By Marcell Felipe, Yahoo News!

 “End the Regime!” This demand was heard during the anti-communist rebellion in Cuba, proving the people want to eradicate the regime, instead of reform. It also revealed that the United States did not have a plan to deal with that reality, just as it did not have a plan to deal with Afghanistan.

This may be contributing to President Biden’s reluctance to support regime change, fearing the island could erupt into chaos as Libya did in 2011 and Afghanistan has now.

Although the United States does not have a transition plan, the Initiative for Democratic and Economic Alternatives (IDEAs) for Cuba has one in development. It’s a project designed by academic experts and those from the public- and private sectors. Unlike Afghanistan, this plan does not require the United States to invest and hope for certain results. Instead, it provides for U.S. support after steps are undertaken in Cuba.

One objective is to assure U.S. policymakers that Cuba’s freedom is not to be feared as a failed state, but instead embraced as an opportunity to realign the region and stave off Russian and Chinese attempts to gain global momentum.

A second objective is to assure the Cuban people and its military leaders, most of whom do not partake in the lavish lifestyle of the Castro family, that the United States can rebuild Cuba’s infrastructure once the Castro dynasty is truly out of power.

These two objectives can be achieved by activating a largely ignored part of the so-called U.S. embargo. Title II of the 1996 LIBERTAD Act, drafted in part by Sen. Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calls upon the president to provide assistance to Cuba once it schedules internationally supervised free and fair elections; frees all political prisoners; and recognizes all fundamental civil liberties.

Economically, the United States can provide loan guarantees to rebuild crumbling infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, roads and airports; and new construction of 1 million housing units to satisfy Cuba’s estimated housing deficit.

These initiatives would provide jobs and kickstart the economy with the creation of two new financial institutions: a mortgage guarantee system to purchase new homes; and a micro-business loan program, such as the one developed in Bangladesh that won the Nobel prize.

A successful transition also requires substituting Cuba’s sham Soviet legal process for a new constitution with an independent judiciary protecting civil rights and private property.

Until the new constitution is in place, the transition could either rely on the Czech model — which temporarily used the communist constitution — while simultaneously adopting the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights so anything contrary to it was annulled. Alternatively, it can revert to Cuba’s last democratically approved constitution from 1940.

While economic reconstruction and legal transformation are critical, depoliticizing police and military would follow, but not be as difficult as it was in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya for two reasons.

First, except for the Castro family and its State Security force, very few in the larger armed forces are economically vested in the regime, allowing it to be re-designed and utilized, thereby avoiding a scenario in which a disbanded army resurfaces as an insurgency.

Second, the widespread protests by all segments of society, some even using the American flag, resemble the unity seen in the Czech Republic’s nonviolent Velvet Revolution in 1989, rather than a divided country ripe for civil war.

Twenty percent of Cuba’s population lives in Miami and has thrived under the American legal, political and business culture while remaining rooted in Cuba’s day-to-day affairs. Only Israel can boast of a similar diaspora. This makes Cuba similar to the post-Soviet East and West German reunification.

The Biden administration’s commitment to a free and democratic Cuba will send a message to the world the United States is willing to invest in freedom that also deters Russian and Chinese advances beyond the region. The administration should not fear regime change in Havana. It should endorse and use the power that it wields to encourage it.

One of the least connected countries in the world took a turn in November 2018 with the arrival of the mobile Internet

Q REPORTS (Havana) “Lies”, “manipulation”, “subversion”: Raúl Castro, who handed over the reins of the Communist Party of Cuba this Monday, does not mince words to talk about the Internet, which has become the opposition’s favorite weapon.

The country of 11.2 million people was long one of the least connected in the world.

Everything changed with the arrival of the mobile Internet. At the end of 2018 people adopted it in a dizzying way, despite its high price, with 4.2 million people connected. By the end of 2019, that number had reached 7.1 million (63% of the population).

According to the Ministerio de Comunicaciones (Mincom), as of November 2020, 4.2 million users accessed the internet via a mobile device, of which 1.3 million had access to 4G LTE technology.

President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, successor to Raúl Castro as the head of the communist party, boasted encouraging “the computerization of society,” but was quickly disillusioned by an unprecedented social concern, now visible from the outside.

