Cuba

HAVANA, Feb 22 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raul Castro Ruz, and visiting Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, lauded bilateral relations between their countries, including military-technical ties.

A government statement, cited by Cuba’s National Television News, said that, “during the cordial meeting, Castro and Yevmenov also addressed the prospects for bilateral collaboration, as well as, issues on the international agenda.”

HAVANA, Feb 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An award-winning Cuban dissident who was detained this week announced that he has been released without charge but barred from a planned trip to Europe for a meeting on human rights.

Guillermo Farinas, a 58-year-old psychologist, is a leading voice in the opposition to Cuba’s communist government and won the European Parliament’s Sakharov human rights prize in 2010.

Farinas was arrested Tuesday in the central city of Santa Clara, where he lives, as he planned to go to the Spanish Embassy in Havana to pick up travel documents.

HAVANA, Feb 6 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrive in Cuba on Wednesday, to bolster political and economic ties with the Caribbean island, local media said.

Lavrov is scheduled to meet with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, as part of a four-day, three-nation tour of Latin America.

HAVANA, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov was expected to arrive in Cuba on Wednesday to bolster political and economic ties with the Caribbean island, local media said.

Lavrov was scheduled to meet with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, as part of a four-day, three-nation tour of Latin America.

HAVANA (AP) — A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and eastern Cuba on Tuesday, shaking a vast area from Mexico to Florida and beyond, but there were no reports of casualties or heavy damage.

The quake was centered 139 kilometers (86 miles) northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 140 kilometers (87 miles) west-southwest of Niquero, Cuba, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It hit at 2:10 p.m. (1910 GMT) and the epicenter was a relatively shallow 10 kilometers (6 miles) beneath the surface.

HAVANA (Reuters) - A day after Bolivia suspended diplomatic relations with Cuba, Havana accused its interim government of having sought to sabotage bilateral ties ever since it took power last year, partly under pressure from the Trump administration.

Communist-run Cuba was a key ally of Bolivia’s former leftist President Evo Morales - who resigned amid a political crisis and protests in November - and has supported his assertion that he was toppled in a foreign-backed “coup”.

HAVANA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- First batch of Cuban governors and deputy governors since 1959 were elected on Saturday in order to "economically and socially contribute" to national development, according to the Cuban constitution.

"All the proposals by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel were endorsed by municipal delegates across the country," Alina Balseiro, head of the Cuban National Electoral Council told reporters at a news conference.

HAVANA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Manuel Marrero was appointed on Saturday as Cuba's prime minister at the proposal of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Marrero has been serving as minister of tourism and becomes the first official to hold the prime minister position in 43 years.

The position was removed of Cuban establishment in 1976, but the administration of President Miguel Diaz-Canel reinstalled it in accordance with the new Constitution.

HAVANA, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Cuba will continue to enact economic reforms at its own pace regardless of the pressure exerted by a US embargo, Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said.

Cuba has been subject to US sanctions since the communist revolution of 1959 but they have ramped up since US President Donald Trump came to power in January 2017.

That’s posed new problems for the island nation which insists it will continue to “resist” US sanctions.

Gil said in an interview Wednesday that 2019 was “a difficult year, full of tension.”

Havana, Dec 19 (AFP/PTI) Cuba is to resurrect the position of prime minister in a parliamentary session at the end of the week, with President Miguel Diaz-Canel nominating a candidate to the post which has remained dormant for more than 40 years.

The last time Cuba had a prime minister, it was revolutionary hero Fidel Castro.

However, the position was abolished in 1976 when Castro transitioned to the presidency, taking over from Osvaldo Dorticos after the country's constitution was restructured.