Cuba to ratify commitment in strengthening CELAC

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, Mar 1 (Prensa Latina) Cuba will ratify its commitment to regional integration and the strengthening of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), at the eighth summit of the mechanism in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel is expected to speak this Friday at the gathering, which will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the signing in Havana of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez stated on X that Diaz-Canel will hold an intense day of meetings and debates at the summit, where Cuba will continue to contribute to the strengthening of CELAC.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is hosting the summit , bringing together leaders and other government authorities from the bloc’s 33 member countries, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.

During the opening of the summit, the local Minister of Foreign Affairs, Keisal M. Peters, will present a report on the management of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at the head of the organization.

CELAC emerged on December 2011 with the purpose of promoting unity and political, economic, social and cultural integration of its member states.

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Int’l Workshop of Women Entrepreneurs 2024 concludes in Cuba

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, Feb 28 (Prensa Latina) Under the slogan “Sustainable Fashion. Focus, Trends, and Opportunities,” the 7th International Workshop of Women Entrepreneurs 2024 concluded at Havana’s Hotel Nacional de Cuba on Wednesday.

Fashion shows, lectures, and panels marked the first day of the Workshop, inaugurated by Cuban Women’s Federation (FMC) General Secretary Teresa Amarelle Boué, Italian Ambassador to Cuba Roberto Vellano, and other participants.

The Workshop, which has an outstanding presence of Italian artists, hosted the lecture “Business relations with producers associated with fashion with projects for wholesale and retail marketing with developed foreign investment,” by Elvia Rosabal, head of the Business Group. Albus, Mercantile Society.

Lara Soler, a graduate in International Relations and Deputy Director of Trade Policy Management with Europe at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX), lectured on “Local Development and Women at the Center of International Cooperation.”

Later, the lecture “Professionalism, Leadership in Competitive, and Sustainable Companies” by Laura Lara, from Pujalte S.U.R.L. Group, Piso 34. Women working towards female empowerment in contemporary art circles in Cuba.

At the end of the meting, the most outstanding papers and booths will be honored, and the WEIC Special Prize for Extraordinary or Outstanding Women in Culture will be awarded.

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UN agencies boost nutritional education in Cuba

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, Feb 28 (Prensa Latina) Students from the Juan Tomas Roig elementary school in Havana starred on Wednesday in the “Cooking, a game for everyone” TV programme, under the direction of French filmmaker Dominique Clement.

The audiovisual series is a joint initiative between the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

According to the director, on Wednesday was the last day of recording for the production, which had as its main locations the Vista Hermosa and Doña Maria farms in Havana, as part of the project that brings together children, youngsters and adults, who learn about working in the fields and cooking.

“We have recorded a series of 10 programs of 8 minutes each. Each episode has its own recipe with the products grown on the farm where we film these projects,” Clement explained.

Meanwhile, the representative of the Doña Maria Local Development Project, Maria Paco noted that the television proposal is consistent with the principles of nutritional education that she advocates.

As part of that initiative, children go once a month to her farm to cook, learn to eat vegetables, diversify their diet and make it healthier from a local perspective, without having to buy imported, prepared or junk food.

To their cultural heritage, children add agricultural, ecological and cooking knowledge and experiences, with the purpose of transmitting them and even making them their future profession.

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US official Kerri Hannan visits Cuba’s foreign ministry

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, Feb 28 (Prensa Latina) US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy, Policy, Planning, and Coordination of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Kerri Hannan, visited the Cuban Foreign Ministry on February 21 and 22, local press reported on Wednesday.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) disclosed on Wednesday on its website that during her stay, Hannan exchanged with Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio.

On that meeting, the deputy foreign minister reaffirmed the call of Cuban authorities to put an end “to the slander that is woven from the United States to discredit with dishonest arguments the humanitarian and solidarity work of medical collaboration” offered by Cuba to dozens of countries.

Hannan also held talks at the Cuban Foreign Ministry with representatives of the Ministries of Higher Education and Culture, the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation and the University of Havana, institutions that, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stand out for their exchange actions with US counterparts.

The source specifies that the issue of criminal sanctions in Cuba or in the United States was not part of the exchanges, according to the official records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It details that in the meetings, held in a cordial and respectful atmosphere, the sides agreed on the importance of maintaining, expanding and diversifying institutional exchanges, as well as bilateral cooperation.

Hannan reiterated her satisfaction with the outcome of the encounters, and advocated identifying new opportunities for exchanges based on existing potentials.

That position was shared by the Cuban representatives, who leveraged the visit to stress the convenience of overcoming obstacles to trade posed by the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

According to MINREX, the website of the US Embassy in Havana attests to the collateral program conducted by Hannan during her visit to Cuba; and to the statements of an interfering nature made by the US official, which are contrary to the spirit of the exchanges for the sake of both countries.

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Cuba attends sixth UN assembly on the environment

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Havana, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) A Cuban delegation is attending the 6th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) that began today in Nairobi, Kenya, to analyze the triple planetary crisis: climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, the Cuban team led by the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), José Fidel Santana, will develop an intense work program that will include meetings with environmental authorities of Member States, the United Nations System and other entities.

Cuban representatives will actively participate in the consideration of draft resolutions and in the High-Level Dialogues in defense of the positions of developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States, calling for urgent action to address the enormous environmental challenges of climate change.

