Cuba

HAVANA, August 1. /TASS/: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega thinks that NATO countries that are participating in the conflict in Ukraine aspire to "conquer and occupy" Russia.

"This is the historic aspiration [of Western countries] to conquer and occupy Russia <...>. This is a war led by NATO and the US, who are trying to eliminate Russia in order to firmly establish themselves as the masters of the planet," Ortega said, as quoted by the 19 Digital news portal.

HAVANA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday denounced the U.S. embargo's damage to the island's economy.

Addressing legislators at Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power in Havana, he said that the U.S. embargo is an external factor that harms the economic development of the Caribbean nation.

"This huge external factor gravitates against the country's development," he said, adding that capitalism has increased inequality and exclusion worldwide.

HAVANA, Jul 12 (NNN-CAN) – Cuba strongly rejected the stay of a nuclear-powered submarine at the U.S. military base in the Guantanamo Bay, on Jul 5-8, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) said in a statement, yesterday.

This is a “provocative escalation of the United States, whose political or strategic motives are not known,” MINREX said, adding, the U.S. military base, as is known, has occupied a territory of 117 square kilometres for 121 years, against the will of the Cuban people.

HAVANA, July 4 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuban President, welcomed the participants of the 14th International Convention on Environment and Development, which gathers authorities of the G-77 and China from Monday until July 7.    

On Tweeter, he welcomed the high authorities of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation of the member countries of the integration block, who will discuss the crucial issue in favor of climate, environment and the promotion of sustainable development.

VARADERO, July 2. /TASS/: The first flight from Russia after the resumption of the scheduled air service landed in Cuba, TASS reports.

It took about thirteen hours for the flight of the Rossiya airline, a member of the Aeroflot Group, to reach Cuba from the Sheremetyevo Airport of Moscow.

The flight was made by the Boeing-777 airplane, with almost 100% seat occupancy.

Flights will be made twice per week, on Thursday and Saturday. "The demand for tickets is enormous," official spokesman of Rossiya Sergey Starikov said earlier.

HAVANA (AP) — Elián González has the same big, expressive eyes he did 23 years ago when an international custody battle transformed him into the face of the long-strained relations between Cuba and the United States.

Now 29, González is stepping into Cuban politics. He recently entered his country’s congress with hopes of helping his people at a time of record emigration and heightened tension between the two seaside neighbors.

HAVANA, June 11 (NNN-ACN) — A Vietnamese donation of 2,000 tons of rice was donated by the government of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi to Havana in the presence of the two top Communist Party leaders of both capital cities, Dinh Tien Dung and Luis Antonio Torres.

The donation was granted following the signing by Tien Dung and Torres Iribar of a cooperation accord between the provincial Committees of the Communist Parties of Vietnam and Cuba.

HAVANA, June 10 (Reuters) - When the U.S. embassy in Havana reopened last May to Cubans seeking visas after a nearly five-year hiatus, the once proud 1950s vintage building was in shambles.

Pieces of its stone facade were crumbling from top floors, threatening passersby. A rusty perimeter fence, decrepit and obsolete, wobbled with the trade winds. Hurricane Irma had damaged lower windows, a guard post, and granite facing. Even the ambassador's dramatic perch - a balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico - was deemed unsafe.

HAVANA, June 6 (NNN-ACN) — Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda ratified in Türkiye his country’s willingness to share expertise and values characterizing the island’s health professionals.

Portal Miranda was part of a Cuban delegation at a meeting with Turkish entrepreneurs which considered opportunities for exchange in different economic sectors, according to a news release by the Cuban Health Ministry.

HAVANA, May 4 (NNN-ACN) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Maksim S. Oreshkin, advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, ratified the intention to raise the economic, commercial and financial ties between their countries to the same state as their long-lived, high-level political relations.

Diaz-Canel stated his satisfaction at welcoming Oreshkin in his first and long-awaited visit to Cuba, which follows up on the recent exchange of visits between Cuban and Russian leaders and the joint agreements emanated thereof.