The U.S. and Cuban governments held this Friday the first meeting of the Cybersecurity and Cybercrime working group, one of the eight technical exchanges as part of the legal strengthening framework of the talks between the two countries, a Department of Justice spokesperson said to EFE. The spokesperson, who requested anonymity, added that during the meeting the United States and Cuba discussed a series of cyber problems, including the tendencies in cybercrime and the practical improvements for the protection of the web. Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy Robert Strayer; Department of National Security Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policies; and Department of Justice Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz headed the U.S. delegation. The Cuban delegation was made up by Foreign Ministry Director for Bilateral Affairs for the United States Yuri A. Gala López; and National Defense and Security Commission Assistant Advisor Abel González Santamaría. The government of Donald Trump decided to give a strong turn to the Cuba policy after his predecessor Barack Obama had started a thawing and rapprochement process with the island in 2014. Six months after arriving in the White House Trump issued a memorandum with which...

Our Havana The township of San Cristóbal de La Habana, the Cuban capital, recently celebrated its 498th anniversary. I believe we all have a Havana that is ours, that changes nuances, that has a smell and a feeling for whoever has enjoyed and suffered it. Havana is different in each barrio and authentic for each human being who feels it. Those of us who love it cannot think of today’s Havana without Eusebio Leal, the City Historian, its most fervent and passionate lover. Since the late 1960s, Eusebio has led the works of conservation and restoration of a city that has expanded beyond the foundational historic site, a center that undoubtedly he saved from disaster. His principal merit has been to work tirelessly, educate, convince and make everyone fall in love with Havana. In 2012, barely a few months after the creation of OnCuba, we interviewed Leal. At that time he told us something about Havana that I haven’t been able to forget: “More than a group of definitions and memories, Havana is a state of mind.” This issue of OnCuba is a special invitation to visit Havana, and we want it to also be a tribute to the work...

Around these days, U.S. cancer patients who wish to be treated in Cuba are facing a great dilemma: complying with their country’s laws or trying to prolong their life. The new regulations of the Trump administration in relation to travel to the island, in place since November 2017, are now an obstacle for a growing number of patients who were considering getting the Cuban vaccines or had already started to do so. A recent report by Public Radio International (PRI) reproduced by USA Today, affirms that many Americans in this situation were “silently” traveling to Cuba on their own by using the people-to-people category established by President Obama. However, elimination by the Trump government of the individual trips in this category is closing this option for the patients and forces them to visit the island in organized groups or in other individual variants with greater supervision, like the category of “support for the Cuban people.” This U.S. media said that since the travelers in this category are demanded to follow a complete calendar of activities, it is probable that it is not a good option for cancer patients. According to PRI, the question with which many patients are wrestling is...

The ailments suffered by Canadian diplomats in Havana are “a mystery,” according to the first official report about the issue offered this Wednesday by Canadian officials. According to the report, the Canadian Mounted Police is investigating the possible causes of the complaints, reported by Canadian diplomats in Cuba during 2017, but until now the origin is a mystery. A total of 27 Canadians, between diplomatic personnel and their families, have been examined after the report. Eight of them needed health care for symptoms like dizzy spells, headaches and nose bleeds. The Canadian authorities explained that until now the families of three diplomats in Havana have returned to Canada, two of them after suffering symptoms; but that the level of Canadian diplomatic personnel in the Cuban capital had not changed because some new diplomats, fully informed about the medical problems, have arrived to work in the embassy. They said there are no signs that anyone has suffered permanent damage, and since then those who needed care have returned to work or to school. They also commented that they are working with the Cuban and U.S. authorities in the investigation of the incident. Most of them in May Most of the cases...

The third week of 2018 and cultural life is already on the move in Cuba. As promised last year, the Jazz Plaza International Festival is getting here, because a promise is a promise, and promises are kept. So in terms of jazz we are thus leaving you with everything or almost everything there is for these days. Afterwards you can continue with more Music, more concerts and more artists, In Visual Arts, several expos for you to choose from. In Literature, the release of new issues of the magazine Arte Cubano. And in Cinema, the premiere of a Cuban film and the entire billboard for the remaining days. Start jotting down so you won’t miss anything afterwards. We continue on Facebook every day so keep abreast. Look for what you want to do and find it here. See you around!   Jazz Plaza 2018 As is usual, the 33rd Havana Jazz Plaza International Festival is here with the presence of national and international renowned musicians. The event kicks off this January 16 until the 21st and is sponsored by Chucho Valdés and the Cuban Music Institute. The Festival spaces extend throughout Havana. The Inaugural Concert will be in charge of...

