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Archive - Apr 14, 2011

Cuba Prepares for Historic Party Congress

<p style="text-align: justify;">April 14, 2011. by AQ Online. The Cuban government on Saturday will convene nearly 1,000 Communist Party officials from across the country in Havana for Cuba’s first national party congress since 1997. This meeting is likely to be the most significant since the first party congress in 1975, at which the Cuban government first formally adopted a Soviet-style economic system. This time, the most critical issues will be the ratification of market-oriented economic reforms—led by President Raúl Castro—and generational succession planning. Read More

Bay of Pigs: The 'perfect failure' of Cuba invasion

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Michael Voss BBC News, Cuba. Fidel Castro's forces outnumbered the invaders by about 10 to one. Fifty years ago, shortly before midnight on 16 April 1961, a group of some 1,500 Cuban exiles trained and financed by the CIA launched an ill-fated invasion of Cuba from the sea in the Bay of Pigs.The plan was to overthrow Fidel Castro and his revolution.The Bay of Pigs is a large isolated inlet on Cuba's southern coast.The beach at Playa Giron, a village with a small airstrip at the mouth of the Bay of Pigs, was the invaders' primary target. (To this day, it is referred to in Cuba as the Playa Giron invasion.) Read More

Cuba faces its worst drought for 50 years

<p style="text-align: justify;">Cuba is facing its worst drought in half a century, with tens of thousands of families almost entirely reliant on water trucks for essential supplies.The drought started two years ago, and reservoirs are now down to a fifth of their normal levels.The government is providing road deliveries of water to more than 100,000 people in the worst affected areas of the capital, Havana. Read More

Cuba to Host Fifth Int’l Congress on Forestry in April

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.13 - 19:54:34 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. HAVANA, Cuba. -Details of Cuba’s reforestation program —recognized as the most advanced of its type in Latin America in recent years— will be offered to foreign participants in the Fifth Congress on Forestry scheduled for April 27-29 at Havana’s Convention Center.Humberto Garcia Corrales, general director of the Institute for Agro-Forest Research, told ACN that almost 100 representatives from 21 countries and nearly 200 local specialists will exchange experiences on methods to improve foresting techniques and to increase reforestation. Read More

Archbishop: Church role in Cuba to aid 'soft landing' of changes ahead

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Patricia Zapor.4/13/2011. WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If Cuba is going to undergo the kind of political transition that leads to an end of the 50-year-old U.S. embargo, the work toward reconciliation and forgiveness that the Catholic Church is trying to facilitate there is an essential step in the right direction, according to the archbishop of Miami. Read More

Chronology: Raul Castro's road to reform in Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Marc Frank. HAVANA | Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:52pm EDT. HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's pace of economic reform is expected to pick up after a congress of its ruling Communist Party that begins this weekend and whose main agenda item is "modernizing" the socialist economy.Reforms up for discussion include: decentralization of government decision-making and revenue flows; giving more autonomy to state-run companies; slashing state payrolls and subsidies and reducing the state's role in agriculture and retail in favor of a growing "non-state sector". Read More

Women's Presence in Cuban Agriculture Increasing

<p style="text-align: justify;">Granma Daily. JUAN VARELA PéREZ. April 12th, 2011. By the end of February 2011, 64,063 Cuban women were working in Agricultural and Livestock, and Credit and Services Cooperatives, a marked increase as a result of one of the agreements adopted at the Tenth Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP).ANAP representatives said that the Credit and Service Cooperatives have received a larger number of new associated women with a total of 50, 976 new incorporations. Read More

CNN en Español to offer special coverage from Havana, Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Elena del Valle on April 13, 2011. Starting this week CNN en Español is offering special coverage from Havana, Cuba. Cuba en la Encrucijada (Cuba at the Crossroads), hosted by Juan Carlos López, is scheduled to air April 14 to April 20. As part of the coverage López plans to keep the audience informed on the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party taking place between April 16 and April 19, 2011. Read More

Four-month long ¡Sí Cuba! festival puts on a united front

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: Carolina Gonzalez. Wednesday, April 13th 2011, 9:13 AM.&nbsp; The ¡Sí Cuba! Festival will bring Los Muñequitos de Matanzas to the U.S. for the first time in years. The renowned Afro-Cuban dance troupe will play May 5-7 at Symphony Space.New York City is having a Cuban spring.The ¡Sí Cuba! Festival, which began officially two weeks ago, sprawls over nearly four months and 14 venues, with enough events for even the most avid Cuban culture fiend.But while the festival front-loads artists from the island nation making rare visits to the Big Apple, a substantial portion of the program features Cuban-born artists who have made the New York area their home, such as singers Xiomara Laugart and Pedrito Martínez. Read More

World Metrology Experts to Meet in Havana in May

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.12 - 20:45:36 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Havana, Cuba. -Havana’s Convention Center will host the 8th edition of the International Symposium on Metrology, from May 18th through the 20th.Convened by the National Normalization Office, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, and the Metrology Research Institute, the event will favor exchanges of experiences between experts and professionals related to this specialty.During the symposium, participants will tackle issues such as metrology techniques and their application in the fields of energy and fuel, the environment, health, industry, nuclear techniques and education. Read More