Weekly Round Up - Stories from the Americas

We’ve all heard about Castro’s promises to change and reform Cuba. Half a century after the communist revolution, Raúl Castro has also talked about the need to rejuvenate the party’s leadership. Below are various links to must-read articles covering the Island’s recent events that look both backwards and forward.

  • Reuters'coverage of the named 15-member political Bureau that “will steer the country through the next five years as it overhauls the economy and fine tunes the one-party political system.” Interestingly, ages range from 50 to 80 and only one female was appointed. On that same note, Foreign Policy magazine examines how Raul Castro kicked off Cuba’s youth movement with an 80-year old deputy.
  •  The Financial Times’ Cuba Libre? piece that thoroughly analyzes the proposed changes.
  • The Boston Globe’s Big Picture has amazing photos, while Infolatam has video footage of Sunday’s May 1st parade in Santiago de Cuba, where crowds rallied in support of  “modernizing Cuban socialism”.
  • Andres Oppenheimer’s Op-Ed for El Pais argues that Raúl Castro is simply buying time with the reform announcements and declarations.

And as much as we love the Caribbean, let’s not forget about the rest of the Americas and some of last week’s cool stories.  Here are a couple you might have overlooked: 

  • According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the mayor of Bogotá, Samuel Moreno, has been suspended for a period of three months and may be forced to resign over a scandal involving government contracts.
  •  Via a White House Statement on World Press Freedom Day, President Obama called attention to press freedom violations in the Latin American countries of Mexico, Venezuela and Honduras.
  • The New York Times takes a look at how Perú’s Ollanta Humala may be Lula’s biggest fan.
  • The BBC reported that a court in Honduras drops the remaining corruption charges against ex-President Manuel Zelaya, clearing the way for his return from exile.