  The United States this Wednesday left Cuba out of the “do not travel” level in the new system of the Department of State’s warnings, which does not include any American or European country in that classification. However, a high-ranking government official explained in a press telephone call that “the assessment about the situation on the island has not changed.” In the last warning about Cuba issued by the Department of State on September 29, with the previous system, it warned Americans to not travel to Cuba because of the alleged attacks suffered on the island between November 2016 and August 2017 against a total of 24 employees of the embassy or family members, attacks for which the United States still has not found the cause or culprit. The government official explained that, when all the non-essential personnel is withdrawn from an embassy, as was the case for Cuba in September, the country in question is directly included in levels 3 and 4 of the new system (that of “reconsider travel” and “do not travel,” respectively). However, and despite the repeated questions in relation to this, she did not explain why Cuba was included in level 3 and not 4,...

  Orlando El Duque Hernández, his brother Liván, Yadel Martí, Enriquito Díaz: baseball players who played in Cuba and in the Major Leagues, met this January 6 in the Seventh Meet of the Cuban Stars. For the fans, beyond the sports aspect, it was the occasion to meet their idols, take pictures with them and have them autograph a ball. The Orientales won 5 runs over Occidentales’ 3, backed in the pitching by Yosbel Cancino and a double base by Alay Soler to give a boost to two homeruns. The defeat was for Osvaldo Fernández, according to El Nuevo Herald. “This game is always a present for the Latin and Cuban fans in Miami and we didn’t want it to stop happening,” said Rafael Milanés, at the head of the organization of the traditional friendly game in Tamiami Park. It was a fiesta in the sports complex located on Miami’s South West’s Coral Way Avenue, belonging to the Florida International University. “Today we’re going to sign as many balls as possible; we’re going to take all the pictures we can. Today is one more day for you, the fans, than for us,” said El Duque. Jorge Luis Toca, Ángel López,...

How can one write about Martí’s letters? Where to start, how to never stop talking about them? Where had we seen, in what literature, in what hymnbook, in what declaration of love, silences and words, beginnings and farewells like these? It is impossible to capture in a few lines the incomparable spell. A spell cannot be told, described, analyzed: it is necessary to participate. And that is what these letters written with a feverish hand first ask of us: to participate. It no longer is possible to flee. We remain committed from the first instant and for always. It can be explained that such a man has drawn a people. What is there in Martí’s letters that we do not find in another collection of letters, no matter how illustrious it is? From where does that force of his come to implicate us immediately in the warm halo of his argumentation, of his enthusiasm or of his sorrow? How do these outpourings said to others concern us, these tasks of an already historic past that, all of a sudden, seem to confront us with our own time, as if demanding from us something that we would have forgotten, or that...

We’ ll start 2018 with really good trova. Go to Santa Clara if you don’t want to miss the 22nd Longina Festival, excellent moment to enjoy the newest trova in the country. This 2018 it will be dedicated to Teresita Fernandez and Habanera genre. There will be a lot to do and a lot of artists too. So if you want to hit it ... or listen it, let’s go to the center of the Island. If you want more Music, we’re feeling already the Jazz Plaza arrival really soon. Look down, there’re heads up. In Arts, new expos, new artists. In Cinema, we’ll have premiers and you could also take a look back to remember. In Theater, El Público company is on tour in USA so all of you there can go. In Dance, there will be Ballet this weekend, and in Literature you’ll have El Sábado del Libro and more. Check out everything for this weekend. Let’s get things going again with the new year. Recharge and come back next week. See you around!   Longina 2018 From Tuesday 9th to 14th in Villa Clara will take place the 22nd edition of Longina Festival, one of the most...

The new year is already here. After a complex 2017, marked on an international level by economic tensions, political disputes, violence and natural disasters, 2018 is taking a peek under the sign of uncertainty. The next 12 months will move, for better or worse, between the continuity of this scenario – Donald Trump in the White House, the war on terrorism, the social movements, the market’s ups and downs – and events that will shake the planet, foreseeable or unexpected events that will take up the headlines and will redesign the panorama. However, a crystal ball is not needed to advance some events, especially for Cuba, where changes in the political leadership and the economy are expected. These are some of the events that should mark 2018 in Cuba and the world. Politics - “Cuba will have a new president,” Raúl Castro confirmed in December during the Parliament sessions. The president-general will leave his post this year – in April and not in February, according to the recent rectification of the electoral schedule – and for the first time in decades the island will not be governed by one of the two Castro brothers. All sights are set on First...

