· April, 2006

Stories about Cuba from April, 2006

Cuba: Female dissident beaten

  27 April 2006

Pondblog links to an Aljazeera news piece reporting that Cuba's most prominent female dissident, 60 year-old Marta Beatríz Roque, was beaten at her home by a pro-government mob this past Tuesday. The article states that Roque, who leads the Assembly for Promoting Civil Society, was about to leave her home...

African music #7

  25 April 2006

Nothing beats a music festival. You meet like the music lovers, people interested in the genre and enjoy the good party vibe. And though you know the lineup in advance you have no idea what antics will be displayed on stage. With these musings I look forward to the 4th...

Caribbean: Bureaucracy kills & biofuel

  24 April 2006

Taran Rampersad is starting a “death and injury counter” in response to the region's lack of action in the area of disaster preparedness. “My theory is that all the bureaucracy kills people in a way that could be seen as criminally negligent,” he says. And why isn't the Caribbean thinking...

Caribbean: Billionaires Investing in Local Telecoms

  22 April 2006

Last week Irish billionaire Dennis O'Brien announced his company Digicel was purchasing the Caribbean arm of Bouygues Telecom . This week Mexican billionnaire Carlos Slim announces he is purchasing three Caribbean and Latin-American subsidiaries of Verizon, an American telecom, writes (FR) InternetRapide.com. The Verizon subsidiaries to be purchased by Slim's...

Caribbean: What's going on?

  21 April 2006

“So what else is going on, this fiercely hot Thursday?” writes JT at the Caribbean Beat Weblog. He finds West Indies, the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, and some soul-searching on the part of Caribbean heads of state.

A Seamless Caribbean Network?

  20 April 2006

InternetRapide.com, a blog dedicated to telecommunications in the Caribbean says (FR) Digicel, a cell phone company owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien that covers 60% of the Jamaican market, celebrates its fifth anniversary this week. The company has expanded to 14 other Caribbean countries since its inception in 2001 and plans...

Cuba: Festival of Poor Cinema

  17 April 2006

Malmi announces (es) the 4th International Festival of Poor Cinema, which takes place in Gibara, Cuba, from April 17-23, and discusses the festival's background and philosophy. “Those new technologies,” writes Malmi, “that widen the gap between rich and poor, when applied to the world of the image, allow for films...

Sweet and Sour

  16 April 2006

#1: The weirdest and tastiest grilled rabbit for Easter If your quota of cute chocolate eggs and bunnies has been reached for this lifetime already, you will love this idea: Easter 2006 – MeatHenge Style. It is never too soon to start planning for next year, right? I first fired...

Cuba: Birthday blog list

  12 April 2006

Regalado.blogia.com celebrates (es) her first anniversary with a catalog of some of the blogs and bloggers with whom she has made connections in the past year.

Caribbean: Cruise ship cuts

  7 April 2006

One cruise line is planning to remove half its vessels from the Caribbean on account of high costs associated with hurricanes, says Mad Bull: “We are going to have to try to diversify into other areas, though I don’t know yet what they are. Our islands have a big challenge...

Cuba: Illegal immigration

  7 April 2006

Regalado.blogia.com reproduces (es) a press release which appeared this week in the Cuban press regarding the attempts by Cubans to escape the country by boat. The release was prompted by an accident which took place off the coast of the Pinar del Rio province, and includes the line, “The events...

Caribbean: Hurricane forecast

  5 April 2006

Linda Thompkins reports on a recent meeting held to discuss the 2006 hurricane season and its implications for the Caribbean. The hurricane season begins officially on June 1.

Argentina, Cuba, Peru: China and Latin America

  4 April 2006

Boz criticizes the special coverage by the BBC, arguing that they are “falling into the usual memes about Latin America,” including a biased view of Latin Americans’ reactions to increasing Chinese influence. Investment Opportunities in Argentina believes that China will soon invest heavily in Argentina. Georgina, writing from Havana, says...

Cuba, USA: Plans to Assist

  4 April 2006

At Perspectivas en Movimiento, Marie-Dominique Bertuccioli (es) counters the United States’ “Plan to Assist a free Cuba” with her own “Plan to Assist with Democratic Transition”. Among her proposals to the US: “Free healthcare for all children so as to reduce infant mortality to the level of Cuba” and “Evacuation...

Cuba: Castro scrutinized

  4 April 2006

Pondblog finds two interesting items on Fidel Castro: an online newspaper report citing excerpts from a forthcoming book on the Cuban leader, and an article by a Canadian journalist which opens, “By so many measures, Fidel Castro has been the modern world's most transparent leader.”