Entries by Havana Live

Florida-Cuba ferry service not likely before late 2016

HAVANA, Dec. 4th  If you’ve been itching to take a ferry from Florida to Cuba, be patient. It probably won’t start before the second half of 2016 and could take longer, according to ferry executives. Spain’s ferry veteran Balearia said Thursday that it has proposed to invest more than $35 million to build a ferry […]

Cuba to expand clinical trial of its lung cancer vaccine

HAVANA, Dec. 3th. Cuba will expand its clinical trial on a therapeutic vaccine aimed at treating lung cancer, official media reported Wednesday. The vaccine, currently underway in only two provinces, will be dispensed in municipal clinics across the country come 2016. The ultimate goal, said one of the program’s researchers to news agency ACN, is […]

Cuba’s new wave of film-makers get to work

HAVANA, Dec. 3th On the eve of the annual Havana Film Festival, a camera crew wrap up a long day’s shoot on the backstreets of the capital. No Hollywood blockbuster, it’s a low-budget music video for a band. Yet there is still something unique, almost revolutionary, about how it’s being produced. It’s part of a […]

Greg Abbott: Cuba dedicated to expanding private sector

HAVANA, Dec. 3th Cuba’s minister of foreign trade and investment told Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday that he believes the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States is an inexorable process that won’t be reversed no matter who is elected president in 2016. Hours later, in a conference call with Texas reporters at […]

Sixt round of EU-Cuba negotiations in Brussels

HAVANA, Dec. 3th The EU and Cuba held their sixth round of negotiations towards a bilateral Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) in Brussels on 1st and 2nd December 2015. All three main chapters of the PDCA were discussed – political dialogue, cooperation and policy dialogue as well as trade and economic cooperation. The discussions […]

Ernest Hemingway movie set for Havana Festival screening

HAVANA,Dec. 1th Ernest Hemingway biopic “Papa” has been set for an international premiere on December 5 as part of Havana, Cuba’s 37th International Festival of New Latin Cinema. Cast members Adrian Sparks, Joely Richardson and Hemingway’s granddaughter Mariel Hemingway are expected to be in attendance. “Papa,” directed by Bob Yari, is the first Hollywood movie to shoot on […]

Cuba reinstates limits on doctors leaving the country

HAVANA, Dec. 1th. (REUTERS) Cuba on Tuesday re-imposed limits on doctors leaving the country, saying its universal and free healthcare services have been “seriously affected” by the flight of vital medical specialists. In a rare backtrack by Cuba on modernizing reforms of recent years, the Communist government said it would reapply restrictions that had been […]

Visa protest sign of new boldness in Cuba

HAVANA, Nov. 1th (BBC) As Europe’s winter approaches and many hundreds of thousands of immigrants across the continent face an uncertain future, in Havana rare street protests have been held in recent days over a separate, very different kind of immigrant crisis that’s taking place in Latin America. It is a journey which begins in […]

Iberia increases its Madrid-Havana flights

HAVANA, Nov. 30 th Six months after launching the route, Iberia will offer one additional frequency to Havana, Cuba, up to six weekly flights on Tuesdays, starting from tomorrow December 1, 2015. Iberia flies from Madrid to Havana with its newest aircraft, the Airbus A330-300, twin-engine planes, which can accommodate 278 passengers. Business travelers can […]

Legal Migration Travel Talks Resume After Delays

HAVANA, Nov. 30th The U.S. and Cuba will hold another round of migration talks on Monday to discuss the “legal migration” of Cubans. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of State, the migration discussion is part of the U.S. and Cuba’s biannual Migration Talks. Set for Nov. 30, at the U.S. Department of State […]

Time to Bring Cuba Online

HAVANA, Nov. 30th  Millions of Cuban citizens could have affordable access to the Internet in a matter of months. The only thing keeping the island in the digital Dark Ages is a lack of political will. Cuban officials have long blamed the American embargo for their nation’s obsolete telecommunications systems. They no longer have that […]

