Cuban Studies Institute in Washington for Cuba Seminar The International Republican Institute hosted a seminar on Cuba organized by the Cuban Studies Institute for current and former U.S. officials at the IRI headquarters in D.C. on April 26, 2018. The morning seminar focused on the succession taking place in Cuba and implications for U.S. …
Helms-Burton Act – U.S. legislation introduced in 1995 by U.S. Senator Jesse Helms and Representative Dan Burton to decrease Cuba’s access to world trade, greatly augmenting the restrictions imposed by the Cuban Democracy Act, approved by the House 294 votes to 130 and by the Senate, 74-22. Its March 12, 1996 signing by President Clinton, as …
This Day in Cuban History – March 12, 1996. Helms-Burton Act – U.S. Read More »
By February 26, 1898, the biggest circulation duel between the New York powerful newspaper publishers, Joseph Pulitzer (The World) and William Randolph Hearst (The Journal) was in full swing. The Americans and their press closely watched events in Cuba. No foreign event had aroused and sustained the American public’s interest like the Cuban War for …
Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue), organized by Jose Basulto in 1991, with financial support from individual donors and several exile groups to fly over the Florida Strait to spot balseros so that the United States Coast Guard could find and rescue them. By May 1995, they had five planes, 35 volunteer pilots and …
On February 24, 1895, Cubans restarted, with the Grito de Baire, the war for independence against Spain that began in 1868-1878. Marti’s pilgrimage throughout the Americas in the 1880’s and 1890’s helped to unite and organize the Cubans. With Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez, Marti worked tiressly toward the realization of Cuban independence. So well …
At dawn on February 17, 1957, Herbert Matthews, The New York Timesjournalist, met with Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra. The meeting took place ten weeks after the “Granma” landing disaster (December 2, 1956). There were lingering doubts as to whether Castro was dead or alive. This meeting turned out to be one of Castro’s biggest …
On February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine blew up and sank in Havana’s harbor killing 268 officers and sailors. The armored cruiser had come to protect American citizens after Spanish officers’ riots three weeks earlier. In 1976, Admiral Hyman Rickover conducted an inquiry into the cause of the Maine’s demise. The result of his investigation, …
Paz (or Pacto) de Zanjón. Armistice signed February 11, 1878, to end the Ten Year’s War (1868-1878). It won neither Cuban independence nor the abolition of slavery, but it freed all slaves who had fought in the rebellion against Spain, and guaranteed an amnesty to rebel émigrés, and gave Cuba the same political rights as …
This Day in Cuban History – February 11, 1878. Paz (or Pacto) de Zanjón. Read More »
El 10 de febrero de 1896, el capitán general Valeriano Weyler llegó a La Habana y fue recibido por una entusiasta población pro española. El nuevo gobernador militar se dio cuenta rápidamente de la gravedad de la insurrección en la isla. En un discurso dirigido a la multitud frente al Palacio del Gobernador, Weyler dijo: …
Llega Valeriano Weyler a la Habana – 10 de febrero de 1896 Read More »
On February 10, 1896, Captain General Valeriano Weyler arrived in Havana and was welcomed by an enthusiastic pro-Spanish population. The new military governor was quick to realize the severity of the insurrection on the island. In an address to the crowd in front of the Governor’s Palace, Weyler said, “I shall not hesitate to punish …