On Monday, while 300 party delegates were meeting at a congress in Havana, a video was viralized on social media showing the arrest Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a dissident artist in a depressed area of ​​the capital.

Dozens of activists, independent journalists, and artists denounced, through Twitter, that the Police prevented them from leaving their homes, a technique generally used by Cuban authorities to prevent them from gathering.

Others said, through the network accounts of their family or friends, that they were deprived of the Internet.

November, key moment
Ted Henken, an American sociologist and author of the next book, The Cuban Digital Revolution, believes that “there is a struggle in Cuba over who will have control of digital technologies and we don’t know how it will end.”

“After the arrival of 3G, mobilizations both online and on the street increased and became more frequent. After November we saw that they had more and more impact, which provoked a very strong response from the government,” he adds.

November 2020 marked a before and after.

For ten days, the Movimiento San Isidro, led by Alcántara, took refuge in a house to demand the release of a rapper, filming himself through Facebook and even seen outside the country.

After their eviction, some 300 artists demonstrated on November 27 in front of the Ministry of Culture, spreading messages through social networks, to demand more freedom of expression, something never seen before in Cuba.

For Raúl Castro, behind these protests hides the same old enemy: Washington.

“Let’s not forget that the United States government created the ‘Internet Working Group for Cuba’, (founded in 2018 by the State Department) that aspires to make social networks become channels of subversion,” he said.

“However, the truth is different, the internal counterrevolution, which lacks a social base, leadership and mobilization capacity, continues to decrease in the number of its members and the number of actions with social impact, concentrating its activism on social networks and the Internet,” he added.

‘Be on the offensive’
Present at the congress, the octogenarian poet Miguel Barnet headed in the same direction: “Make no mistake about the enemy (…), here the revolution is not in social networks, it is in the streets.”

However, as a precaution, the party adopted a resolution to strengthen “revolutionary activism on social media.” It is necessary to “be on the offensive,” remarked on Saturday the head of the ideological department, Victor Gaute, who was replaced during the congress.

Days before the congress, the Council of State approved a new decree to regulate telecommunications aimed at “defending the successes of the socialist state”, the details of which are not yet known.

On several occasions in recent months, Twitter suspended accounts of Cuban media and official organizations, as well as common activists, for violating its rules on “manipulation”.

For former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray, the government’s use of the Internet as “an instrument of propaganda” is not the most judicious.

According to Alzugaray, the accounts of the Cuban ministers are “a repetition of what the president says.”

Above all because not only dissent surf the Internet: animal defenders, activists for homosexual rights or young Cubans tired of the queues in front of stores also express themselves on social networks without asking for a change in the political system.

Michael Bustamante, professor at Florida International University, criticizes this “binary” approach of the government because what is happening on social networks is also a reflection of a reality: “Talk to anyone on the streets of Cuba today, and they will tell you that frustration and pessimism are widespread,” he tweeted.

Raúl Castro has stepped down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, leaving Cubans without a Castro to lead them for the first time in over 60 years.

Q REPORTS (NY Times) When Raúl Castro retired as Cuba’s top leader Monday, he left a warning for a nation increasingly divided over the legacy of its Communist revolution: The choice at hand is continuity of the revolution’s ideals, or defeat.

Since 1959, when Raúl and his older brother, Fidel, led an insurgency against an American-backed dictator to victory, Cuba has been led by a Castro. Now, as Raúl — who is 89 and succeeded his older brother — steps down from the helm of the Communist Party, he leaves a country that is torn by the most brutal economic crisis in decades.

There is also a deep generational rift.

Fidel Castro, then president of Cuba, and his brother Raúl, then vice president, in Havana in 1978.Credit…OFF/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Many older Cubans remember the poverty and inequality they faced before the Castros, and remain loyal to the revolution despite decades of hardship. But younger generations, who grew up with the achievements of socialism, including access to education and health care, chafe at its limits. They are demanding less government control and more economic freedom.

LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba affairs and a professor at the American University. “And that’s one of the Cuban government’s principal challenges going forward, because their historic base of support is gradually retiring and dying off.”

