World Press Archive

2009-08-27 / Yoani Sanchez (Huffington Post)

Open the Doors of the Cage and We Can Feed Ourselves

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Speculation grows about the possible disappearance of the food rationing system in Cuba. Amid fear and hope, some assure us that by the beginning of 2010 the quota for salt and sugar will already be history and that the liberalization of these as well as other foods is upon us. Those who are frightened by this possibility can't imagine a life without the benefit from the State, without the crutch of subsidization. I myself was born into a situation in which every gram of what I had to put in my mouth was written into a ration book. Had I grown up with only what was regulated, I would have a body more rickety than I now exhibit. Fortunately, life has a greater number of options than the grids where, every month, the shopkeeper marks the minimal rations we get.

A simple calculation leads me to believe that if the 66 million pounds of rice they distribute every month, through the ration, were available to the free market, prices in the latter would go down. You could then decide if in place of the repetitive cereal you would buy potatoes or vegetables and no one would exclaim, "I will take everything they give me home, before I'd leave it in the shop." In addition, there wouldn't be the feeling that they are giving us something, and especially the sense of guilt that keeps us from protesting or criticizing those who guarantee these tiny portions. The ration market should remain for those who are suffer a physical or psychological impediment or who are unemployed. In short, it must go to those who need social security to survive.         ...more

2013-04-22 / The Miami Herald

U.S.: Short-term detentions in Cuba reach record levels

Cuba saw a record number of “politically motivated and at times violent short-term detentions” during 2012, according to the U.S. State Department’s “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” which was released Friday...more


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/19/3354333/us-short-term-detentions-in-cuba.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/19/3354333/us-short-term-detentions-in-cuba.html#storylink=cpy

2013-04-18 / The Washington Post

Cuba’s Ladies in White due in Brussels to receive 2005 Sakharov human rights award

 Members of Cuba’s Ladies in White opposition group will finally pick up Europe’s top human rights prize from 2005 in person next week in Belgium, the European Union and the daughter of the group’s former leader said Wednesday...more

2013-04-16 / The Washington Post

Cuba avoids oil cutoff for now as Chavez ally narrowly wins Venezuela presidential election

Cubans were relieved Monday by the announcement that the late leader Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor had been elected Venezuela’s new president, apparently allowing their country to dodge a threatened cutoff of billions of dollars in subsidized oil...more

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