Cuba Archives - Foreign Policy In Focus

DC Film Premiere Will Depict Terrorism No One Speaks Of

by fpifadmin | Mar 11, 2011

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

by Blair Murphy | Feb 21, 2011

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.

Labor Rights Advocates Congratulate Bridgestone/Firestone Workers in Liberia on Award from U.S. Dept. of Labor

by Tim Newman, Emira Woods | Feb 16, 2011

The International Labor Rights Forum and Foreign Policy In Focus congratulate thecongratulates the Firestone Agricultural Workers’ Union of Liberia (FAWUL) on its selection by the U.S. Department of Labor as the 2011 recipient of the Iqbal Masih Award. The annual award was established by the U.S. Congress to recognize the work of an individual, company, organization, or national government to end the worst forms of child labor. It will be presented to FAWUL by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield today in Liberia’s capital city of Monrovia

Postcard from…Havana

by Tim Shorrock | Nov 12, 2010

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?

by Hannah Gurman | Sep 29, 2010

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.

The Foreign Policy of Baseball

by Robert Elias | Apr 2, 2010

A few days ago, I turned on the radio and heard the sweet sounds of San Francisco Giants broadcaster Jon Miller announcing this year’s first spring-training game. I thought, “Ah, baseball is finally back, and all is well in our national pastime, our country, and the world.”

Strategic Dialogue on Cuba

by Samuel Farber, John Feffer, Saul Landau | May 7, 2008

In their contributions to the Foreign Policy In Focus strategic dialogue on Cuba, Samuel Farber discusses the problematic economic reforms and nonexistent political reforms in Life After Fidel while Saul Landau looks at the fragile achievements of the Cuban revolution and the hostile U.S. policy toward the island in Cuba: The Struggle Continues. Here, they respond to each other.

Life After Fidel

by Samuel Farber, John Feffer | May 7, 2008

Fidel Castro’s official resignation as head of the Cuban state, although expected, was a turning point that has raised major questions concerning Cuba’s future. His younger brother Raúl, who now officially assumed the highest position in the country, had already “temporarily” replaced the commander in chief on July 31, 2006 after Fidel Castro stepped aside due to a serious illness, the nature of which was declared a state secret.

Cuba: The Struggle Continues

by Saul Landau | May 7, 2008

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cubans have lived through a “special period.” This euphemism stood not only for a drastic decline in the standard of living, but for a sharp alteration of social values as well. Soviet aid vanished along with the advantageous trade with the Soviet bloc. As Cuba’s economy went south, the state broke its part of the social contract: it no longer provided Cubans with their material needs of sufficient food and clothing. Basic health care and education remained, albeit cut back. But the government cut rations by more than half and cheap food disappeared. To survive, each Cuban felt himself morphed from the values of communism (sharing) to the values of individualism (dog eat dog).

Postcard from…Sarajevo

by John Feffer | May 5, 2008

During the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo, the inhabitants of the Bosnian capital received thousands of cans of food from the international community. The shipments helped keep the city alive. So it is perhaps not surprising that Bosnian artist Nebojsa Seric Soba would construct a Monument to the International Community in the form of a huge, round tin of canned beef.