Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has partnered with several Cuban entities to manage hotels in the island nation. Starwood’s deals, made possible through what appears to be unique approval from the Obama administration, marks the first US hotelier to operate in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. The sites include: Hotel Inglaterra, owned by Gran Caribe, … Read more
US President Barack Obama begins his historic visit to Cuba on Sunday, the first visit to the island by a sitting US president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. So what will the Obamas be up to? Continuing his trend of Medium pieces on Cuba, US White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications & … Read more
Ahead of his historic visit to Cuba on Sunday, United States President Barack Obama took time to speak (and speak in Spanish) with Pánfilo, perhaps the most famous comedic character in Cuba. Pánfilo, who is played by Luis Silva, has long performed a television skit in which he gets calls from Obama; this was, of … Read more
US-based public relations firm Weber Shandwick is planning to open an office in Cuba. The company has been granted a specific license by the US Department of the Treasury authorizing it to pursue opening operations on the ground in Cuba. “The license opens the door for Weber Shandwick to proceed with discussions with the Cuban … Read more
Cuba is continuing its Wi-Fi expansion. The country’s state-owned telecom company, ETECSA, has announced its plans to install 80 new “zones” of Wi-Fi connection. Ernesto Rodriguez Hernandez, Director of Computing within the Ministry of Communications, says that the new areas are being developed with a more “comprehensive” approach, after taking advisement from territorial governments which … Read more
By the Cuba Journal staff Hemingway’s history in Cuba is enormous; in many ways, no one understood the soul of Cuba better than Papa. And now a new project is looking to capture and treasure Cuba’s Hemingway connection, with help from U.S. heavy equipment giant Caterpillar. The company’s foundation has announced a $500,000 donation to … Read more
The first direct mail from the US to Cuba has officially arrived at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba’s government confirmed. The shipment represents the first steps of a pilot program announced in December 2015. The mail shipment was the first direct mail to arrive in Cuba in more than half a century. For … Read more
On 28 January 2014, a subsidiary of AB InBev, AmBev, acquired a 50% equity interest in Cerveceria Bucanero S.A. (CBSA), a Cuban company in the business of producing and selling beer. The other 50% equity interest is owned by the Cuban government. Publicly traded AB InBev was formed through successive mergers of three international brewing … Read more
Camaguey is Cuba’s third largest city and the home to the largest concentration of Cubans with Haitian heritage. Cuba acquired its Haitian flavor in the early 1800’s after some French slave owners fled Haiti’s revolution, bringing more than 27,000 Haitian slaves, coffee and sugar cane production to Cuba for the first time. Later, some Haitians … Read more
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has launched a program that will bring independent Cuban journalists to work with their counterparts in Miami-based newsrooms to create a peer-to-peer learning network. Supported by $110,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a private United States-based foundation, the fellowship program will help Cuban journalists and … Read more
