The freehold buying and selling of residential real property became legal in Cuba on November 10, 2010, marking a major milestone on the island’s road to economic liberalization. The Cuban government is encouraging the creation of small businesses and private farming. More than 180,000 “self-employment” licenses have been issued since 2010, and the government has turned over four million acres of land to 143,000 private farmers since 2008. Today there are over 350,000 small...
Muammar Gaddafi, a man who normally shunned courtly friends in the Arab world, ruled his country from 1969 until August 2011, when Libyan rebels defeated the authoritarian ruler. After the overthrow of former Presidents Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia during the Arab Spring, it was only a matter of time before local reformers brought down Gaddafi. During his period of resistance, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Cuba’s Castro brothers began to speak...
Thirteen years after their imprisonment, the ill-fated Cuban Five have been looked upon, depending on one’s perspective, as either tragic figures or infamous conspirators. Consisting of five Cuban intelligence officers, the detainees were convicted in 1998 of spying on U.S. military installations, a charge vehemently denied by Havana, which claimed that their role was to monitor Miami-based “terrorist” exile groups that were regularly plotting and carrying out attacks against their homeland. On October 7, 2011,...
Matters could not be more misspent when it comes to U.S.-Latin American relations than they have been when U.S.-Mexico policy has been in focus. This seems to be particularly the case as of now when it was revealed that Texas hunting lands owned by the Perry family included a marker using the “n” word, which should be enough to abruptly settle the presidential campaign of Governor Perry, if good conscience is any guide. After...
Cuban President Raúl Castro announces five-year plan for free market reforms. Cuba’s South-South foreign policy cannot entirely compensate for domestic policy inadequacies. Although Cuba is willing to consider change, Washington refuses to open up to rational dialogue and meaningful debate. Decades after its inception, the United States maintains its barely modified Cold War embargo against Cuba. It seems unlikely that this blockage—legally engrossed by the 1996 Helms-Burton Act—will be repealed in the near future...
