Portal:Cuba/News Archive

2008

October

• October 7: Bus and train collision kills at least 28 in Cuba

September

• September 20: Supporters of Canadian youth Omar Khadr held in Guantanamo gather, demand action

August

• August 6: Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer, dies at 78.

June

• June 6: Fidel Castro appears on TV in his first interview since undergoing surgery 10 months ago.(BBC)
• June 6: Cuba and the United States hold the first bilateral Hurricane Conference to exchange ideas and information before the hurricane season begins.

May

• May 29: Fidel Castro writes about his illness for the first time, stating that he had three operations before he began his recovery.(Earth Times)

February

• February 20: Drama was the signature tune of Fidel's career (BBC News)
• February 19: Bedridden Castro resigned after nearly 50 years as "El Presidente".(BBC News)

2007

May

• May 22: Cuba announces plans to upgrade 11 of its 17 ethanol producing refineries, which produce up to 47 million gallons annually of ethanol from sugar cane.(Canada.com)
• May 16: The tobacco harvest in Cuba's main cigar-producing province fell 12 percent this year compared to 2006 as excessive rain in the region took a heavy toll.(Yahoo News)
• May 4: Two former army officers hijack a plane destined for Miami at José Martí International Airport in Havana. The men kill a hostage before being arrested prior to takeoff. It is the first Cuban hijacking attempt reported since the spring of 2003. (Fox News)
• May 1: Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro does not attend the island's annual May Day celebrations. (Guardian Unlimited)

April

• April 28: Economics minister José Luis Rodríguez García announces that Cuba hopes to return to a single currency, a departure from the current two-currency system of the Cuban peso and Cuban convertible peso that makes many consumer goods unattainable for most Cubans.(International Herald Tribune)
• April 26: Santiago de Cuba win Cuba's baseball championship beating Industriales in the play-offs. (Prensa Latina)
• April 21: Top Chinese official Wu Guanzheng meets Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro in Havana for bilateral talks between the two countries. Fidel Castro is photographed shaking hands with the Chinese official and is reported to have gained back some of the weight he lost during his illness. (Turkish Press.com)
• April 20: Cuba's best-of-seven baseball championship continues between Santiago de Cuba and Industriales. TV broadcasts of the event's opening tie are interspersed with denunciations of the decision in the U.S. to release Luis Posada, wanted in several countries for terrorist acts against Cuba.(Ahora.cu)
• April 18: The Colombian government and the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) begin their sixth round of peace talks in Havana. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Cuba's acting president Raúl Castro had met with ELN leaders in March to arrange the talks. (People's Daily)
• April 12: Cuba's foreign secretary Felipe Pérez Roque backs India in its current bid to join the United Nations Security Council. (NDTV News)
• April 6: A judge in Texas, United States, rules that former CIA employee Luis Posada Carriles, wanted in Cuba and Venezuela to stand trial for terrorist attacks against Cuban targets including the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, should be freed pending an immigration hearing.(BBC News)

March

• March 23: A diplomatic row between Cuba and Sweden intensifies after the Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt stands by his criticism of Cuba's human rights record at the United Nations. Cuba retaliated by accusing Sweden of hypocrisy.(Trading markets.com)
• March 12: Writer Gabriel García Márquez arrives in Havana to celebrate his 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the publication of his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, plus the 25th anniversary of receiving the Nobel Literature Prize. (Granma)
• March 7: Cuba and Venezuela sign an agreement to develop ethanol production from sugarcane in a joint effort to preserve the environment, reduce fossil fuel consumption and stimulate the use of alternative sources of energy. (SciDev.Net)

February

• February 28: Fidel Castro makes a surprise phone call to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's radio talk show Aló Presidente, and the two leaders converse live on air for thirty minutes. During the conversation, Castro declares that he now has "more energy and strength". (Pravda)
• February 28: Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez announces that five dissidents have been sentenced to jail terms of up to two years, after being arrested during a peaceful protest in 2005. The prosecution claims the demonstrators were "mercenaries on the payroll of the United States." (Caribbean News)
• February 21: The Cuban government announce a switch to open source software (pictured) amid fears of Microsoft's cooperation with the US military and intelligence community.(ENN)
• February 6: Reverend Canon Nerva Cot Aguilera, of the Cuban Anglican Church, becomes the first female bishop in the Caribbean. (Virtue Online)
• January 31: Footage of President Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is broadcast on Cuban television. International media reports state that Castro "appeared frail but stronger than three months ago". (BBC News)

January

• January 26: The number of Tourists visiting Cuba dropped 3.6% in 2006, reportedly due to high prices, while Britain became Cuba's second largest market after Canada.(USA Today)
• January 9: The former home of Ernest Hemingway is opened to the public for the first time since its restoration. (SABC News)

2006

December

• December 27: According to leading Spanish surgeon Luis Garcia Sobredo, Cuban President Fidel Castro does not have cancer. In a press conference in Spain, Garcia described Castro's physical activity as "excellent" after being flown to Havana to examine the 80 year old.(BBC News)
• December 22: Cuban Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez announces an economic growth rate of 12.5% GDP over the last 12 months. Cuba's methodology, which includes health, education and other social services makes the country's economic growth figures difficult to compare. The U.N. commission, known as ECLAC, appeared to have accepted the 12.5 percent figure, but said it was still studying some of the economic data. (ABC News)
• December 13: American writer Gore Vidal visits Cuba and is honoured with a plaque bestowed by the University of Havana. (Washington Post)
• December 2: Raúl Castro, the brother of Cuban leader, Fidel Castro and Cuba's defense minister, has asked that negotiations be reopened with the United States as long as the U.S. "accepts that we Cuba are a country." (BBC News)
• December 2: Celebrations to mark Fidel Castro's 80th birthday are led by Raúl Castro in the absence of the Cuban president. Plans to celebrate Fidel Castro's actual birthday in August were shelved after he was rushed to hospital and forced to transfer powers to his brother Raúl (pictured). The revised date, December 2, was chosen to coincide with celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Granma boat landing which launched the Cuban revolution. Full details of the older Castro's non-appearance have yet to emerge.(BBC News)

November

• November 23: Cuba appears in the FIFA rankings top 50 soccer teams around the world for the first time, after beating Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Haiti, Suriname and Martinique.
• November 22: The annual harvest of grapefruit from the Cuban region of Ciego de Ávila begins.
• November 8: The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approves a resolution censuring the U.S. blockade of Cuba