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Articles on US-Cuba relations

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A rare unauthorized public gathering in Havana on July 11, 2021. Some demonstrators on the streets that day chanted ‘Down with the dictatorship.’ Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

Cuba protests: 4 essential reads on dissent in the post-Castro era

Experts explain the recent history behind the rare public outpouring of anger in Cuba.
With Raul Castro’s resignation as first secretary of the Communist Party, the Castro era is officially over in Cuba. Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

What’s next for Cuba and the United States after Raul Castro’s retirement

Just as Fidel Castro’s 2016 death did not transform US-Cuba ties, his brother Raul’s exit from politics is unlikely to do so. But Cuba itself is changing. Eventually, Havana and Washington will, too.
Honduran and Cuban migrants cross the Rio Grande River on the U.S.-Mexico border, June 26, 2019. Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Cuba’s economic woes may fuel America’s next migrant crisis

The dire conditions that brought waves of Cubans to the US in the 1980s and 1990s are again escalating on the communist island, provoked by Trump-era sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.
American and Cuban flags hang from a wall with an old camera hung in between in Havana, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

U.S.-Cuba relations: Will Joe Biden pick up where Barack Obama left off?

Joe Biden could return to the path blazed by Barack Obama on Cuba, when two years of bilateral negotiations helped undo more than five decades of hostility.
A group of young intellectuals and artists demonstrates at the doors of the Ministry of Culture during a protest in Havana on Nov. 27. Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

Cuba cracks down on artists who demanded creative freedoms after ‘unprecedented’ government negotiations

Talks with the government ended with accusations that the dissenting artists were ‘paid by North American agencies’ – an age-old way to discredit dissent in Cuba. But these protests are homegrown.
Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer was a US ally in Cuba during the Obama-era restoration of diplomatic and economic ties with the Island. Sven Creutzmann/Getty Images

US and Cuba spar over jailed dissident – but is José Daniel Ferrer really a political prisoner?

The US is demanding the ‘immediate’ release of a Cuban activist jailed since Oct. 1. But allegations of violence and fraud suggest the charges against José Daniel Ferrer are criminal, not political.
Cubans record a street musician’s performance at an internet hotspot along the seafront in Havana, July 14, 2018. Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini

Fidel’s Cuba is long gone

Some Cuban entrepreneurs are so openly anti-communist that they sound like, well, capitalists.
Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife, Margaret, visited Fidel Castro in Cuba in January 1976. THE CANADIAN PRESS/File

Canada-Cuba relations take a sad turn with new visa requirements

The ugly turn in Canadian-Cuba relations stemming from Canada’s new visa requirements puts at risk decades of creative, productive connections between Cuban and Canadian people.
Airlines that fly into Cuba’s main airport could now be sued for profiting off of property confiscated during the country’s 1959 revolution. AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File

Trump declares economic war on Cuba

The Trump administration has declared the most severe new sanctions against Cuba since President John F. Kennedy imposed an economic embargo banning all trade with the communist island in 1962.
Cubans attend a public discussion to revamp the country’s Cold War-era constitution in Havana, in August 2018. Reuters/Tomas Bravo

Cuba expands rights but rejects radical change in updated constitution

Cuba will not legalize same-sex marriage, as gay activists hoped. But its new constitution adds greater protections for LGBTQ people and for women, and gives Cubans the right to own private property.
An officer from Venezuela’s National Guard lobs tear gas toward demonstrators during a standoff over humanitarian aid at the Colombian border on Feb. 23, 2019. Four protesters were killed. AP Photo/Fernando Llano

Venezuela crisis: Trump threats to Maduro evoke bloody history of US intervention in Latin America

The Trump administration says President Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ after Venezuelan security forces killed four protesters. But any US-led operation to oust him is likely to be extremely unpopular.
Guantanamo Nay detainees sit in a holding area at Camp X-Ray on Jan. 11, 2002. Reuters/Shane T. McCoy/Handout

5 things to know about Guantanamo Bay on its 115th birthday

On Dec. 10, 1903, the US military leased 45 square miles of Cuban territory to build a naval base. How did Guantanamo Bay become an infamous prison for alleged terrorists?
Cuba’s new president, at the National Assembly meeting where he was appointed to succeed Raúl Castro on April 18, 2018. Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

Cuba’s new president: What to expect of Miguel Díaz-Canel

Cuba has a new president — and for the first time in six decades his last name is not Castro. Who is Miguel Díaz-Canel, the man who inherits a Cuba born of Fidel’s 1959 revolution?
The Spanish hotel chain Meliá has big plans for Cuba. So did the Trump Organization, up until its CEO was elected president of the United States. Desmond Boylan/Reuters

Before Trump was anti-Cuba, he wanted to open a hotel in Havana

As president, Donald Trump has taken a harsh stance toward Cuba. But his real estate company has tried twice to open Trump properties on the Communist island, allegedly even skirting the law to do so.
Adios Raúl, hola Miguel. smael Francisco/Courtesy of Cubadebate/Handout via Reuters

Cuba’s getting a new president

Miguel Díaz-Canel, a 57-year-old engineer and Communist Party loyalist, is expected to succeed Raúl Castro as president of Cuba. Will change bring prosperity or instability to the Cuban people?
What happened to people inside this building, the U.S. Embassy in Havana? U.S. State Department

Can sound be used as a weapon? 4 questions answered

Were foreign diplomats and tourists attacked with a ‘sonic weapon’ – or was it something else? Ultrasound researchers demonstrate a rational, evidence-based explanation.
The US Embassy in Havana is now more crime scene than diplomatic center as both countries look into the mysterious illnesses suffered by Foreign Service officers there. AP Photo/Desmond Boylan

Is Trump using ‘health attacks’ on US diplomats in Havana as an excuse to punish Cuba?

After a baffling, silent attack on US Embassy staff in Havana, the Trump administration is using concern over its diplomats’ health as an excuse to reverse Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba.

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