  The bitter winter climate that has caused icy temperatures in parts of the United States is threatening with bringing snowfalls and frosts throughout the south, which few times sees light snowfalls, much less piles of snow. The National Weather Service is forecasting for this Wednesday a mixture of snow and freezing rain mainly along the Atlantic coast, from Florida to North Carolina. It warned that the thruways covered in ice and little visibility could make driving in the region unstable. Atlanta, on Tuesday January 2. Photo: David Goldman / AP. In Savannah, a coastal city that hasn’t seen an intense snowfall since February 2010, up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) of snow was forecasted as well as hail. While the municipal authorities were filling trucks with sand to spread on the main streets, Mayor Eddie DeLoach urged residents to stay at home and stay away from roads. “The streets will be slippery,” said DeLoach during a press conference on Tuesday. “We could have serious problems with persons who are not used to driving in this type of weather.” Jets of water rise from a frozen fountain close to the center of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday January 2, 2018....

To move easily the best speed is that of a bicycle. It beats the slowness of walking and at the same time it does not sacrifice the experience of living a place, of looking around without vertigo. A car’s speed swallows the details, everything goes by fast, the landscape is fleeting. Julio Cortázar, who celebrated the “simple spontaneity of bicycles,” described it as a “docile being and with a modest conduct.” In the Cuban capital there are some who are convinced of all this, and want to convince many more. A few months ago they started “Bicicletear La Habana” (Cycling through Havana), which is the name of the event that the first Sunday of every month summons all those who want to tour the city, free of charge, with their own or someone else’s bicycle. With the crisis of the 1990s the bicycle became the most useful means of transportation for Cubans (for the great majority the only one). Those of us born in the late 1980s or the last decade of the 20th century had an adapted small seat on the bicycles of our parents, who with very little spare energy in their bodies traveled long distances on them,...

As was announced by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla late last October, starting January 1 Cuban citizens resident abroad will be authorized to enter and leave Cuba on recreational vessels. They would initially use the Hemingway and Gaviota-Varadero International Tourist Marinas, although the official promised that the availability of these installations would be gradually expanded to other marinas. To initiate this process, the General Customs of the Republic of Cuba has published an update of the regulation related to the clearance of the foreign recreational vessels in the marinas. According to Resolution 336-2017 of the Head of the General Customs of the Republic the aim of these changes is “to facilitate and speed up the customs clearance of these vessels and yachtsmen arriving on board them.” These modifications are valid for all yachtsmen arriving in Cuba, not just those of Cuban origin. The Resolution warns that commercial activities will not be able to be carried out during these trips. “The foreign recreation vessels arriving to the Republic of Cuba can only be used for tourism-related operations. The yachtsmen on board them will abstain from carrying out any other commercial activity not authorized by the competent Cuban authorities, during their stay...

If you walk along the Avenue of the Americas, in New York’s Central Park, you can find the sculptures of American liberators Simón Bolívar and José de Martín and, by them, is that of José Martí, ordered by the Cuban government in the 1950s from U.S. artist Anna Hyatt Huntington. It is the only sculpture representing the Cuban National Hero at the moment in which, mortally wounded, he fell in battle in Dos Ríos, one of the most moving scenes of Cuban History. The statue projects the hero’s strength and, at the same time, is able to represent tenderness, serenity and conviction through the movement and expression in Martí’s face at the moment in which he gave his life for Cuba’s freedom. At the foot of the monument, among other inscriptions, it says: “his literary genius vied with his political foresight and his spirit of sacrifice.” Fifty years after being placed in New York’s Central Park (1967), the only replica of Martí’s equestrian sculpture arrived in Havana as a present to the Cuban people, financed with the contributions of U.S. citizens and Cubans resident in that country who were able to collect 2.5 million dollars to make come true a...

A not so good year is coming to an end for Cuba compared to 2016, which was strident and promising: we came close on the list of successes. Havana was visited by Francis and Kiril, the Rolling Stones, Chanel, Fast and Furious, Madonna, Obama himself and an unprecedented legion of U.S. tourists who helped to pack hotels, private homes for rent, restaurants, and they led to the rebirth of flotillas of decked-out cars from 1950s. Between 2015 and 2016 more than half a million persons, private workers, plus their families, were the immediate beneficiaries of an unusual movement of hard currency entering their pockets directly and in a spiraled way: the lessors who made their debut in Airbnb and were full during all the seasons; the taxi drivers who had more than enough tours of Havana or trips to Varadero and Trinidad; the gastronomics who multiplied breads and fishes with the help of the farmers who harvested them, or from the “traveler” – not legal – who brought supplies from Ecuador, Panama, Russia or Mexico; the hairdressers, the photographers, the computer science specialists who programmed an app; the organizer of parties who married Usher and the one who celebrated the...