Mr. Castro relinquished the nation’s most powerful position — first secretary of the Communist Party — on Monday, the last day of the party’s four-day congress, held this year under the banner of “Unity and Continuity.”

The man chosen as the next head of the Communist Party is Cuba’s current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who turns 61 later this month. A party stalwart, Mr. Díaz-Canel is part of a younger generation that wants a gradual opening of the country, though no change to Cuba’s system of one-party rule.

The party conference, which happens every five years, was staged to underscore the endurance of revolutionary ideals in Cuba. But the transition comes at what may be a tipping point for the island.

Over the past few years, as the Trump administration imposed stringent sanctions on Cuba and the tourism industry was decimated by the pandemic, Cubans have seen their country’s economy plummet once again, with many waiting for hours in bread lines. The country’s lauded health care system is frayed. And the number of Cubans trying to leave the island is going up, though it is still far from the exoduses of the 1980s and 1990s.

“The Communist Party lives off the achievements of a long time ago, from when they began,” said Claudia Genlui, an activist with the San Isidro political movement, a collective of artists who have protested against the Communist Party in recent months. Although the group is small, it has surprised the nation with its continued defiance.

“The party does not represent my generation, it does not represent me,” Ms. Genlui said, adding that “there is a lack of generational connection, of interests, of priorities, and all of that somehow drives us away.”

Mr. Castro, to some extent, would agree.

Although Fidel held fast to his rallying cry of “socialism or death” until he died in 2016, the younger Mr. Castro grew to realize that reform was necessary to quell growing discontent and began opening up the country’s economy.

After Fidel formally resigned from the presidency in 2008, Raúl Castro prioritized recruiting younger Cubans into the Communist Party and putting younger members into top government positions. On Monday, the party held elections for its 17-member Politburo, selecting younger members to the body to replace the last of what Cubans call the “historics,” veterans of the armed revolution.

That has sat well with some Cubans.

“I think we’ve got to move on to a new generation, younger people with new ideas,” said Osvaldo Reyes, 55, a taxi driver in Havana, while voicing his support for Mr. Castro and the Communist Party. “A revolution should keep transforming, keep doing the best for people.”

When the Castro brothers started their popular uprising, they tapped into a deep well of discontent many Cubans had over their country’s corrupt ruling elite, which was not just out of touch but also unconcerned by the dire living conditions of most Cubans.

The brothers led a scrappy insurgency against the country’s dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and Cuba became a bulwark against decades of American intervention in Latin America.

But decades later, it would be the Castro brothers and their Communist Party that would be criticized by ordinary Cubans as out of touch. When Raúl Castro took over as head of the Communist Party in 2011, he was surrounded by a government stacked with octogenarian generals.

While many Cubans are fiercely proud of their nation’s sovereignty, they have tired of watching the same revolution-era generals control nearly every aspect of their lives, from how much they earn to the food they eat.

“Lots of people still don’t feel represented because he didn’t manage to breach the gap between the government and the people,” Adilen Sardiñas, 28, said of Raúl Castro.

While Ms. Sardiñas expressed frustration with the slow pace of reforms, like many interviewed, she also blamed America for a decades-long embargo that has crippled Cuba’s economy and further embittered Cubans against the United States.

“We need a change, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to because we’ve got our neighbor, the U.S., stepping on our heels and closing doors everywhere,” she said.

Even among older Cubans who still support the Communist Party, many agree it is inaccessible, ruling from a perch.

“It is impossible to continue a socialist policy without having any interaction with citizens,” said Rafael Hernandez, the editor of Temas Magazine, a quasi-independent Cuban publication linked to the state. “They need to democratize the political system and the base of the Communist Party.”

Reform has proceeded at a glacial pace, slowed by a bureaucracy worried about losing its privileges and by the revolution’s old guard, suspicious of any change that might nudge Cuba closer to capitalism.

Carlos Alzugaray, a former Cuban ambassador and a Communist Party member, described the current struggle as generational.

“Raúl used to say our worst enemy is the old mentality, and that’s what I think is happening: that the old leaders don’t want to change,” said Mr. Alzugaray. “Raúl wants change, and the younger leaders want change but are worried that they will be criticized for not being truthful to the revolution of Fidel Castro.”

