Cuba and France reviewed last Friday in Havana the state of their relations and expressed the will to strengthen the political dialogue between the two nations, driven by the signing of the first agreement between the island and the European Union, provisionally in force since 2017. Cuban First Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina and Secretary General of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Maurice Gourdault-Montagne chaired a meeting of Inter-Ministerial Political Consultations in which they confirmed the "good state" of bilateral ties. Both diplomats "expressed the will to work together to strengthen political dialogue, cooperation and exchange in areas of common interest," the Cuban Foreign Ministry reported on its official website. Check Tweet Here The meeting highlighted the "positive development of relations between Cuba and the European Union" since the implementation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, signed in Brussels in December 2016. The agreement, provisionally in force since November 2017, marked the end of the "common position" that made the bloc's relations subject to advances in human rights on the island and ended the isolation of the Latin American country as the only one in the region with which the EU did not yet have...

The Cuba baseball team will be able to attend the next edition of the Canadian-American (Can-Am) League after getting the visas to travel to Canada next Wednesday, after having faced difficulties with that process, the National Baseball Commission (CNB) reported this Monday. The Cuban baseball players will participate in the Can-Am from June 14 to 30 "as a result of dialogue and bilateral efforts," said the head of the CNB, Yovani Aragón, quoted by the sports website Jit. At the end of last May, the CNB had announced that the Cuban team would not attend the Can-Am event because the Canadian consulate was not processing Cuban citizens’ visa applications since last January after reducing its diplomatic staff in Cuba to a minimum, after several of its officials reported health incidents, whose origin is unknown. The Cuba baseball team will debut next June 14 against the Ottawa Champions, and also has scheduled games with other teams of the Canadian League like the Quebec Capitales and the Trois Rivieres Aigles. Aragon, also vice president of the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB), confirmed that the presence in Canada will make it possible to arrange for the visas to travel to the United States, where...

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said last Friday after meeting with her Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, that the island "will have a role to play" in Venezuela's political future. After the meeting in Toronto between Freeland and Rodríguez, the second held by the two ministers to talk about Venezuela in less than a month, the head of Canadian diplomacy described the conversation as "very good" and "productive". During a press conference Freeland said that they talked about the role that Cuba can play to resolve the situation in Venezuela, and added that Canada applauds Cuba's willingness to discuss this political, economic and humanitarian crisis with them. The official also said that her country believes that the positions of the Lima Group, which the Canadian authorities have led since its inception, and of the International Contact Group (ICG), promoted by the European Union, are getting closer. She said that they are witnessing an international convergence on the need for a peaceful transition in Venezuela that involves free and fair elections and the return of democracy. Cuba will have a role to play and it is something that I have discussed extensively today with Minister Rodríguez. It has been a productive conversation...

Agents of the United States Border Patrol station, together with the Aguada Municipal Police, detained 11 Cuban citizens who arrived in that municipality on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico. "As with all foreigners we capture, we will process them according to the immigration law and identify any person in the group who may have a prior criminal record that qualifies them for prosecution," the chief of the Ramey sector Border Patrol, Xavier Morales, said last Friday in a statement. "We want to reiterate that Cubans are not given any special consideration and that they will be prosecuted, ordered, removed and returned to Cuba," the federal official said about the arrests, which took place this Thursday. The statement details that on the afternoon of June 6, the agents of the Ramey Border Patrol, together with the Aguada Municipal Police, located a group of foreigners, seven men and four women, who claimed to be of Cuban nationality. During the operation, no boats were found on the coast of the municipality of Aguada. All foreigners were transported to the Ramey station for their immigration processing and deportation. The statement recalls that on January 12, 2017, the U.S. administration announced the immediate end...

