Weekly Cuba News Roundup: March 18th, 2022
What’s going to happen to Cuba’s tourism sector when their Russian sugar daddy economy is in need of a sugar daddy itself? 
Have you felt that more and more of your Cuban friends are now living in other countries? Cubans who until as recently as 24 – 36 months ago were on the island as entrepreneurs or artists, for example, are now living in Miami, Mexico City or Madrid? You’re not imagining this; Reuters has a story out this week about the migration taking place, in the face of a faltering economy, with children losing friends daily to other countries. And, speaking of economy… Uh oh. Russia’s economy has tanked, drying up the tourists to Cubas beaches that the island is depending on as a foundation to its economic recovery. What were the chances that Cuba planned for that when they were thinking about jump starting their tourism sector?
There’s a story in The Conversation about how and why Cuba doesn’t have vaccine hesitancy, Florida Governor Ron Desantis is going at it with Miami’s archbishop, and over 100 July 11th protesters have received sentences from Cuba’s Supreme Court. Some of them going to jail for as much as 30 years. All this is below in our Weekly News Roundup.
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July 11th, 2021 protests in Havana. Photo: Getty Images
Cuba’s Supreme Court sentenced more than 100 protesters in Havana to prison terms that ranged between four and 30 years for violence committed during demonstrations last year, it announced Wednesday in a statement. Read more at cnn.com.
December 1, 2023
Top bartenders and mixologists from around the world pitched up in Cuba’s top beach resort last year to compete in the IBA World Cocktail Championship shining a spotlight on global drinks and craft cocktails.
The state was threatening the Roman Catholic Church’s ability to shelter immigrant children when Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami went for South Florida’s emotional jugular: He compared the unaccompanied children who were crossing the border today to those who fled Communist Cuba six decades ago without their parents. Read more at nytimes.com.
Havana’s modern “international” architecture has Cuba’s urban planners worried.
People protest outside the Panama Embassy as the country tightens visa requirements, in Havana, Cuba, March 10, 2022. Picture taken March 10, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli
Bray Perez, a 19-year-old Cuban university student, is fast losing friends to a growing wave of migration off the island. “Every time I go home, I find that 10 people have left,” said Perez, who studies in the capital Havana but hails from the nearby farm province of Mayabeque. “It’s hard to get up in the morning and know I’m not going to see them anymore.” Read more at reuters.com.
Tourists sunbathe at the beach in Varadero, Cuba, March 7, 2022. Picture taken March 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli
When planeloads of Russian tourists left Cuba this week, their vacations interrupted by war in Ukraine, it marked a sad day in the resort town of Varadero, a visible sign the conflict will rattle the island nation’s fragile economy. Read more at reuters.com.
A girl is entertained by clowns as she waits after being injected with a dose of the Soberana-02 vaccine for COVID-19 in Havana, Cuba, in August 2021. Photo: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
Vaccine hesitancy is rare in Cuba. Its COVID-19 policies and practices are fundamentally science-based. The Cuban government is garnering public support by protecting its citizens from grave illness and death; one of governments’ primary mandates. Read more at theconversation.com.