The problem, as the country’s prime minister, Manuel Marrero, said earlier this month when speaking about the urgency to make reforms, is that “people do not eat plans.”

Details about Cuba’s future were left unaddressed at this year’s congress. Instead, Mr. Castro’s opening speech on Friday started with a history lesson.

“As long as imperialism exists, the party, the state and the people will pay maximum attention to the defense services,” Mr. Castro said, referring to the United States. “History teaches, too eloquently, that those who forget this principle do not survive error.”

Hanging over the congress was the recent change of leadership in the United States and what prospects or challenges the new administration of President Biden may hold for Cuba.

As vice president during the Obama administration, Mr. Biden helped normalize Cuban-American relations, allowing remittances to flow and lifting travel restrictions. Those policies were reversed once President Donald J. Trump took office, and what economic gains Cuba made were swiftly wiped away.

During his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden promised to thaw relations with Cuba once more. But the Biden administration cooled to the idea after Democrats fared worse than expected in Florida, with Cuban-Americans supporting Mr. Trump and his hawkish foreign policy.

Earlier this month, Juan Gonzalez, a senior National Security Council director, said Cuba was not a foreign policy priority for the Biden administration.

Mr. Castro is likely to retain some influence even in retirement, but he is leaving the day-to-day ruling of Cuba to President Díaz-Canel. When Mr. Castro stepped down in 2018 as president — the country’s second-most powerful position — he handed the job over to Mr. Díaz-Canel.

A technocrat, Mr. Díaz-Canel allowed Cubans to access the internet from their phones in 2018, and in their homes the following year — changes many feel helped fuel protests and demands for greater political freedom.

In January, he further opened up the country to private enterprise, expanding the types of businesses Cubans could enter.

But Cuban leaders are proceeding cautiously.

“The government is deathly afraid of change it is not in control of, because it would threaten their economic and political position,” said Ted Henken a professor at Baruch College in New York and author of “Cuba’s Digital Revolution.”

“It is afraid of any change that it is not choreographing and in control of, and that doesn’t come from the top down — which is ironic for what began as a popular revolution that was massively supported by the people.”

Read the original article from the New York Times here.

Cuba will not make concessions to its sovereignty and independence, nor negotiate its principles or accept the imposition of conditions

Cuba will respect Fidel Castro's dying wish that no statues be erected in his honor and no streets be named after him. Despite his omnipresence that endured for decades, the late communist leader always said he did not want any monuments in his honor on the island."There is no cult of personality around any living revolutionary," Castro stated in 2003. "The leaders of this country are human beings, not gods."

Consequently, Cuba’s National Assembly approved the law, which “bans commemorative statues of Fidel Castro and naming monuments and public places after the former leader.

Despite Fidel’s sentiments, Raul told the Assembly that “His fighting spirit will remain in the conscience of all Cuban revolutionaries, today, tomorrow and always,” Some have predicted that Fidel’s legend will grow even more despite his death, much like Che Guevara.

There a couple exceptions to the law banning the use Castro’s name in public places. The term Fidel Castro may used as a name for any institution created to study his role in Cuban history. The law also does not ban using his image, photo or likeness for public acts, Cuban military institutions, and educational or cultural entities.

An agreement signed between Google and the Cuban government Cuba aimed at improving its internet speed. The deal will allow the internet giant to provide faster access to its data by installing servers on the island that will store much of the company's most popular content. The deal will now give Cubans access to a network called Google Global Cache that stores data and content on servers located a relatively short distance from the island nation. Now Cubans will have access from sites that Google administers like Gmail, Google Drive and YouTube.

However, home connections remain illegal for most Cubans and the government charges the equivalent of a month's average salary for 10 hours of access to public wi-fi spots with speeds frequently too slow to download files or watch streaming video.

Cuba has one of the lowest Internet speeds and connectivity in the world. It’s no surprise Cuba is considered the “least connected” country in the Americas, with the Geneva-based ITU ranking the country 125th out of 166 countries worldwide in telecommunications development.

The Google deal was announced less than a week after Cuba gave three US cruise companies permission to begin sailing to the island next year. Officials familiar with the negotiations say other deals, including one with General Electric, are in the works.

