cuba

Hamilton Nolan · 07/13/16 09:00AM

Despite a tourism boom, Cuba’s economy is struggling so much that some are warning of a brewing “perfect storm” of social unrest. Thank god these communists can look to America as an example of social and political stability.

The Classified Home Movies of Guantanamo Bay

Sam Biddle · 05/05/16 09:50AM

At the Defense Media Activity, a little-known and oddly named office in Ft. Meade, Maryland, that provides “news and information to U.S. forces worldwide,” there are thousands of classified“educational” films about the American military—including a huge trove of secret home movies from Gitmo.

Hamilton Nolan · 12/30/15 10:28AM

Aldo Chang, once an official photographer for Fidel Castro in Cuba, looks at his old photos from his home in a Havana housing project: “When I show these to my grandson, he says, ‘What good did it do? Look at you now. You’ve got nothing.’”

Hamilton Nolan · 12/09/15 04:35PM

The heirs of notorious gangster Meyer Lansky want to be compensated for the seizing of Lansky’s Havana casino by revolutionary forces in 1959. “Cuba owes my family money,” says the grandson of the racketeer who helped prop up the dictator whose corruption drove Cubans to revolution.

How My Grandfather Helped Nixon Visit China

Sultana Khan · 07/15/15 01:15PM

On this day in 1971, President Richard Nixon, to the complete surprise of the American public, announced that he would be visiting communist China in 1972. It was an abrupt, about-face departure from a stance the vehemently anti-communist Nixon had campaigned upon. But the lost lives and political costs of the Vietnam war—as well as the insistent advice of Nixon’s Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger—led Nixon away from his intransigence and into a momentous meeting that would shape the course of American diplomacy and international affairs for decades.

Obama: U.S. Will Re-Establish Diplomatic Relations With Cuba

Taylor Berman · 07/01/15 10:18AM

During a press conference this morning that was broadcast live on Cuban TV, President Obama announced that the U.S. has agreed to formally re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. “We don’t have to be imprisoned by the past,” the president said before calling for Congress to lift the 53-year-old embargo. Secretary of State Kerry will travel to Havana to open a U.S. embassy later this summer.

Taylor Berman · 05/29/15 10:26AM

Taylor Berman · 05/05/15 03:51PM

Great news for Yankee imperialists too lazy to travel to Florida: Starting in July, JetBlue will offer a direct charter flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Havana.

A Revelation Regarding Elián González's Physical Appearance

Dayna Evans and Jordan Sargent · 04/22/15 12:05PM

Remember Elián González? The six-year-old boy who was apprehended from a relative’s home in Miami in 2000 and sent back to Cuba by American federal agents? Do you recall what he looks like? Well it doesn’t matter, because he’s hot now.

Hamilton Nolan · 04/15/15 01:10PM

Cuba will officially be removed from the US list of nations that sponsor terrorism, meaning that Americans will soon be able to use credit cards in Cuba, go to a real U.S. embassy in Havana, and gradually make the whole place unbearable with our overwhelming presence , as is our way.