Author: Michael Weissenstein
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Irma’s victims in the Caribbean brace for another hurricane
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by
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua— Thousands of Irma victims across the Caribbean fought desperately to find shelter or escape their storm-blasted islands altogether Friday as another hurricane following close behind threatened to add to their misery. With Irma and its 155 mph (250 kph) winds taking aim at the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people, the…
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Tillerson says diplomats in Havana suffered ‘health attacks’
HAVANA — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that U.S. diplomats in Havana had been the victims of “health attacks” that left them with hearing loss — the most definitive U.S. statement yet on a series of mysterious incidents that have puzzled longtime observers of U.S.-Cuban relations. His comments came two days after the…
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Venezuelan opposition calls for nationwide strike
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition leaders called Monday for a 24-hour nationwide strike to increase pressure on the socialist government after more than 7 million people rejected a plan to rewrite the constitution and consolidate the ruling party’s power over the country, which has been stricken by shortages and inflation and riven by more than…
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Cuba rejects new US policy, saying pressure will not work
HAVANA — Cuba’s foreign minister rejected President Donald Trump’s new policy toward the island, saying Monday that “we will never negotiate under pressure or under threat” and refusing to return U.S. fugitives who have received asylum in Cuba. In a hard-edged response to the policy announced Friday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said from Vienna that…
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Trump rolls back some, not all, changes in US-Cuba relations
MIAMI — Pressing “pause” on a historic detente, President Donald Trump thrust the U.S. and Cuba back on a path toward open hostility with a blistering denunciation of the island’s communist government. He clamped down on some commerce and travel but left intact many new avenues President Barack Obama had opened. The Cuban government responded…
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Trump thrusts US, Cuba back toward hostile relations
MIAMI — Pressing “pause” on a historic detente, President Donald Trump thrust the U.S. and Cuba back on a path toward open hostility Friday with a blistering denunciation of the island’s communist government. He clamped down on some commerce and travel but left intact many new avenues President Barack Obama had opened. The Cuban government…
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Fidel Castro, who defied US for 50 years, dies at 90 in Cuba
MIAMI — Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule of Cuba, has died at age 90. With a shaking voice, President Raul Castro said on state television that his older brother died at 10:29 p.m. Friday.…
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Historic commercial flight from US lands in Cuba
SANTA CLARA, Cuba — The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara on Wednesday morning, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War. Cheers broke out in the cabin of JetBlue flight 387 as the…
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Obama, Castro lay bare tensions on embargo, human rights
HAVANA — Laying bare a half-century of tensions, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro prodded each other Monday over human rights and the longstanding U.S. economic embargo during an unprecedented joint news conference that stunned Cubans unaccustomed to their leaders being aggressively questioned. The exchanges underscored deep divisions that still exist between the…
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With visit, Obama aims to push acrimony with Cuba into past
HAVANA (AP) — Stepping into history, President Barack Obama opened an extraordinary visit to Cuba on Sunday, eager to push decades of acrimony deeper into the past and forge irreversible ties with America’s former adversary. Obama’s whirlwind trip is a crowning moment in his and Cuban President Raul Castro’s ambitious effort to restore normal relations…