Population

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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Cuba’s ranking in EIU’s Democracy Index

December 16, 2011

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) just released its report Democracy Index 2011: Democracy Under Stress. Per the report: “The index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories—this covers almost the entire population of the world and the vast majority of the world’s independent states (micro states are [...]

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Cuba in 2012

November 30, 2011

I received today The Economist‘s The World in 2012 issue, whereby it forecasts the following for Cuba: Market forces and private enterprise will take on a greater role in the economy, under the strict guidance of Cuba’s Communist Party. It aims to shift 1m workers off state payrolls over the coming years, phase out rationing [...]

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Preconditions for political violence in Cuba

November 17, 2011

Three months ago, the Canadian government’s Economic & Political Intelligence Centre at Export Development Canada—EDC (Canada’s export credit agency, which helps Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business) issued its political outlook on Cuba: Raúl Castro’s pragmatism has resulted in investment and cooperation agreements with a variety of countries. Companies from several countries are also building [...]

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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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