Tag: Cuba

Cuba faces uphill battle as Oropouche virus spreads

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban health authorities launched small-scale fumigation efforts in Havana on Friday to fight the spread of the Oropouche virus, but a rainy Caribbean summer, fuel shortages and growing roadside trash heaps are complicating those efforts, workers and officials said. More than 500 cases of the virus have been registered since May when the disease was first detected in far-eastern Cuba, health officials said this week. The virus, also known as sloth fever, […]

Canadian Navy ship join US, Russian subs in Cuba

HAVANA, June 15, 2024 (AFP) – A Canadian Navy patrol ship docked Friday in Cuba, which is also hosting two nuclear-powered submarines — one American and one Russian. The HMCS Margaret Brooke docked in Havana on its way back from “a successful deployment in the Caribbean basin,” the Royal Canadian Navy said on Facebook. It “will conduct a port visit to Havana from June 14 to 17, 2024, in recognition of the long-standing bilateral relationship […]

Cuba uncovers human trafficking for Russia’s war in Ukraine

HAVANA, Sept 5, 2023 (AFP) – Cuba has identified an alleged human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting its citizens to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said Monday. The government was working to dismantle a “trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces involved in military operations in Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement. The Cuban government had […]

Iran and Venezuela have ‘common enemies,’ Raisi says in Caracas

CARACAS, June 13, 2023 (AFP) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi began a rare diplomatic tour of Latin America on Monday with a first stop in Caracas, where he said his country and Venezuela are “friends” with “common enemies.” Raisi’s schedule is also set to include visits to Cuba and Nicaragua, who, like Iran and Venezuela, are all the target of US sanctions. “We have common interests, common visions, and common enemies,” the president said, without […]

Three dead, thousands displaced following Cuba storms

HAVANA, June 13, 2023 (AFP) — Three people have died and thousands have been evacuated after heavy rains pummeled eastern and central Cuba in recent days, authorities said Monday. Heavy rains that started Thursday had subsided by Monday evening, but recovery operations were still underway in several eastern provinces, including Holguin, Camaguey, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Las Tunas, as well as in Sancti Spiritus, in the center of the island. The Camaguey Civil Defense […]

China slams US over reported ‘spy base’ in Cuba

BEIJING, June 9, 2023 (AFP) – China warned the United States Friday against “interfering in Cuba’s internal affairs”, in response to reports that Beijing was planning to set up a spy base on the island just off American shores. The media reports, based on comments by anonymous US officials to The Wall Street Journal and CNN, were dismissed by Cuba’s deputy foreign minister as “mendacious and unfounded”, while the White House called them inaccurate. When […]

Difficult times bring Russia and Cuba closer together

By Rigoberto DIAZ Agence France-Presse HAVANA, Cuba, May 26, 2023 (AFP) — For the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia is taking an intense interest in Cuba as Moscow has become increasingly isolated over its invasion of Ukraine. Top Russian officials have flocked to the island nation this year, starting in March with Nikolai Patrushev, Moscow’s secretary of the Security Council, alongside the executive director of state oil company Rosneft, Igor […]

Lavrov thanks Cuba for ‘full understanding’ on Ukraine invasion

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday thanked Cuba for its “full understanding” over the war in Ukraine as he began a visit to the island nation during his tour of Latin American allies. “We appreciate that from the start of the special military operation, our Cuban friends… have clearly shown their position and expressed their full understanding in their evaluations of the reasons that led to the current situation,” said […]

Hurricane Ian a ‘catastrophe’ for Cuba’s vital cigar sector

SAN JUAN Y MARTINEZ, Cuba (AFP) – Western Cuba’s tobacco growing heartland has been left devastated by Hurricane Ian with piles of wood and tiles where once stood farms. A triangle of three municipalities in the Vuelta Abajo region of Pilar del Rio province, the Cuban region worst affected by the tropical storm, is where the best tobacco leaves grow and is a pillar of the island nation’s ravaged economy. “We’ve never had a catastrophe […]

Hurricane Ian sows ‘destruction’ in Cuba, takes aim at Florida

Havana, Cuba (AFP) by Leticia PINEDA Powerful Hurricane Ian left a trail of destruction after battering western Cuba on Tuesday, while Florida battened down in preparation for a dangerous direct hit as the strengthening storm churns north. Ian pummeled Cuba’s western regions for more than five hours early Tuesday morning, before moving out over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Insmet meteorological institute said. In the western city of Pinar del Rio, AFP […]

Hurricane Ian hits Cuba as Category 3 storm

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) – Hurricane Ian made landfall in western Cuba early Tuesday, with the storm prompting mass evacuations and fears it will bring widespread destruction as it heads for the US state of Florida. “Ian is already over Cuban territory,” said a forecaster from the country’s Institute of Meteorology in a special broadcast on state television. “The outer wall of the storm is on the coast of the province of Pinar del Rio.” About […]