HAVANA (Reuters) – Cash-strapped Cuba should consider putting more of its state-run economy in the hands of producers, as President Raul Castro has done with agriculture, the country’s top economic commentator said on Tuesday.

Ariel Terrero, during his regular Tuesday appearance on state-run television, did not call for private management, but suggested that sectors such as food services and retail could perform better if they were run in a new way.

“In the Cuban economy, there’s a need to look for formulas more dynamic, more intelligent, of understanding property, of running a business, of running

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All of us who have celebrated many an event at the Cardinal can breathe a sigh of relief: the Cardinal is taking after the phoenix.   Our man in Madison, Ricardo Gonzalez, will be taking back the helm at the Cardinal Bar.    The story is here at the Isthmus (emphasis added).   It is well worth a read.

Cancel the wake. “The Cardinal Bar will live,” says Ricardo Gonzalez. As of Tuesday morning, the erstwhile proprietor of the landmark Madison nightspot is once again at the helm – and expressing grand ambitions

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From El País (translation mine)

The United States and Cuba have concluded their first meeting this Tuesday on migration  issues with a favorable outcome described by both sides as “fruitful.”  This first encounter  addressed ways to achieve a safe, legal and orderly flow in the migration between both countries.

“The U.S.  sees these conversations as a means to achieve practical and positive results that will contribute to bringing about accords” on matters of migration, according to a press release made after the completion of the meeting which took place in New York.

This Tuesday’s

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From Voice of America News

U.S. lawmakers have heard testimony about continuing weaknesses in U.S.-government funded television broadcasting to Cuba. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) updated members of Congress on steps taken by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting on recommendations to deal with management, morale and other problems.

Since its inception in 1990, TV Marti has been the subject of controversy over cost, contracting, internal management and journalistic issues, and the inability of the Miami-based station to reach enough of the population in Cuba to justify the $500 million

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From World Focus, BBC (here), (and here),  and El País.   OAS member nations have voted to list the suspension of Cuba’s membership imposed since 1962.

Thirty-three of the 34 members of the OAS want to bring Cuba in from the political wilderness and have diplomatic relations with Cuba. But the United States pays for 60 percent of the OAS budget, and OAS headquarters is an august building about a block and a half from the White House. Attention must be paid.

Opponents of the Cuban government in Washington immediately

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Reuters reports that with an easing of restrictions, the caretakers of Hemingway’s Cuban legacy could better preserve his home and more quickly digitize the thousands of documents.

If Obama eases restrictions enacted by the Bush administration that toughened the U.S. trade embargo, it will help Cuba get the money, equipment and preservation materials needed to maintain the home outside Havana where Hemingway lived for 21 years, Ada Rosa Alfonso, director of the Ernest Hemingway Museum, said on Tuesday.

“If Obama really sticks to his platform, if he can make his intentions real, it will undoubtedly

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From El País (translation mine)

Internet users in Cuba will no longer be able to use the chat service, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger IM reported the news portal, Cuba Debate. Microsoft  suspended service this week because of the U.S. embargo.

This decision by the software giant surprised the Cubans who have been trying to connect to the service these last several days.  Now when they try, they receive an “810003c1″ error message.

According to the Windows Live technical support web site,  error 810003c1 indicates the following: “Microsoft has cut Windows

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Reuters reports that new measures in U.S.-Cuba relations are fueling invester interest.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors in high risk assets are setting their sights on Cuban securities now more than ever given the cheap prices and the overtures made by the U.S. government toward the island.

Since U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to recast U.S.-Cuba ties in April, investors in high risk bonds have shown interest in Cuban securities as a means to accessing a market that has been closed to U.S. capital for almost half a

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The New York Times and El País report that the Obama adminsitration is ready to re-open channels with the Cuban government that had been closed during the Bush administration to address the issue of imigration.    The Times also notes, however that this is a gesture to fend off pressure to allow Cuba’s inclusion in the Organization of American States.

The gesture comes as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to fend off pressure from her Latin American counterparts to make an even bolder break from past policies by endorsing a proposal

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Just like Spain–after centuries of religious intolerance and repression–dealt with the issues of sexuality and now has a strong public advocacy for gay rights, Cuba may well be next among Hispanic cultures to come out of a seemingly unlikely past with its own progressive solutions.   San Francisco Chronical reports that Raul Castro’s daughter led hundreds of Cuban gays in a street dance to highlight gay rights in Cuba.

Participants formed a carnival-style conga line around two city blocks to the beat of drums, accompanied by costumed stilt-walkers. Events also included educational panels and

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