In the first part of this article I discussed the possible scenarios in the wake of Fidel’s death since many are questioning if the Cuban Revolution will be able to survive. Now I would like to talk about possible successors once Raúl steps down in 2018. So who will follow him? At this time everything seems to point to Miguel Díaz-Canel taking over the reigns of the island nation.

It appears that for the first time in half a century a person who did not fight in in the revolution or without the last name of Castro will be at the helm. Raúl had to select someone who would ensure the perpetuity of the only communist country in the hemisphere and Díaz-Canel seems to be the logical choice at juncture.

The 56-year-oldDíaz–Canel is an electrical engineer by trade with political experience and who is known to wear bluejeans and not military uniforms. He supports the opening up of the Internet and stated in a recent speech, “Today with the development of social networks and the Internet, to prohibit something of the type is virtually impossible and makes no sense at all.”

In contrast to the Fidel and Raúl, he is strikingly tall and claims to be a man of simple tastes. Some say he resembles the actor Richard Gere because of his full head of gray hair and good looks. However, he is not known to be a great orator. “Comrade Díaz is by no means a political novice,” stated Raúl when the former was appointed to the second most important political position in Cuba.

Although Díaz-Canel is the odds on favorite to succeed Raúl, there are a couple of other names that have been mentioned. Cuban Chancellor, Bruno Rodríguez’s name has come up. In addition, Marino Murillo, the mentor of Cuban economic reforms is in the mix, as is Raul’s only son Alejandro Castro Espín. But when all is said and done, Díaz-Canel appears to be the most likely choice unless something unforeseen occurs to change Raul’s mind between now and 2018.

At one time it was thought that either Vice President Carlos Lange or ex-chancellor Felipe Pérez Roque would eventually take over control of the country. However, both fell out of favor with the government.

For many Cubans, Fidel Castro for all practical purposes was dead and buried years ago. Therefore, many of them have had their eyes and minds turned toward the future in an effort to move on from Fidel. There are no statues to Fidel in Cuba but his slogans can be found painted on the side of many buildings and billboards. So, it will be difficult to forget him altogether since his name will still be on the lips of those who loved him and others who blamed him for all of the island’s ills.

Nevertheless, with the death of Fidel the country’s political situation should open up and become more flexible. Raúl will have an enormous weight taken off his shoulders. He will no longer have to deal with his older brother’s overwhelming personality, persona nor his opinions. Fidel’s omnipresence will no longer be looming in the shadows.

The Cuban people can only hope for some type of change for the better, especially with the closer ties and improved relations with the U.S. Alejandro López Levy, a specialist in Cuban affairs at New York University’s of Global Studies, stated “After Fidel’s death there should be reforms designed to eradicate the aspects of communist politic’s that are not practical.” "The impact and nature of the posible reforms will be limited to Raul’s vision since he has the last word in these matters and the fact that he has vowed to be true to the essence of the Cuban Revolution.” He has already made progress in reforming the country since her took over in 2008 by allowing small businesses and the sale of homes in an effort to stimulate the economy.

If the United State’s policy of normalization continues in the direction it is currently moving, the prospect of of change on the island should continue. Let’s hope that President-elect Trump will not roll back the progress that has already been made in U.S/Cuba relations. By continuing the progress toward normalization of relations with Cuba Mr. Trump has an chance to make Cuba part of his foreign policy legacy as well.

As stated in the Huffington Post, "A candidate who based much of his campaign on leveling the playing field for US trade should encourage, not undermine, the American companies that after 57 years of being locked out of the Cuban market, can finally have access to that market. Donald Trump ran as an agent of change. After fifty years of a failed embargo, normalization of relations with Cuba is the right kind of change."

While many leaders around the world begin their preparations to visit Cuba, to pay their respected to Fidel Castro, one person will not be there: Juanita Castro, Fidel’s sister who has been in exile in Miami for 51 years.

In 1964, Juanita accused her brother of turning Cuba into “an enormous prison surrounded by water’.

Despite expressing sorrow over the death of her brother, she said on Saturday she wouldn’t be returning to Cuba in her lifetime. She also put rumors to rest that she would be heading to Cuba for the memorial and said she will remain in the United States, the Miami Herald reported.She said she remained committed to the Cuban exile community and opposed to the dictatorship her late brother imposed on the island when he seized power in 1959.