With the typical Cuban humor and energy ―"Nada es perfecto" (Nothing is perfect) ―, "Clandestina," the island's first independent fashion brand, traveled to New York this June to offer its proposals, the result of a resilient generation with a global vocation. In a "pop-up" (ephemeral) store in the Brooklyn neighborhood, the founders of "Clandestina," Cuban Idania Del Rio and Spaniard Leire Fernández, receive EFE while they give the finishing touches to an inauguration, this Thursday, that will be in the purest Havanan style, with mojitos and drummer Yissy’s live music. The co-founder of the fashion brand "Clandestina," Cuban Idania Del Rio, shows one of her pieces on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 in the store "pop-up" in Brooklyn, New York. Photo: Miguel Rajmil / EFE. "We want to bring here to New York the energy there is in Cuba and that we have in our store in Havana, and that of a group of creators who are trying to put Cuban design on a global level and they are achieving it," says Fernández. That intention is reflected in slogans like "Nada es perfecto," "Actually, I'm in Havana" and "País en construcción" printed on many of the shirts, skirts and bags that...

Varadero, the largest sun and beach tourist destination in Cuba, located some 140 kilometers east of Havana, will receive new shipments of sand starting July to combat erosion and complement the new tourist facilities on its coastline, the Cuban media reported this Tuesday. Starting next month, white sand will be poured on six of the most emblematic sectors of Varadero, which is part of the goal set by the Cuban authorities to declare it as an "environmental beach" in 2020, according to the official Cubadebate website. "We will proceed to model a new beach at the height of the former Oasis Hotel, where two new facilities are being built, and, at the same time, specialists on the subject are studying the appropriateness of undertaking similar actions in Cayo Largo and Cayo Blanco," said Angel Alfonso, specialist of the local Environment Unit. The authorities recognize that Varadero beach is "exhibiting a process of moderate erosion " and that in Cuba "more than 80% of the beach resorts’ coastlines have withdrawn at an average 1.2 meters per year." https://oncubanews.com/cuba/varadero-sera-una-playa-ambiental-en-2020/ Varadero, Cuba's first tourist destination after Havana, receives more than 1.5 million visitors annually, is one of the ten most popular sun and...

The Cuban government rejected this Tuesday and predicted the failure of the measures announced by the United States, which will further restrict its citizens’ travel to the island, where they will no longer be able to arrive on cruise ships or under the popular group people-to-to people educational travel category. "I strongly reject the U.S. announcement of new sanctions against Cuba that restrict Americans’ travel and strengthen the blockade. They intend to suffocate the economy and damage the standard of living of Cubans to wrest political concessions from us," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote on Twitter. And he added: "They will fail again." https://twitter.com/BrunoRguezP/status/1135953396698103809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1135953396698103809%7Ctwgr%5E393039363b74776565745f6d65646961&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-responde-a-nuevas-sanciones-de-eeuu-sobre-viajes%2F This is Cuba's first reaction to the new sanctions issued by the U.S. Department of State, which will foreseeably have a high impact on the Cuban economy, already immersed in the worst crisis of the last decade. For his part, President Miguel Díaz-Canel later tweeted that "work, creativity, effort and resistance" would be the answer. The United States announced this Tuesday that "it will not allow visits to Cuba through passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft." The ban deals a blow to the island’s tourist...

The U.S. government announced this Tuesday that it will prohibit cruise trips to Cuba, which is a major blow to the Cuban economy and to that thriving industry that had grown since the thaw started in 2014. The State Department specified in a press release that the "United States it will not allow visits to Cuba through passenger vessels and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft." Despite the new restrictions, commercial flights may continue to operate between the U.S. and Cuba. A spokeswoman for the State Department explained to EFE that the Executive has decided to keep commercial flights because they are usually used by Cuban-Americans to visit their families on the island, while cruises are used for sightseeing, something legally banned for Americans. Specifically, that source indicated that the U.S. has decided to prohibit visits on cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft to prevent "the Cuban regime and its military services, which control the tourism industry in Cuba, from having access to U.S. dollars." In Cuba, many of the hotels are owned by companies controlled by the Armed Forces and managed under a joint venture regime...

