All Blog Posts from World Watch

Cuban President Raul Castro was short on details as he implied difficult economic times were still here for Cubans. The world economic crisis, and particularly a reduction in income from exports, means Cuba cannot meet its projected growth index, Castro told an early Sunday morning rally in the eastern Cuban city of Holguin.

From Havana, CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum reports that in his short, 34-minute speech at the traditional July 26 rally marking Cuba's Day of National Rebellion (the 1953 armed uprising against the Batista dictatorship that six years later brought his older brother Fidel to power), Raul Castro reiterated the urgent need to increase agricultural production to replace food imports. (At present, Cuba buys 80% of the food it consumes from international suppliers.)

Castro, who stepped in to run the country when Fidel Castro was sidelined by illness in 2006, reiterated his call for more people to return to the land. On July 26, 2007, he had announced a plan to provide free leases to land parcels to those interested in growing fruits and vegetables. That program, he told rally participants, is moving along "satisfactorily."

An expert in U.S.-Cuba relations noted that among the surprising elements of Castro's speech was that, not only did he focus almost exclusively on domestic issues but that — despite the economic hardships facing the island — the U.S. embargo was barely mentioned.

"Instead of blaming the embargo for our problems, he talked about what we have to do to overcome its impact," noted researcher Carlos Alzucaray.

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The ground under U.S. policy toward Cuba took a significant shift today.

Mauricio Funes was inaugurated as President of El Salvador and, as announced previously, he immediately restored diplomatic relations with Havana. That left Washington as the odd man out, the only country in the Americas without normal relations with its Caribbean neighbor and long-time thorn in its side.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in San Salvador for Funes' assumption of power, was nevertheless very upbeat in remarks to the press. She described the Obama administration's May 22 offer to resume bilateral migration talks with Cuba as "part of our effort to forge a new way forward on Cuba that advances the interests of the United States, the Cuban people and our entire hemisphere," adding that the Administration was "very pleased" with the Cuba's acceptance of the offer.

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Addressing foreign ministers from the Non-Aligned Movement, Raul Castro says U.S. administration needs to lift embargo against island nation.

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Fidel Castro is once again demonstrating that he knows how to stir up controversy.

An online essay penned by the former Cuban president Tuesday evening seemed to throw a wrench into the apparent thawing in U.S.-Cuba relations. But some analysts question whether that is really the case.

It's a "script that has repeated many times before," says Nelson Valdes, a Cuban-American sociologist at the University of New Mexico.

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Earlier this week, President Obama announced that he was lifting curbs on travel and money transfers, and he challenged Cuba to make improvements in the areas of human rights and freedoms.

Thursday, from a summit in Venezuela, Cuban President Raul Castro made a bold response: "We have sent word to the U.S. government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything — human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything."

The dialogue-in-soundbites was an unusually direct exchange between an American president and a Castro. It's a poker game between a young, popular president and an old fox; President Obama called out Raul Castro with an offer to negotiate, and Castro upped the ante by putting everything on the table.

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You can't please all of the people all of the time. That might be the best, if not the only way, to describe the reaction to today’s expected announcement that President Obama is lifting the restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba.

While the U.S. economic and trade embargo will remain firmly in place according to the Administration, Cuban Americans will now be able to visit their relatives as frequently and for as long as they like, as well as increase the amount of money they send to the island.

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Former Cuban President Fidel Castro is again using the Internet to let the White House know just what concerns Havana.

In an blog posting Wednesday evening, Castro raised a laundry list of Havana’s grievances with Washington going back five decades.

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