Exiled in Miami since 1964, Juanita, 83, said in a statement that she was upset by the news early Saturday. At the same time, she hoped that his death at age 90 is a turning point in which all Cubans find common ground.

‘In light of the bad rumors that said I was going to go to Cuba for the funeral, I want to clarify that I have never returned to the island, nor do I have plans to do so.

‘I have fought alongside exiles, arm and arm, during their most active and intense stages of struggle in past decades, and I respect the feelings of all,’ Juanita said in a statement.

‘I do not rejoice over the death of any human being, much less when that person is someone with my blood and surnames.

“I’ve been in exile in Miami for 51 years, like all the Cubans who left to find a space to fight for the freedom of their country,” Juanita Castro said. “I have never changed my position even though I had to pay a high price for the pain and isolation.”

“For decades, I confronted the system in Cuba and also those in exile who unfairly did not forgive that my surnames were Castro Ruz and who attacked me ruthlessly,” she said.

She asked for understanding for her pain and expressed hope that her brother’s death brings about an understanding among all Cubans.

On November 25, 2016 at 10:29 pm Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, better known as Fidel Castro or “ Fidel,",died. His death was greeted with cheers of joy by most of the Cuban community in exile, especially those in Miami’s Little Havana. In Cuba the mood was more somber and without any celebration.

La Historia lo Absolverá (History will absolve him)

After taking power in 1959 following the Cuban Revolution, Castro oversaw vast improvements in providing of basic services, such as health care and housing, as well as education and advances in literacy across the island. 

La Historia lo Condenará (History will condemn him) 

Despite these achievements in areas of social policy, Fidel Castro’s government was characterized by a ruthless suppression of freedom of expression, severe economic hardships and widespread suffering.  Over the years hundreds of people were arrested for peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Repressive tactics used by the authorities have changed in the last years with fewer people sentenced to long-term prison for politically motivated reasons, but the control of the state over all the aspects of Cubans’ life remain a reality.

The Cuban  government continues to limit Internet use as a way of controlling access to information and freedom of expression, with just 25 percent of Cubans having access to the Internet and barely 5 percent of homes connected to the global computer network.

Initially, Fidel promised liberties to the Cuban people but ended up betraying them. He decimated one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America, destroyed the business class and pulverized the country’s productivity. Three generations and seventy percent of the people on the island today have never know any other leader but Fidel Castro. He improved the country’s education and health care systems but failed to provide the country’s healthy and educated  people with a means whereby they could be productive, have incentives, better their lives and be part of a middle class. 

During Castro’s forty-seven years in power he executed thousands of his adversaries and kept political dissidents and opponents in jail for many years. He harassed and even prosecuted people for listening to foreign music and for reading books and for even being homosexuals. Because of his policies twenty percent of the Cuban population ended up living in exile. 

Thousands of Cuban soldiers died as cannon fodder in foreign countries like Angola in an effort to spread the Cuba-style revolution and ideology to other countries. Castro was responsible for the rise of Latin American wannabes like Hugo Chavez, his successor Nicolás Maduro, and the likes of Daniel Ortega who has not done anything to improve Nicaragua  and keep it from being the second poorest country in the Americas after Haiti.

Now that the cloud and omnipresence of Fidel is no longer looming over Cuba there is hope that the country’s plight will improve in the not-too-distant future. Although Fidel officially retired in 2006 due to illness, his presence was always in the background. With his death the political system will eventually open up because Raul Castro should finally have the weight of Fidel off his shoulders. He will have more freedom and room to make changes without his older brother influence. However, Fidel’s death will surely lead to to many conflicts between Raúl and his political opponents as to what direction the country should take. But one really has to wait and see what happens after Raúl is expected to step down in 2018.

It depends if we look at Trump the businessman or Trump the polititian. Trump is a successful businessman first so he will probably see Cuba in that light and realize that it is not in the interest of the U.S. firms that are currently involved there to reverse Obama’s policies. In fact, in 1998 Mr. Trump researched business opportunities in Cuba despite the restrictions of the embargo. So, the question is whether Trump the businessman or Trump the politician will prevail when it comes to Cuba policy.