The Clandestina clothing brand, the first independent fashion house that opened in Cuba, will show the United States the Caribbean spirit of its creations with a temporary store that opens this Tuesday in New York, where it will also hold workshops, panels and art presentations, and another one in Washington DC. "We are delighted to show for the first time what it is like to be a contemporary Cuban brand that speaks to a global audience," one of its founders, Idania Del Río, said in a statement, highlighting the "enormous talent" there is on the island, especially that of young people "who see the world in a different way." https://youtu.be/3m7_60tqlUw "Proud to be the first independent fashion brand that emerges from the Caribbean country," Clandestina will offer its products and also creative events in a "pop-up" (ephemeral) store located in a multidisciplinary space in Brooklyn aimed at addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In that sense, the group that makes up the firm explains in the note that it believes in a more sustainable fashion industry, and that all materials they obtain in second-hand markets are recovered, recycled and reused. On its website, the firm announces its first temporary...

The European Union (EU) advised Cuba on Friday to make out of the problem an opportunity and facilitate more trade and investment in the country, in the face of the recent strengthening of the U.S. embargo through the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which had been frozen for two decades. "Beyond looking at the past and criticizing the Helms-Burton Act, there is also an opportunity here to improve the security of investments, to facilitate trade and investments and there the European Union will be with you," said the European ambassador to Cuba, Spaniard Alberto Navarro. The diplomat recommended this during a working meeting of the Cuban government with diplomats and European companies present on the island to reiterate the guarantees to foreign investment offered by the Cuban state, at a time of anxiety due to Washington’s new measures of pressure. Navarro urged Havana "to look for the opportunity to improve the investment climate and to facilitate trade and investment, in these difficult times." "I have not seen any country emerge from underdevelopment through development aid and international solidarity.... The countries that thrive are thanks to trade opening and foreign investment.... It is a unique moment, an opportunity,"...

Between January and April 2019 Cuba registered an average of 29 traffic accidents per day, with 2 deaths and 21 wounded every 24 hours, according to a report by the National Road Safety and Traffic Commission released this Friday. The island reported an increase in accidents with respect to the first quarter of 2018, among other causes because drivers do not respect the right of way, do not pay attention to their vehicle’s control and violate speed limits or drive under the influence of alcohol. These causes originated 53% of the accidents, which in recent months have become an epidemic in many cases with fatal consequences, according to the assessments of the Cuban traffic authorities quoted on the official Cubadebate website. Other factors having an influence were also recognized, such as low risk perception, high irresponsibility, recklessness and imprudence. The report notes that there was a decrease in accidents with massive consequences, although it recognizes that these incidents continue to be reported every 52 minutes. ------------------------------------- *Caption Traffic accidents in 2019 (January-April) Province with increase in accidents Province with decrease in accidents Province with the most deaths Province with the most accidents 70% of the accidents were reported in Havana,...

The Colombian authorities expelled for the second time in less than a week Cuban Raúl Gutiérrez, accused of planning attacks in Bogota against U.S. citizens and who was not taken back by the island's government last Friday, reported official sources. "We have been in permanent communication with the government of Cuba clarifying not only what happened but also working to correct this impasse, thus carrying out the expulsion measure from abroad, as we had scheduled," said the director of Migration Colombia, Christian Krüger, quoted in a statement from his office. Gutiérrez left Colombia at 08:30 local time (13.30 GMT) this Tuesday on a commercial flight to Havana accompanied by two immigration officials. The entity added that the Cuban citizen, who was arrested in March 2018 in the city of Pereira, will not be able to enter Colombian territory for ten years "from the date of expulsion." https://twitter.com/elcolombiano/status/1133425200840597505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1133425200840597505%7Ctwgr%5E393039363b74776565745f6d65646961&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fmundo%2Famerica-latina%2Fcolombia-expulsa-por-segunda-vez-a-cubano-acusado-de-planear-atentados%2F Gutiérrez was expelled from the country on Thursday last week accused of preparing a terrorist attack against Americans in the so-called Zona Rosa of Bogotá, an area of ​​bars and restaurants frequented by foreigners. However, the Cuban immigration authorities did not accept his entry alleging, according to what Gutiérrez said in a video,...

