"Cuban lawmakers meet to consider Castro’s reforms" Associated Press, July 24, 2012
HAVANA — Cuba’s National Assembly gathered Monday for one of its twice-a-year legislative sessions, with the country’s economic reform plans, a new tax system, and budgetary issues prominent on the agenda.
Islanders and Cuba-watchers will be seeing if the assembly takes any action on long-promised measures such as the easing of travel restrictions, increased private farming of state-controlled land, or the approval of cooperative businesses.
Foreign journalists were not allowed access to the session in the capital’s Palace of Conventions.
President Raul Castro’s five-year plan to overhaul the economy has legalized the sale of homes and cars and paved the way for hundreds of thousands of Cubans to go into business for themselves. But the pace of change has slowed this year with no major reforms since December.
Earlier this year, Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon said in an interview that a ‘‘radical and profound’’ change to the travel rules, which keep most Cubans from leaving the country, was imminent. There has been no word since then about scrapping the much-loathed white card, for which islanders must apply to travel abroad. Promises to establish rules permitting midsize co-op businesses have likewise not yet come to fruition. And last week the island’s burgeoning small business class was dealt a blow with the low-key announcement of new, stiff tariffs on imported goods.
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"Raul Castro says Cuba willing to sit down with US; Invitation was already given via envoys, he notes" by Peter Orsi | Associated Press, July 27, 2012
HAVANA — President Raul Castro of Cuba said Thursday that his government is willing to mend fences with bitter Cold War foe the United States and sit down to discuss anything, as long as it is a conversation between equals.
At the end of a Revolution Day ceremony marking the 59th anniversary of a failed uprising against a military barracks, Castro grabbed the microphone for apparently impromptu remarks. He echoed previous statements that no topic is off limits, including US concerns about democracy, freedom of the press, and human rights on the island, as long as it is a conversation between equals.
“Any day they want, the table is set. This has already been said through diplomatic channels,” Castro said. “If they want to talk, we will talk.”
Washington would have to be prepared to hear Cuba’s own complaints about the treatment of those issues in the United States and its European allies, he added.
“We are nobody’s colony, nobody’s puppet,” Castro said.
Washington and Havana have not had diplomatic relations for five decades.
The 50-year-old US embargo outlaws nearly all trade and travel to the island, and Washington insists Cuba must first institute democratic reforms and improve human rights.
Days after prominent dissident Oswalo Paya died in a car crash, Castro had harsh words for the island’s opposition, accusing them of plotting to topple the government.
“Some small factions are doing nothing less than trying to lay the groundwork and hoping that one day what happened in Libya will happen here, what they’re trying to make happen in Syria,” Castro said.
Castro also reminisced about the 1959 Revolution, promised that Cuba will complete a trans-island expressway halted years ago for lack of funds, and empathized with islanders’ complaints about meager salaries. He said once again that his five-year plan to overhaul Cuba’s socialist economy will not be done hastily.
The July 26 national holiday was often used to make major announcements when Castro’s older brother Fidel was president, but there were none Thursday.
The main celebration kicked off at sunrise with music and speeches at a plaza in the eastern province of Guantanamo, home to the US naval base of the same name.
The American presence in Guantanamo is a sore point for Havana, which demands the base be shut down and accuses the United States of torturing terror suspects held in the military prison.
As if we have not?
“We will continue to fight such a flagrant violation. . . . Never, under any circumstance, will we stop trying to recover that piece of ground,” First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said in the keynote address.
Musicians sang the song “Guantanamera,” and a young girl read a speech paying homage to the revolution and resistance to Yankee imperialism.
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Also see: Swimmer steady in Cuba-Florida crossing
I'm drowning in s*** Boston Globes.
UPDATE:
"Cuban elections underway, as critics say they’re a sham" by Andrea Rodriguez | Associated Press, October 21, 2012
HAVANA — Elections in Cuba lack the hoopla they have in other countries, but authorities here say they give people a voice in government, and they deny charges that the country is undemocratic. Critics call them a sham since voters can’t throw out the Communist Party long led by Fidel and Raul Castro.
A long, complicated electoral process is under way on this communist-run island, with more than 8 million Cubans going to the polls this weekend for municipal elections. The process culminates in February, when national assembly legislators vote on who will occupy the presidency, a post held by Raul Castro since 2008.
The latest electoral exercise began in September when Cubans met in common spaces, parks, and buildings for neighborhood assemblies to choose the candidates in municipal elections. Those assemblies nominated 32,000 candidates, and each electoral district must have between two and eight names on the ballot.
On Sunday, Cubans will choose among these candidates for municipal assemblies that administer local governments.
After the local elections, commissions elected by workers, farmers, youth, student, and women’s groups choose candidates for the national legislature, which eventually elects Cuba’s next president.
Yes, you can't have that, Americans. Just leave AmeriKa to the captains of government and tycoons of industry. They've done such a great job so far.
In 2007-2008, voter turnout was 96.8 percent.
The government says perennially high turnouts are a clear sign of support for the revolution. Dissidents say people vote for fear that not doing so could get them in trouble....
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Also see: US view of Cuba is stuck in the 1960s
So am I. I'm reading a Boston Globe (or not), aren't I?