As one recent article pointed out, “Since the normalization process began, a Miami-based cruise line has begun to sail to Cuban ports, U.S. telecom companies have established roaming agreements with Cuba, commercial airlines are flying from U.S. cities to Cuba, Marriott has entered into a joint venture to manage some Cuban hotels, and Cuba has become Airbnb’s fastest growing market.”

“A pharmaceutical joint venture is about to begin clinical trials in the United States, other U.S. companies are in various stages of trying to close deals with Cuba and travel to the island by Americans has greatly expanded.”

These ventures and expanded travel were all made possible by executive orders and regulatory changes since President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro began a process of rapprochement on Dec. 17, 2014 and would be affected by any abrupt change in U.S. Cuba policy.

“Changing Cuba policy also would mean we are turning our backs on them,” said Carlos Gutierrez, who served as secretary of commerce under George W. Bush and has traveled to Cuba numerous times since the rapprochement began.

Trump would kill many deals if he reversed Obama’s policy. He won big in the Midwest farm states that want to sell agricultural products to Cuba and are pushing to have a financing prohibition lifted so their products will be more competitive.

Canceling out everything that Obama has done would not be a good thing; it wouldn’t be wise for American business as one businessman pointed out.

First baseball, then diplomacy and now soccer or fútbol as it is known in the Spanish speaking world. After nearly 70 years the U.S. and Cuba played a friendly soccer match or partido amistoso. The U.S. played Cuba in World Cup qualifiers in 2008, and the two teams have since met in the Gold Cup, but this was the first friendly match between them since 1947. In that year, when the two countries enjoyed normal relations and before Fidel Castro’s ascent to power, the Cuban team prevailed by a score of 5-2.

On March 22, 2016 Barack Obama and Raúl Castro attended an exhibition baseball game between the Cuban all star team and a professional team from the U.S. Sports have always played a role in normalizing strained diplomatic relationships between long-time adversaries.

This time instead of a baseball game it was a soccer match that helped the two countries mend their fences.

It was expected that the U.S. would humiliate Cuba with their superior team since Cuba is ranked 139 and the U.S. 22nd according to the sport’s governing body, FIFA.

The game took place at Havana’s Pedro Marrero Stadium was played amid a backdrop of thawing political relations between the two countries as they work towards normalizing relations. The field that in no way resembled a playing surface where an international match should have been played. The unpredictable bounce made ball-control difficult, contributing to a forgettable first half. In fact, the field was in such bad shape that the U.S. Coach worried that one of his players might get injured. As one reporter said, the bumpy, dusty, hard, uneven and altogether unplayable surface made it impossible to forge anything remotely resembling international-level soccer".

Both Cuba and the U.S. had opportunities to score during an uneventful first half. In the second half the team from the United States came to life and lived up to its potential — winning 2-0 with goals by Chris Wondoliwsky and Julian Green in a game that will certainly not be part of any soccer highlight films.

The unspectacular game, however, was a showcase for Cuban players, some of whom would like to play internationally as the sport grows.

The U.S. team now has focus on preparing for its upcoming World Cup qualifying game against Mexico on November 11.

This prize-winning work should be required reading for anyone who wants to spend a lot of time in Cuba, especially those who want to live or retire there someday. Cuban school children have to read it as part of their education.

In the 1930s, Hemingway lived in Key West, Florida, and later in Cuba, and his years of experience fishing the Gulf Stream and the Caribbean provided an essential background for the vivid descriptions of the fisherman’s craft in The Old Man and the Sea. In 1936, he wrote a piece for Esquire about a Cuban fisherman. This story was an obvious inspiration for the tale of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea

I just finished reading this incredible book in Spanish for the second time. I originally read it years ago but decided to reread it because my son was reading it in English. As I immersed myself in the story again I realized even more how it paints a graphic picture of Cuba through its language and story.