  The Obama administration started modifying the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) based on its policy objectives: “getting involved with and empowering the Cuban people,” “increasing contacts to support Cuban civil society” and “promoting the independence of citizens from the government.” This was done several times since 2009. The last time was on March 15, 2016, before the president’s visit to Cuba. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced at the time “significant amendments” to the CACR in several senses, among them allowing “non-tourist personal trips” to Cuba. The move was designed to clear the way for commercial flights, announced in January of that year. Going to the island would then be simpler: it no longer would be necessary to travel in groups or agency packages, but rather the individual base would function, the so-called face-to-face. It was only required to fill out an application declaring the educational purpose of the person’s trip to cross the Straits. Shortly, with the regular flights, they already would be able to make online airline bookings for Cuba, just as is done to travel to Buenos Aires, Paris, Moscow or Burundi. One...

The 1.6 percent GDP growth in 2017 is undoubtedly surprising and surpasses by far the 1.1 percent growth of the first semester of this same year. Taking into account the difficult conditions in which it was achieved, the combination of financial restrictions, outstanding short-term debts, the unsatisfactory evolution of the price of some export products, Hurricane Irma and the tensions generated intentionally by the new U.S. government has had an unquestionable impact. Having been able to achieve a positive performance is very good news. Leaving behind the red numbers in the economic growth is positive, even compared with the growth expected in Latin America. But that growth rate compared to a 0.9% decrease in 2016 does not allow us to raise the average annual growth rate of the period above the 2%, still way far away from the necessary growth. That growth is reached with an 11 percent deficit. It is what is planned, but not what is wished for, nor the healthiest thing for an economy. One would have to say that to the pressures put on by the foreign financial restrictions another must be added, that of the domestic deficit that affects the monetary balances and prices, even...

  U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited last Thursday the Guantanamo Naval Base to “wish the military posted there happy holidays,” reported AP. This is the first trip of a Pentagon chief to the base in almost 16 years and it takes place in the midst of uncertainty on what the government of Donald Trump will do with the prison. Mattis was planning on meeting with the troops but it was reported that he will not go to the detention installations nor will he speak with the prisoners on the base. President Trump has not ordered the release of any of the prisoners in Guantanamo, nor has he added any of them to the list of those who can already be officially released or be sent to a third country. Mattis is the first secretary of defense to visit the Bay of Guantanamo since Donald Rumsfeld did so in January 2002, barely a few weeks after the arrival of the first prisoners from Afghanistan. The detention center was chosen to confine the alleged terrorists after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The secretary of defense arrived in Guantanamo on Wednesday night and was accompanied by an AP reporter. Forty-one prisoners...

To begin closing the year big we invite you to the last 2017 Silvio Rodriguez’s concert in the neighborhoods, today in Cayo Hueso. Write down the address and get there. To continue with the Music we recommend the special concert of the Lopez-Gavilan family and the launching of the new Yaima Saez’s album “Armonia”. But keep looking ‘cause there’s more. In Visual Arts you’ll have the prize-giving ceremony of the Fine Arts National Award 2017 to Eduardo Roca (Choco), in the Fine Arts Museum. Also, some other personal expos will be inaugurated before the end of the year. And of course all the FAC proposals ‘cause they’ll open every day until New Years Eve. In Theater, El Publico comes back with Lorca in “Asi que pasen 5 años”. So you know. Go out as much as you can...the end is coming! See you around!   Closing the year with Silvio The Endless Tour of Silvio Rodriguez in the neighborhoods will arrive to Cayo Hueso today, at 6 p.m. Exact address: Hospital St., corner to Vapor St. Like every time he will be there with Niurka Gonzalez (flute and clarinette), Jorge Aragon (piano), Jorge Reyes (contrabass), Emilio Vega (percussion) and Oliver...

The first adverse effects of the change in U.S. policy toward Cuba “is already being felt,” Josefina Vidal, general director for the United States at the island’s Foreign Ministry, stated last Friday. At the closing of a seminar on relations between both countries, Vidal affirmed that Cuba has not only verbally extended its hand, but rather it “has taken concrete steps to maintain civilized and mutually beneficial relations.” She also reiterated the Cuban government’s intention to continue the dialogue and cooperation “with no impositions or preconditions.” However, she said, “one of parties’ will is not enough.” According to Josefina Vidal, the effects of the new sanctions imposed by Washington are already having an impact on Americans’ trips to the island, which started to drop after registering a spectacular growth in the two previous years. Between January and November they registered an increase of 248 percent thanks to the 579,288 visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens. To these are added the 386,388 trips by Cuban residents in the United States, which is why the total figure stands at approximately a million visitors. “However, in recent weeks a notable decrease is appreciated in the pace of the growth due to the combined...

