A couple of weeks ago, while I was on vacation, my cell phone rang; it was Jorge Bolanos, the head of the Cuban Interest Section (we of course don't have diplomatic relations with Cuba) in Washington. "I have a message for you from Fidel," he said. This made me sit up straight. "He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article." I am always eager, of course, to interact with readers of The Atlantic, so I...

An independent Cuban blogger has launched the island's first digital magazine, with a variety of contributions from well-known authors in and out of the country but free of "any type of -isms." "It's a vehicle for the rainbow of opinions in this critical moment that Cuba is going through," said Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, editor of Voces, or Voices. "We want a more rational Cuba, without any type of -isms," the 38-year-old Pardo said by phone from his home in...

Damas de Blanco, Habana, Cuba, May 23th. 2010. © Carlos Serpa Maceira The Cuban authorities must act to end the harassment of the mother of a prisoner of conscience who died following a hunger strike to push for the release of other prisoners, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Reina Luisa Tamayo, whose son Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in February this year, told Amnesty International she has been repeatedly harassed by the authorities and government supporters during the regular...

The first seven political prisoners released by the Cuban government landed in Madrid Tuesday, July 13. The prisoners are part of the 75 dissidents who were arrested during a crackdown in 2003, reported The Associated Press and ABC. Six of the freed prisoners are journalists, according to the BBC: Léster Luis González Pentón, Omar Ruíz Hernández, Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez, José Luis García Paneque, Pablo Pacheco Avila y...

The number of political prisoners in Cuba continued a notable decline in the first half of 2010, the island's top human rights monitor said Monday, meaning their ranks have dropped by nearly half since Raul Castro took power in 2006. The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said the government is using less long-term imprisonment and turning more to a strategy of quick arrests and releases to intimidate those who openly oppose its communist system. It classed 167...

President Bashar Assad of Syria sat down with Cuban leader Raul Castro on Monday as part of his first tour of Latin America, a trip that is taking him to meetings with many of the region’s left-leaning governments. A four-star army general, Raul Castro exchanged his traditional olive-green fatigues for a dark suit to host Assad at the stately Palace of the Revolution. There was no word on what they discussed, but Cuban state media have said Assad was coming to promote cooperation...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad embarks on a landmark Latin American tour on Friday to reinforce economic ties with a continent he is visiting for the first time. Accompanied by his wife, Asma, the Syrian leader will arrive in Venezuela on Friday before proceeding to Brazil and Argentina, all three home to large communities of Syrian emigres. He will also visit Cuba to strengthen traditionally close ties. "Bilateral relations and developments in the Middle East and Latin...

The release of a Cuban prisoner of conscience who spent almost a year in pre-trial detention at a maximum security prison after organizing protests critical of the government is long overdue, Amnesty International has said. Darsi Ferrer was convicted on Tuesday on spurious charges of receiving illegally obtained goods and "violence or intimidation against a state official". He was sentenced to one year in jail and three months' "correctional work" outside the prison....

Camagüey, Cuba. The Cuban political prisoner who has been on a hunger strike since April 16 was admitted to a Havana hospital Thursday, human rights activists in Miami said. Egberto Escobedo Morales was transferred from a Camagüey prison to the hospital at the Combinado del Este penitentiary in Havana, Directorio Democratico said. Escobedo, who has not eaten for 64 days to protest prison conditions, called his wife from the hospital, the organization said. Escobedo, who is anemic,...

Cuba on Saturday freed a political prisoner who is confined to a wheelchair and began transferring six others to jails closer to their homes, part of a deal with the Roman Catholic Church and the most important sign yet that the government may be softening its hardline stance on organized dissent. Ariel Sigler, one of 75 activists, community organizers and journalists arrested in a sweeping 2003 crackdown, was released in his hometown of Pedro Betancourt in the province of Matanzas. "I...