo, currently Chivas USA's leading scorer with 10 goals, will appear this Sunday, Sept. 2 on Univision's 'República Deportiva,' America's most watched Spanish-language television sports program, live from the show's Miami studios.    » read more »

26 August 2007 -- A Cuban newspaper has published an article with the signature of Fidel Castro whose health has been a matter of rumor and speculation.

Mr. Castro's column on the history of Cuba's revolution appeared Sunday in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

He was last seen in public in July of 2006 when he provisionally handed power to his younger brother, Raul, due to intestinal surgery.

Cuban state television has not aired video of Mr. Castro since June 5. On August 13, his 81st birthday, Mr. Castro remained out of public view.    » read more »

23 August 2007 -- Cuba's foreign minister says President Fidel Castro is doing very well and recovering from last year's intestinal surgery, which forced him to provisionally hand power to his brother.

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque made the comment Thursday, telling reporters that the Cuban leader is very disciplined in his recovery process. Perez Roque spoke to the news media in Brazil, where he is attending a meeting of Latin American and East Asian officials.    » read more »

18 August 2007 -- Hungary has granted political asylum to 29 Cubans held at the Guantanamo U.S. naval base.

Hungary's MTI news agency quotes the Hungarian Foreign Ministry as saying the 29 were among 44 Cubans at Guantanamo caught by U.S. authorities at sea in recent years and prevented from reaching U.S. shores.

MTI said many of those detained were opposition figures in Cuba and would be persecuted if they were sent back. Seventeen of them held a three-week hunger strike until Friday to protest the conditions of their detention and to demand admission to the United States.    » read more »

06 August 2007 -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro says two Cuban boxers who have returned home after apparently defecting during the Pan American Games in Brazil will be treated fairly and not arrested.

Mr. Castro said in an article Sunday in a state newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, that the men will be given decent tasks for future work.

Olympic boxing champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara were found Thursday in a beach resort town near Rio de Janeiro after failing to appear for matches last month at the Pan American games in Brazil.    » read more »

08 July 2007 -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro has published an essay that includes comments about what he says was a U.S. attempt to assassinate him in 1961.

In an article published Sunday in a Cuban Communist youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde Mr. Castro said an assassin sent to poison him did not succeed because he could not get close enough.

Mr. Castro said he survived many assassination plots. He said he and others in the revolutionary movement survived because of luck and the habit of observing details.    » read more »

02 July 2007 -- The documentary filmmaker, whose latest movie Sicko opened nationwide June 29, met Borat creator Sasha Baron Cohen at last year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Cohen screened Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It went on to gross more than $100 million. Cohen told Moore he had drawn inspiration from the documentarian's previous films, in which he often put himself into uncomfortable situations.    » read more »

30 June 2007 -- Cuba's National Assembly has passed a resolution that accuses the Bush administration of wanting to eliminate Fidel Castro.

The National Assembly took action Friday, one day after President Bush made a public comment about the Cuban leader's eventual death.

Mr. Bush said at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island Thursday that "one day, the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away."

Audience members laughed, but President Bush said, "no, no, no" to quiet the crowd.    » read more »

6/28/2007 -- Patti Solis Doyle issued the following statement today:

"For many decades, Cubans have been forced to leave the island, risking their lives to escape Fidel Castro's brutal dictatorship in search of freedom and opportunity.

It is simply wrong to equate people fleeing from communism with terrorists."

Source: Hillary Clinton campaign

19 June 2007 -- Cuba is observing a day of mourning Tuesday, flying its flags at half-staff for Vilma Espin Guillois, the wife of acting Cuban President Raul Castro.

Espin died Monday at the age of 77, after a long illness.

Espin was among Cuba's most politically powerful women. She was known for some 45 years as Cuba's unofficial first lady because Fidel Castro kept his own private life out of the public limelight. Espin led the Federation of Cuban Women, a women's political group supporting the communist government.    » read more »

05-20-2007 -- Rudy Giuliani made the following statement today regarding Cuban Independence Day, which will be observed on Sunday, May 20th:

“Today I join the Cuban people to mark an anniversary and to hope for a day when Cuba is truly free. I know the enormous contribution of the Cuban people to this country. It is a testament to Cubans everywhere that your culture and spirit have flourished, even under the hardships of one of the worst tyrannies that the world has known. The day that democracy takes hold in Cuba will be a great day for all of the world.    » read more »