A group of 43 Cuban private workers has addressed a letter to Cuban Minister of Labor and Social Security Margarita Marlene González, and after more than 70 working days they have not received a reply. Last August 21, after the “temporary suspension” – not revoked – of the granting of new permits for 27 self-employment activities and the elimination of another five, this ad hoc group started being created to address this missive to the authorities responsible for this. A press release in the Facebook pages of some of the coordinators made known that the purpose of this initiative has been “to request she meet with us to dialogue about the Process of Upgrading of Self-Employment.” “We want to be heard and taken into account when drawing up the new legal framework that will regulate an issue of special importance for our sector and the national economy,” added Oniel Díaz, the leader of Auge, a private advisory group on business management. “Everything started with the measures. We rapidly got organized and we spent a few weeks writing, reaching an agreement on the contents and collecting signatures. We are not an organized group or a movement,” Díaz said to OnCuba. The...

Raúl Castro met on Saturday night in Havana with the president of the Russian Rosneft Oil Company, Igor Sechin, reported the island’s official media. Cuban Vice President and Minister of Economy and Planning Ricardo Cabrisas also participated in the meeting between Castro and Sechin, held at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal party). Sechin and Cabrisas had previously held a working meeting in which they dealt with issues related to bilateral economic and cooperation relations. Rosneft, Russia’s major oil company, last May started sending to Cuba 250,000 tons of oil and diesel (some two million barrels) in accordance with a contract with the island’s Cubametales enterprise. The agreement was signed last March and some experts assessed the amount of the transaction at some 100 million dollars. The shipments of Russian oil and its derivatives to Cuba resumed after President Raúl Castro in late 2016 requested from Russian President Vladimir Putin the guarantee for the supply to the island, given the reduction in the shipments from Venezuela due to the economic crisis in the South American country. However, Venezuela is still Cuba’s principal oil supplier through an energy agreement at...

The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 15 Cubans who were attempting to illegally enter the United States and who were intercepted in waters of the Strait of Florida, the institution reported. The Cubans were detained before touching U.S. soil after being sighted, on board a rustic vessel, by a Coast Guard turboprop plane and they were subsequently repatriated to Bahía de Cabañas, in northern Cuba. According to what the institution specified in a press release, the 15 immigrants were discovered some 65 miles to the southeast of the Dry Tortugas National Park, a string of islets on the Gulf of Mexico and to the west of Key West, and they were transferred to a vessel of the institution, where they were given medical care, in addition to water and food. Commander Willie Carmichael, assistant chief of the seventh district of the Coast Guard, warned about how “dangerous” these attempts were and pointed out that they will keep “a constant presence to stop and prevent illegal migration,” as well as doing whatever possible to rescue “those who take risks on boats not apt for navigation.” The U.S. Coast Guard noted in the press release that since last October 1, when fiscal year...

Cuban state-run enterprises will be more independent from the State although they will be under the charge of the Council of Ministers, after the coming into force of new regulations seeking to improve the management and efficiency of the country’s economic fabric. The new regulations will be extended to the “business upgrading” of all the country’s state-run enterprises, giving greater authority to the companies’ executives and “specifying” the work of the business management higher organizations (OSDE), the enterprises and the grass-root business units. Thus, according to the daily Granma, the OSDE will exercise over the enterprises “management and control functions, but without intervening in their work and with a strict respect for their autonomy.” The priority control will be exercised “over the general results of the entire organization and the use of the resources assigned by the government,” it notes. Moreover, these higher business agencies will be seen to “by a member of the Council of Ministers appointed to this effect, which is personal and non-delegated: they will be responsible for the tasks of orientation, coordination and control, without supplanting the president of the OSDE in his/her function of management.” According to the new regulation, the ministers’ functions in relation...

New evidence related to the alleged incidents that affected U.S. diplomats and their families in Havana point to dismantling the hypothesis of the “acoustic attacks,” managed until now by the media and government sources from that country as the cause of the effects. Strong and mysterious sounds, followed by buzzing and loss of hearing led investigators to be suspicious of this type of “attack.” Now the U.S. authorities are avoiding the use of that term. They affirm that it is not clear that the sound could be responsible. The sounds could be a secondary effect of something else that caused the damage, pointed out three federal officials cited by the AP news agency and who had information about the investigation and asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly speak about the topic. Their statements were made after the doctors who are seeing those affected discovered that they also presented neurological disorders. The tests made revealed that the diplomats developed changes in the sections of white matter that allow for communication between several parts of the brain, said the U.S. officials cited by AP, who affirmed there is a growing consensus among university and government physicians who are...