Cuba Policy Report

[The following essay was published by the website RealClearWorld on December 18, 2008 under the title “Obama and the New Cuba.” Earlier issues of this newsletter are here, and you can follow Cuba issues. . . Read more

Talk to anyone who worked with Raul Castro, or anyone clued in to the process that produced Cuba’s economic reforms in the early 1990’s, and you get the same story: that he supported those reforms and. . . Read more

Fidel Castro’s apparent recuperation sets the stage for a different scenario than that imagined when he fell ill eight months ago. Rather than slowly fade from authority while his successors assume their. . . Read more

Thank You and Farewell

The Council of State Havana, Cuba

December 2006

The Honorable George W. Bush The White House Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

My final battle is nearing its end.

I. . . Read more

Unable to offer the medical analysis and speculation that everyone wants, we are instead passing on some of the more interesting statements from the year just ended.

# # # # #

Eight workers in a. . . Read more

Reporters from the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde went to El Manzanares, a Havana cafeteria, in search of petty corruption. They found it easily. Patrons who paid for one-third of a liter of beer were. . . Read more

Did you ever wish you could attend your own funeral to see what people say and do when you're gone?

When the world learned last week that Cuban President Fidel Castro's surgery forced him to pass some. . . Read more

Why is it necessary for the Administration's inter-agency committee on Cuba policy - the "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" - to issue a second report this year?

Cuba is not a burning issue. . . Read more

Cuba's national baseball team was initially refused U.S. permission to travel to Puerto Rico to play in the World Baseball Classic. The decision was later reversed, White House spokesman Scott McClellan. . . Read more

The Bush Administration voiced not a word of disapproval, but it sent an unmistakable signal to a recent conference held in Mexico City where American executives and Cuban officials discussed business. . . Read more

The American press reported a CIA assessment that Fidel Castro has Parkinson's disease, and the Cuban president responded last November 17 with a four-hour speech that showed stamina and a sense that. . . Read more

Luis Posada Carriles, a man who has admitted involvement in terrorist acts, ended up in federal custody May 17 and now faces immigration charges and potential long-term detention.

His case presents. . . Read more

Both sides of the Cuba debate made news in Washington on April 27, but only one side was covered in detail by the U.S. government's broadcasts to Cuba.

More than 600 activists came to Washington for. . . Read more

Rather than rely on expanded market-based reforms, Cuba has embarked on a series of long-term international economic initiatives geared toward strengthening the state economy and increasing trade, aid,. . . Read more

For Cuba, it seems that the dollar may be more trouble than it's worth.

Soon, greenbacks will not be accepted in hotels, restaurants, gas stations, or any other commercial outlet in Cuba.

Cuba is. . . Read more

In the Library of Congress there are thick, yellowing volumes whose brittle pages show how the United States governed Cuba a century ago.

These annual reports of the U.S. Army officers who were the. . . Read more

Depending on the outcome of a debate that President Bush may settle as soon as today, Cuban families themselves may be targeted, and their welfare harmed, by new measures that would prevent Cuban Americans. . . Read more

With the world's attention focused on political change in Iraq, the Bush Administration is making plans for a transition closer to home, in Cuba.

The Administration has created a commission to devise. . . Read more

The Cuba policy remarks President Bush delivered last Friday were more notable for their embrace of Miami's most hard-line, first-generation segment of the Cuban exile community than for their relatively. . . Read more

The Cuba debate permeates South Florida every day, but it took an unusual turn last Saturday when the Bush Administration, having learned that a summit of pro-engagement groups would take place at the. . . Read more

Statement of Philip Peters
Vice President, Lexington Institute
before the Committee on Finance
United States Senate
September 4, 2003

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee:

Thank. . . Read more

On July 16, Cuba's central bank announced new foreign exchange controls that apply to Cuban banks and state enterprises.

The new regulations, intended to ensure "efficient use of financial resources,". . . Read more

The Bush Administration set domestic politics aside and sent a strong signal against hijacking and illegal migration when it turned over to Cuban authorities a dozen Cubans who last week commandeered. . . Read more

As the President prepares to address Cuban Americans at a White House ceremony today, he faces a situation where his Cuba policy and his Cuban American political strategy may both fall short of their. . . Read more

The Bush Administration had a problem in its Cuba policy: As ever-increasing majorities of the House of Representatives have voted to end the Cuba travel ban, it has insisted on maintaining the travel. . . Read more

Until recently, the Cuban government said that there was only a minimal drug consumption problem in Cuba, fed by unscrupulous tourists, by Cubans who cultivated small amounts of marijuana, or by Cubans. . . Read more

The Lexington Institute's e-mail newsletter, the Cuba Policy Report, will cover events and trends in Cuba and developments in U.S. policy toward Cuba.

The newsletter will be issued as events warrant,. . . Read more