IMO, “Person” of the Year in Cuba

HAVANA, Nov. 28th (14ymedio) December will soon be here and numerous lists of this year’s protagonists will be published in Cuba. A difficult task in a country that over the last 12 months was visited by a pope, a secretary of state and even by Mick Jagger. However, the person who takes all the palms […]

Havana Club launches flavours to enhance aged rum

HAVANA, Nov. 28th New drink flavourings have been launched in a collaboration between Havana Club rum and bitters producers The Bitter Truth. The Essence of Cuba range is inspired by Havana Club Añejo 7 Años, offering bartenders a new way to serve and enjoy the aged Cuban rum. The four flavours are Aromatic Leaf, Honey, […]

Penn State drops 2nd game in Cuba

HAVANA,  Nov. 26th  Penn State’s baseball team lost 2-0 on Wednesday to the defending Cuban league champion, Ciego de Ávila, as the Nittany Lion bats were again stifled by some of the best pitchers Cuba has to offer. HAVANA, Nov. 26 The game was the second of a four-game tour for Penn State in Cuba, […]

US to Cuba wire transfer hassles cause big problems

HAVANA, Nov.26 One of those challenges involves wire transfers of money to Cuba that fund passenger charter flights to the island. U.S. banks sometimes hold up the process, which seldom happened before normalization, ironically.Air charter companies say they are suffering the consequences. The Cuban government used to be more patient with the hassle, but now […]

IATA to install ticket financial system in Cuba

HAVANA, Nov. 25th IATA plans to start operating a Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) banking system in Cuba in 2016, helping to facilitate ticket transactions between airlines and travel agents. The BSP system would be an important step in the gradual opening up of Cuba’s travel and tourism business as relations between Cuba and the US […]

Smugglers of digital ‘paquetes’ make a living in Havana

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player HAVANA ,Nov. 25th   Without ample access to the Internet, some Cubans satisfy their hunger for media through a black market of digital “paquetes,” packages of content that bypass government censorship. The content ranges from pornography to soap operas, foreign news and movies. Telemundo’s Spanish language Al Rojo Vivo, Univision’s […]

Emir of Quatar visit to Cuba opens a new era in relations

HAVANA, Nov. 25th  HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s visit to Cuba opens a new era in the Qatari-Cuban relations with wide and promising prospects. The official talks between the Emir and the President of Cuba Raul Castro on Monday covered several topics that would contribute to further strengthening bilateral relations and mutual […]

Diver places satellite transmitter on sharks

HAVANA, Nov. 24th  (PL) According to the online version of the local newspaper Invasor, Fernandez took the shark by the tail and in its belly he placed the device that emits signals when the animal surfaces, which is an unusual action that happened for the first time in the keys Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo. The […]

Festival of culinary influences in Havana

Havana, Nov 24 (PL) In order to review the matches of the Cuban cuisine with foreign influences, Gourmet festival named Sabores de Cuba y el mundo (Flavors of Cuba and the world) is being organized in Old Havana for this weekend. The director of the initiative, Alicia Garcia, reported Monday that from November 26 to […]

Septeto Santiaguero wins Latin Grammy Award

HAVANA, 24 Nov. (ACN) — The album Tributo a Los Compadres. No quiero llanto, by Cuban band Septeto Santiaguero and Dominican singer José Alberto ‘El Canario’, last week won the 2015 Latin Grammy Award in Best Traditional Tropical Album. The award was given by the Latin Recording Academy in a ceremony in Las Vegas. The […]

Cuba to further broaden Wi-Fi access

HAVANA, Nov. 23th  (XINHUA)  Etecsa announced Friday that it will open 20 more public Wi-Fi areas throughout the country. Half of the areas will be in Havana, said Darline Perez, an official from Etecsa. In July, Etecsa opened 35 public Wi-Fi spots and, despite being a step forward for connectivity, locals have criticized the spots […]