The book is written with both simplicity and narrates the story of Santiago an old fisherman whose luck has run and and who faces perhaps the greatest challenge of his life: a struggle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba. The story opens with Santiago having gone 84 days without catching a fish, and now being seen as “salao”, the worst form of unluckiness in Spanish. On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago takes his small boat into the Gulf Stream, sets his lines and, by noon, has his bait taken by a big fish that he is sure is a marlin. Unable to haul in the great marlin, Santiago is instead pulled by the marlin for two days and nights with Santiago holding onto the line. Although injured by the intense struggle and in pain, Santiago expresses a compassionate appreciation for his adversary, often referring to him as a brother.

On his way in to shore, sharks are attracted to the marlin's blood. Santiago kills a shark with his harpoon, but he loses the weapon. He makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the next line of sharks; some are killed and many others are driven away. But the sharks keep coming, and by nightfall the sharks have almost devoured the marlin's entire carcass, leaving a skeleton consisting mostly of its backbone, its tail and its head. Santiago knows that he is really unlucky now, and defeated, tells the sharks of how they have killed his dreams. Upon reaching the shore before dawn on the next day, Santiago struggles to his shack, carrying the heavy mast on his shoulder, leaving the fish head and the bones on the shore. Once home, he slumps onto his bed and falls into a deep sleep dreaming of his youth.

With recent thaw in Cuban and U.S. Relations, American tourists are now flooding the island. Among them are the famous who have descended on the country.

TV host Conan O'Brien spent several days shooting an episode of his late-night TBS show in Havana in February 2015. It was the first visit by a U.S. talk show host to Cuba in more than five decades. While he was there and made some hilarious videos like this one

The Rolling Stones played a free concert in Havana on March 25, which the biggest act to play Cuba since its 1959 revolution. The Stones played in Havana's Ciudad Deportiva three days after President Obama visited Havana.

Madonna just celebrated her 58th birthday in Havana.

Rihanna visited Havana in May 2015, where she shot a Vanity Fair cover.

Pop star Katy Perry visited Cuba in October 2015, and wrote that the country is "one of the COOLEST vibes alive" and called it a "Disneyland for creatives minds.”

NBA basketball star Carmelo Anthony visited Cuba with Vice Sports in 2015 to explore street sport culture in the country. Here is a good video of his trip. http://www.cbsnews.com/ media/stars-who-have-visited- cuba/11/

Now, almost anyone can is it the country under one of these categories the most important of which is the “People to People” which is designed to help the much-in-need Cuban people. 

1. Family visits
2. Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations
3. Journalistic activity 
4. Professional research and professional meetings
5. Educational activities
6. Religious activities
7. Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions
8. Support for the Cuban people
9. Humanitarian projects
10. Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes
11. Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials
12. Certain export transactions that may be considered for authorization under existing regulations and guidelines.

Yesterday, August 27, Fidel Castro turned 90 years old. He is undoubtedly one of the most controversial figures of our time. Both hated and worshiped Castro has turned out to be a survivor. It has been 57 years since he took power, 54 years since the Cuban Missile Crisis which almost caused World War III and ten years since he turned over power to his brother Raúl due to a personal health crisis.

In 2011 Castro stated, "I never thought I’d live so long. Soon my time will come just like everyone else.”

He was 32 years old when he triumphantly marched into Havana after defeating an army of 80,000 men with a smaller guerrilla force and driving then dictator, Fulgencio Batista into exile.

Over the years Castro has survived despite at least 634 plots to kill him and overthrow his government, according to Fabián Escalante, the ex head of Cuban Intelligence.

By Matt Spetalnick, David Adams and Lesley Wroughton

The release of the remaining prisoners sets a positive tone for historic talks next week aimed at normalizing relations after decades of hostility, the officials said.

They described the Cuban government’s release over the weekend of the last detainees on the list as a milestone but said they would keep pressing Havana to free more people the United States considers political prisoners.

The officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not say how many prisoners were released over the weekend or identify them. But the White House will provide the names of all 53 to Congress and expects lawmakers to make them public, the officials added.

There had been questions over whether Havana would release all 53 prisoners as part of the deal Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 to restore diplomatic ties that Washington severed more than 50 years ago.

The restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States unlocks new prospects for the island’s economy. Some steps, including the removal of the U.S. trade embargo, are prohibited by the Helms-Burton Act, adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. But the renewal of Cuba’s membership in the International Monetary Fund is a real possibility.