When the Cuban government released a number of dissidents earlier this year, human rights groups applauded the decision. But critics also took the occasion to paint Cuba once again as a society where a single word of criticism gets you shipped off to a dungeon, from which you will never return, reduced to being a statistic in an Amnesty International report. This belief may contain a kernel of truth. But in many ways it provides a cartoon version of Cuba, one that misses altogether the texture and reality of Cuban life, particularly its politics and its culture of dissent. And there is a culture of dissent.
WikiLeaks: No Special Treatment for Non-Compos-Mentis Gitmo Detainees
The latest WikiLeaks dump confirms that American officials have been slow to recognize and treat mental health disorders in Guantanamo detainees.
DC Film Premiere Will Depict Terrorism No One Speaks Of
A controversial film by award-winning filmmaker Saul Landau will premiere in Washington, DC on April 6 at the West End Cinema. Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up addresses a terrorism campaign against Cuba orchestrated from U.S. soil, with complicity from the U.S. government. A discussion with Landau will follow. His documentary juxtaposes the history of violence by CIA-trained Cuban exiles and five Cubans, serving long sentences in U.S. prisons, for attempting to thwart their efforts.
Interview with Wendy Navarro
Wendy Navarro is an independent art critic and curator currently based in Barcelona, Spain. Since the mid-1990s, Navarro has been an active curator at the Visual Art Development Center in Havana, Cuba, while working as an editor of the magazine ArteCubano, and lecturing about Cuban contemporary art at the Higher Institute of Art and Havana University. She talks here with Blair Murphy, of the Washington Project for the Arts, about art and its relationship to U.S.-Cuban relations, globalization, and political utopias prior to her talk this week in Washington, DC.
Repeal of DADT Becomes Zero Sum Game Between Gays and Gitmo Detainees
Repeal of DADT: Good news for gays; bad news for Guantanamo detainees.
60-Second Expert: Guantanamo
As one of his first acts in office, President Obama issued an executive order committing to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay within one year. Almost two years later, unnamed administration officials are predicting that the prison will remain open “for the foreseeable future.” This means that men like Djamel Ameziane will remain trapped there for the foreseeable future as well.
Trapped by Guantanamo
Remember way back when President Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo, restore the United States’ moral standing and end the practice of torture? It wasn’t that long ago — January 2009. As one of his first acts as president, Obama signed the executive order committing to closing the prison within a year and ending the practice of torture.
Postcard from…Havana
Just about everything you hear about Cuba in the U.S. media is a lie.
I learned that from the moment my TACA Airlines charter jet landed in
Havana last Sunday. It was filled with Cuban-Americans returning to
their homeland carrying clothing, DVDs, microwave ovens, electronic
games, and other consumer goods missing from the Cuban market. I’d
always read that the “Miami Cubans” hated the very thought of
socialist Cuba. So I was surprised and even a little shocked when the
entire plane burst out in loud applause when we touched down.
Cuba: New Corporate Utopia?
On the list of America’s most-hated leaders, Fidel Castro gets the award for longevity. Outlasting ten U.S. presidents, from Eisenhower through George W. Bush, Castro has managed to maintain his high ranking for over five decades. Though the 84-year-old ex-president of Cuba is unlikely to drop off the list during his lifetime, the persistent image of Cuba as communist dystopia may be on the verge of changing–that is, if the dreams of American big business come true.
Cuba and Congress: Who Will Change First?
In 1958, Hilton Hotels proudly opened the tallest and largest hotel in Latin America, the Havana Hilton, located in the heart of Havana, Cuba. Boasting a casino, an outdoor swimming pool, and a panoramic view of Havana from its rooftop nightclub and bar located atop 25 stories of five-star accommodation, this luxurious destination was only open to Americans for two years.