Opposition

Dissident dies, tanks roll

January 20, 2012

Orlando Luis Pardo tweeted there was movement of tanks via rail from Via Blanca (Paso Superior) on the outskirts of Havana. Is this movement in response to yesterday’s death of dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza after his hunger strike? The same occurred when dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo death was announced in 2010.

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US int’l broadcasting to Cuba

January 17, 2012

Kim Andrew Elliott, an audience research analyst in the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau and former producer/host of VOA’s Communications World (1995-2002), recently offered his thoughts about US international broadcasting to Cuba: Cuba needs some source of independent, outside news. It is impossible to get an adequate estimate of audience size in Cuba, but two percent [...]

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Winds of change?

November 2, 2011

Daniel Calingaert, Vice President for Policy and External Relations at Freedom House, discusses FH’s recent survey conducted in Cuba in a blog post at Freedom at Issue: The government shows no intention of opening up the political system. At the Communist Party congress in April, when Castro welcomed a “new generation” of leaders, they were led by revolution-era [...]

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Escalation of repression

October 3, 2011

The Wall Street Journal‘s Mary A. O’Grady on the Cuban government’s increased repression against dissidents and Havana’s view of the United States’ recent loosening of policies as a sign of  weakness: The nongovernmental organization Capitol Hill Cubans has reported that in the first 12 days of September, authorities detained 168 peaceful activists. These “express detentions” are [...]

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Dictator’s handbook

September 24, 2011

The Wall Street Journal’s review of political scientists Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith’s new book The Dictator’s Handbook, which takes a look at how democrats and dictators preserve political authority: So how is it that undemocratic leaders—who exploit, imprison and brutalize their subjects—frequently maintain power for far longer periods than their democratic counterparts? [...]

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Cuban autumn?

September 15, 2011

Via Global Post: But while the Arab Spring is still in full effect in many countries, opponents of the Castro government have gained little momentum for a “Cuban Autumn.”…Now activists are once more testing Raul Castro’s tolerance for public protest — and whether the tactics used by tweeting insurgents in the Middle East could spread [...]

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