Ernest Hemingway found inspiration for some of his works in themes, characters and details in the books of Cuban author Enrique Serpa, according to a new book about the friendship with Cuba of the writer of The Old Man and the Sea, authored by U.S. researcher and professor Andrew Feldman. Feldman said to EFE in Miami that he didn’t think Hemingway stole Serpa’s stories, because there is a clear difference between their works and they have their own styles, but he thought the influence is sufficiently visible to ask to what extent their friendship and intellectual exchange affected Hemingway’s works. Ernesto. The Untold Story of Hemingway in Revolutionary Cuba (Melville House), which will be released this Tuesday in the U.S., is the result of an investigation carried out by Feldman on the island following orders from the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature: If you want to be a writer, you must be able to "walk in the shoes" of another. Feldman was fortunate to be the first foreigner to have access to the archives of Finca Vigía, Hemingway’s home on the outskirts of Havana, now converted into a museum, and he remained in Cuba from 2008 to 2010. The main...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this Monday reaffirmed Russia's support for Cuba, its strategic ally, at the beginning of his meeting with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez. "In 2019, on the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Cuban Revolution, we assure you that we will continue to support our strategic ally, Cuba," said the head of Russian diplomacy. He added that Russia follows with "great attention and empathy the profound changes" that are taking place on the island and highlighted the progress made by Cuba in various areas such as in the socio-economic and cultural spheres despite the many years of blockade imposed by the United States. Lavrov said that in the course of these talks a "political consultation plan" will be signed for the 2020-2022 three-year period, making it possible to give more dynamism to bilateral contacts and to the progress of joint projects. The Cuban foreign minister in turn described the dialogue with Moscow as "always anticipated and productive," and the state of bilateral relations as "excellent," including joint projects and the "promising potential" of further developing ties. Check Tweet Here He recalled that both countries have a "very high level" political dialogue, with growing economic projects...

The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini, and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed this Friday their rejection of the activation of Title III of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act and addressed the next steps. Mogherini and Rodríguez met in Brussels to discuss bilateral relations and the latest events in the region, according to a statement released by the European External Action Service (EEAS). The U.S. decision to end the suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act was on the agenda of the meeting, and both parties said it was unfortunate. This regulation allows filing lawsuits in U.S. courts against foreign companies with interests on the Caribbean island, which have benefited from land or property expropriated after the 1959 Revolution. "Both the EU and Cuba believe that the extraterritorial application of the law is contrary to international law," said the EEAS, which said that Mogherini and Rodriguez "exchanged views on the next steps." The EU has already advanced its intention to apply the "blockade statute," which prohibits the application in EU territory of sentences in the United States on Title III and allows defendants to receive compensation in European courts. Neither does it rule...

Panama’s authorities said they suspect that the consignment of 1,517 packages of drugs found last weekend in a container aboard a ship from Cuba was introduced in this Central American country. An "investigation has been initiated to identify those responsible for the contamination of this container, which is presumed to have been contaminated in national territory," said the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security. A judicial source told Acan-EFE last Monday that on Saturday 1,517 packets of cocaine, which weighed more than 1.5 tons and had been declared as a cargo of charcoal, were confiscated in a container that arrived in a Colón port, on the Panamanian Atlantic, on a boat that left Cuba. The container where the drug was found had as final destination Turkey, with a stopover in Rotterdam, Holland, and at first no one was arrested for the case. The Ministry of Public Security said this Tuesday that "the contamination of containers in cargo ports represents one of the main methods used by drug trafficking networks that threaten all countries affected by the production, transit and consumption of drugs globally." It added that it clarifies "that the recent seizure of 1,517 packages of drugs aboard a cargo container...

