The Cuban authorities are continuing to stifle freedom of expression on the island in spite of the much-publicised recent wave of releases of prominent dissidents, Amnesty International warned ahead of the eighth anniversary of a crackdown on activists. Hundreds of pro-democracy activists have suffered harassment, intimidation and arbitrary arrest in recent weeks as the Cuban government employs new tactics to stamp out dissent. Of 75 activists arrested in a crackdown around 18 March...

Alan Gross faces a possible 20-year sentence for "acts against the integrity and independence" of Cuba. The 61-year-old Maryland native was working for the Bethesda-based Development Associates International on a USAID-program that promotes democracy when he was arrested in December 2009. His family, and U.S. and company officials, say he was bringing communications equipment to Cuba's 1,500-strong Jewish community. Cuban Jewish groups deny having anything to do with him. Gross's...

Amnesty International has urged Cuban authorities to end the harassment of relatives of a human rights activist who died during a hunger strike last year. Reina Luisa Tamayo, whose son Orlando Zapata Tamayo died at a Havana prison in February 2010, told Amnesty International she was arrested by state security agents who threatened to stop her and other mourners from commemorating the anniversary of Orlando’s death in church, on 23 February. “The fact that the Cuban...

Despite almost global condemnation of the violence against demonstrators in Libya, some prominent Latin Americans are standing-by Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi, even as he declares that he'll keep fighting and will die as a 'martyr.' Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi on Monday to express his solidarity. Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro also weighed in on developments in the middle eastern nation on Tuesday. Castro said that unrest...

Amnesty international has criticised the Cuban authorities for not allowing an independent journalist to leave the country to collect an international freedom award. Guillermo Fariñas, was awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament last October and, although his passport and visa are in order, Cuban authorities have failed to grant him the exit permit needed to travel outside the country. “The Cuban government should have allowed...

Asuncion, Nov 14 (Prensa Latina) Five Members of the Paraguayan parliament will travel to Cuba next week to participate in the sixth International Conference for the release of five Cubans imprisoned in U.S. jails. The meeting will be held from November 17 to 21 in the city of Holguin with the participation of national and foreign guests. Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino have been unjustly detained for more than 12 years in...

The United States faced public scrutiny of its human rights record at the United Nations for the first time Friday during an examination before the Geneva-based council as part of the "Universal Periodic Review," a procedure that requires all UN member states to allow their counterparts to grade their conduct. The United States' most outspoken critics - Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela - opened the session with scathing accounts of U.S. policies. While Venezuela criticized the...

Dr. Aleida Guevara, daughter of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, recently met with Hizbullah leaders in Lebanon and expressed support for the resistance. During the visit, which was reported by Al-Manar TV on October 12, 2010, Guevara laid a wreath on the tomb of Hizbullah leader Abbas Al-Musawi and said: "...as long as the memory [of the martyrs] remains within us, we will have more strength." Later, while visiting Baalbek, she said: "If we do not conduct resistance, we will...

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on vacation, my cell phone rang; it was Jorge Bolanos, the head of the Cuban Interest Section (we of course don't have diplomatic relations with Cuba) in Washington. "I have a message for you from Fidel," he said. This made me sit up straight. "He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article." I am always eager, of course, to interact with readers of The Atlantic, so I...

An independent Cuban blogger has launched the island's first digital magazine, with a variety of contributions from well-known authors in and out of the country but free of "any type of -isms." "It's a vehicle for the rainbow of opinions in this critical moment that Cuba is going through," said Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, editor of Voces, or Voices. "We want a more rational Cuba, without any type of -isms," the 38-year-old Pardo said by phone from his home in...