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Cuban Parliament president arrives in Angola

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Luanda, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) The President of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament), Esteban Lazo, arrived at this capital’s “4 de Fevereiro” International Airport for a three-day official visit to Angola.

Lawmakers Raúl Lima, third Vice President of the Angolan National Assembly, and Alcides Sakala Simoes, president of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Relations, International Cooperation, and Community Abroad, welcomed Lazo at the airport.

The head of the Cuban Parliament arrived in Luanda from South Africa, where he met with that country’s governmental leaders and political parties on Monday.

According to the Angolan Parliament’s press office, Lazo’s program in Luanda includes a courtesy meeting with National Assembly President Carolina Cerqueira and meetings with Angolan lawmakers within the context of the historic relations between the two institutions.

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Cubans in Venezuela prioritize fight against US economic blockade

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Caracas, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) The fight against the United States blockade and the permanent rejection of Cuba’s inclusion in Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list were two of the priorities discussed at the 5th National Meeting of the ACCREVEN, it was reported here on Monday.

Participants in the meeting of the Association of Cuban Residents in Venezuela (ACCREVEN), who met on February 23-24 in Valencia, Carabobo, also agreed to take actions to solve the migration regularization of its affiliates and to develop a communication strategy on social media.

They also decided to prioritize economic and business relations with Cuban entities, and strengthen the work and promotion of joint solidarity initiatives with Venezuela-Cuba friendship organizations, as well as holding events with children, adolescents and young people, according to a press release.

The debates were characterized by the “frankness of the approaches” and the proposals in search for solutions to the persistent “complex migration situation” of Cuban immigrants in Venezuela, among other issues.

ACCREVEN President Orelbis Reyes expressed his willingness to attend to the priority issues for the affiliates in their labor regularization, migration and academic updating, and in other important and complex matters that will be attended to.

It is a matter of looking for “concrete solutions” in the context of cooperation among the institutions that have the task of solving the problems faced by the community from a “proactive, integrating and unitary vision of the emigration with our homeland,” he pointed out.

The meeting was attended by José Mayo, second head of Cuba’s Diplomatic Mission in Venezuela; Consul General Ulises Barquín, and other members of the diplomatic mission, as well as the Bolivarian mayors of the city of Valencia and the municipality of Libertador in Carabobo, Julio Fuenmayor and Oscar Orsini, respectively.

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Open letter to President Biden asking him to change his Cuba policy

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Anthony Brenner
Poster with a request to Joe Biden to change policy for Cuba

A group of organizations and individuals based in the United States advocate for investments and trade with the island to sponsor the emerging private sector and mitigate the impacts of the crisis.

OnCuba Staff – February 11, 2024 in Cuba-USA

With the 2024 election campaign in full swing, an alliance of U.S. and Cuban-American groups and activists published an open letter to President Joe Biden encouraging him to take a turn in his Cuba policy.

The letter speaks directly of the advantages of a rapprochement with the island by offering “the best chances of achieving some of the margins that you need to win, by receiving votes from one of the Latin American communities with the largest voter turnout.”

The group is the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect ― Acere for its acronym in English ― a name that plays with the phonetics of asere, a Cubanism that belongs to the colloquial register and a word that for Cubans means friend, brother or partner.

“After several announcements, we are still waiting for measures that allow trade and investment with the island’s growing private sector. We also hope to achieve unlimited freedom to travel to Cuba, as is the case with other countries that are really dangerous,” the petitioners state.

Signed by more than fifty organizations and more than two hundred individuals based in the United States, the document resolutely calls for removing the island from the list of nations that help or sponsor terrorism, according to the State Department.

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More than a quarter of a million tourists visited Cuba in January

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

This represents an increase of 104% compared to the same period in 2023, but 47% less than in the same period in 2019, the year before the pandemic.

OnCuba Staff – February 25, 2024

Cuba received more than a quarter of a million tourists in January of this year, according to official statistics.

In total, 259,898 tourists arrived on the island in the first month of 2024, which represents an increase of 104% compared to the same period in 2023.

However, this means 47% less than in the same period of 2019, the year before the pandemic, as reported this Friday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).

The figure represents a timid recovery in international tourism, in one of the main months of the high season in Cuba.

Among visitors in January, those arriving from Canada (127,172), the main issuing country, once again stood out.

The North American country had a year-on-year increase of 98.2% and was followed by Russia (22,272) — double the previous year, for a 216.8% increase — and the Cuban community abroad (21,910), which had an increase of 88.2%.

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Namibian president meets with Cuban parliamentary leader

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Anthony Brenner

Windhoek, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba met on Sunday with the president of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament) of Cuba, Esteban Lazo, at the State House of this African nation.

Lazo also met on Sunday with the founding father and first president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, who thanked Cuba for its support for the independence of his country and the permanent solidarity with his people.

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At the meeting, Nujoma ratified the close ties between both nations, the Cuban Parliament reported on its X account.

On Saturday, the Cuban parliamentary leader paid tribute to former Namibian President Hage G. Geingob at his state funeral.

When speaking alongside other world leaders at Geingob’s funeral ceremony, Lazo highlighted how since the news of his death, Cuba has expressed its gratitude towards the former president, who exhibited a brave, firm, independent and supportive stance for the Cuban Revolution.

This attitude was also reflected against the economic blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States for more than 60 years and on the occasion of other events that have affected the well-being of the Cuban people, he noted.

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