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and ex-president and leader of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) Raul Castro met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, to whom they reiterated their support for the president of the South American country, Nicolás Maduro, the official media reported this Tuesday. Díaz-Canel and Castro received Arreaza on Monday night. The Venezuelan foreign minister arrived in Havana to participate in the 18th Political Council Meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), where one of the issues on the table will be the situation in Venezuela. A statement published this Tuesday by the daily Granma says that the Cuban leaders and the head of Venezuelan diplomacy "agreed, in a fraternal environment, to highlight the solid links that unite Cuba and Venezuela" and "talked about regional and international issues." Check Tweet Here "Raúl and Díaz-Canel reiterated their support for the constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros and the civic-military union of the Venezuelan people," while Arreaza "thanked the Cuban people and government for their permanent solidarity," the official note states. Also present were Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and the recently appointed ambassador of Venezuela to Cuba, Adán Chávez, brother of the late President Hugo...

This Saturday Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez received in Havana his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavusoglu, who forwarded an invitation for an official meeting in Ankara between the leaders of both countries. "We hope to have the honor of welcoming him in Turkey this year," Çavusoglu told the media, after extending to Rodríguez an invitation addressed to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel for a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The foreign ministers of Cuba and Turkey also pledged to strengthen bilateral ties between both countries, considering that "there are many opportunities and a promising future," according to the head of Cuban diplomacy. Rodríguez insisted that "there is a great opportunity" to develop bilateral relations despite the fact that "the international situation is complex," in an apparent reference to the crisis in Venezuela and the strengthening of U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba by the government of Donald Trump. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez (r) receives his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavusoglu (l), who forwarded an invitation for an official meeting in Ankara between the presidents of both countries. Photo: Yander Zamora/EFE. Cuba and Turkey agree in their support for Nicolás Maduro's government in Venezuela, in opposition to more than 50 countries...

An earthquake of magnitude 3 on the Richter scale was felt in several areas of Santiago de Cuba without any material damage or casualties reported at the moment, reported the Cuban National Seismological Service. The tremor was recorded on Thursday at 19.45 local time (23.45 GMT) at a depth of 3.6 kilometers and its epicenter was 22.8 kilometers from the city of Santiago. According to the report, the earthquake was felt in the Abel Santa María, Versalles and Antonio Maceo districts of the capital of Santiago, the second most populated city on the island after Havana. This is the first perceptible earthquake recorded in the country so far this year, the report adds. The last one to date took place on November 10, 2018, also in the province of Santiago de Cuba, with a magnitude of 2.9 degrees and a depth of 14 kilometers. The easternmost region of the island and in particular the province of Santiago de Cuba are considered the most susceptible to the occurrence of telluric movements in Cuba, where in 2018 there were 15 perceptible tremors.

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland announced this Wednesday that she will visit Cuba on Thursday to meet with her Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez and discuss the consequences of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act and the situation in Venezuela. Freeland said in a statement that it is critically important that the two countries come together to discuss the economic, political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and what they can do together to address it. The Canadian minister added that she also hopes to discuss how they can work together to defend Canadians who carry out legitimate trade and investment in Cuba following the end of the suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act in the United States. The announcement of the trip to Cuba came just minutes after Freeland ended a meeting in Washington with the chief U.S. trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, and other U.S. politicians to discuss trade relations between the two countries. https://oncubanews.com/mundo/canada/canada-defendera-el-derecho-de-sus-empresas-a-comerciar-con-cuba/ On May 3, Canada reiterated that it will not "recognize or apply" any sentence issued under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act for economic activities in Cuba shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump activated the controversial section of that act. The Canadian government also...

Passenger railroad connection between the Cuban cities of Havana and Holguín, paralyzed since 2006, will be restored in the second half of this year as part of a recovery program for the deteriorated sector that has an investment plan of some 3 billion dollars. The train that will cover the Havana-Holguín stretch will have the capacity to transport 720 passengers to different destinations with 12 cars imported from China, the state newspaper Granma reported this Monday. For the reopening of the service, work is underway to restore heritage values ​​and expand the facilities of the Railway Terminal in Holguín, located 770 kilometers east of Havana. In an initial stage it will depart every three days and during the trip it will make stops in the western towns of Jaruco, Matanzas, Colón, Santa Clara, Guayos, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, and the eastern Las Tunas and Cacocum, the head of the commercial department of the Holguín Railroad Conglomerate, Ada Iris Quevedo, explained. The critical state of passenger railroad transportation was addressed by a committee of the island’s Parliament in a report presented in December 2018 that reported the poor state of railroad tracks, bridges and grade crossings, as well as the low...

Hundreds of asylum seekers, many of them Cubans, remain detained indefinitely in immigration prisons in Louisiana, the U.S., waiting for an answer to their request, reported a lawyer who defends some of those cases, Luz López, in an interview with EFE. "About a year ago, we noticed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service) was sending many people (to jail), especially men, who had given themselves up at a point on the border where this migration is located in order to ask for political asylum," said López. The expert from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) indicated that "many of them" are Cubans and are being transferred to prisons ―some of which are private and managed by the GEO Group― in Louisiana, which belongs to the ICE region in New Orleans, which also serves Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas. According to the lawyer, her group plans to file a complaint "because these people are not being given the opportunity, their constitutional rights to a free and fair process to request conditional freedom are being violated." The lawyer warned that in these prisons many of the detainees suffer "medical problems, very bad psychological conditions."...

Conceived as a tribute to the "inexhaustible talent" of a country "much larger than its own geography," the documentary Cuba crea (Cuba creates) discovers the island from within, in the voice of a dozen of its most recognized artists, and takes flight with Iberia as part of the airline’s Talent on board program. The film, which had its world premiere this Friday in Havana, opens as part of the celebrations for the 500 years of the Cuban capital and the 70th anniversary of the first flight to Cuba by Iberia, which plans to screen Cuba crea on its airplanes starting summer. "We wanted to bring together in a single documentary an important selection of Cuban creators who have triumphed internationally, and still maintain a strong link with the island," Spanish journalist Jorge Moreta, the film’s scriptwriter, told EFE. Jorge Moreta, scriptwriter of the documentary "Cuba Crea," during an interview with EFE this Friday, in Havana. Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa/EFE. Moreta, director Eduardo Margareto and producer Rafael Monje recognize they are "three Spaniards deeply in love with Cuba," a sentiment they have wanted to transmit in the film about a country far from archetypes. "We wanted to pay a tribute, make a reflection...

The president of Iberia, Luis Gallego, landed in Havana this Thursday night aboard the new Airbus A330/200 bearing the name of the Cuban capital, to reaffirm his commitment to the island at a time of uncertainty for investments by foreign companies. "We are using this plane on many routes, including Asian routes, and it is always a pride to take the name of this city around the world," Gallego told a small group of media after arriving at Havana’s José Martí International Airport. The trip of the president of Iberia served to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the company’s first flight to the island on April 21, 1949. Iberia’s 330/200 called La Habana landed this Thursday in Havana (Cuba) to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Spanish company’s first flight to the island. Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa/EFE. "We hope to keep flying at least another 70 years," said Gallego, after noting that the largest Spanish airline has reaffirmed its commitment to Cuba recently with the increase in the frequency of trips from Spain from 5 to 7 weekly flights, which means one a day. "We are going to fly on all our flights with a new class, the Premium Economy, which...

The Canadian Blue Diamond hotel chain signed two contracts this Thursday for the management of two new hotels in Cuba, despite the threat posed to foreign investors by the recent activation of Title III of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act against the Caribbean island. The agreement signed by Blue Diamond with the Cuban Gran Caribe hotel group will allow the Canadian company to operate a tourist facility in Cayo Coco, located to the north of Ciego de Ávila, and another in Varadero, the island’s main sun and beach destination. The Cayo Coco hotel will have 380 rooms, and the one in Varadero beach resort will have 450 rooms, said the general director of development of the Cuban Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR), José Daniel Alonso, during the International Tourism Fair (FitCuba 2019) taking place in Havana since Monday. Currently, Blue Diamond manages 19 hotels in Cuba, including Royalton Hicacos and Grand Memories ―both in Varadero― as well as Memories Holguin and Starfish Tropical. Royalton Hicacos. Photo: royaltonresorts.com The Canadian company’s agreement has taken place in the midst of the latest sanctions by the U.S. government against Cuba, in particular Washington's decision to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which had remained...