Entries by Havana Live

HAVANA: How much opportunity ?

HAVANA, April 28   In the midst of historic old Havana, the Manzana de Gomez bestrides an entire city block. The 105-year-old landmark was one of the first shopping malls in Cuba, a five-story, European-style shopping arcade with two pedestrian avenues intersecting within. Like so many other once-elegant buildings around the Cuban capital, it decayed […]

5 challenges to doing business in Cuba

HAVANA,  April 28  (By Michael Muckian) The emergence of cooperatives in Cuba and President Obama’sreestablishment of relations with the country has attracted the attention of U.S. cooperatives and credit unions. About the size of California and home to 11.3 million people, the Caribbean island nation could become the next great success for the global cooperative movement. […]

Classic Cuban films to be restored

HAVANA, April 27 (Xinhua) — Luciano Castillo, director of Cuba’s Cinemateca, announced on Sunday that the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will help restore the negatives of two films from the outstanding Cuban filmmaker Tomas “Titon” Gutierrez Alea. Castillo told local newspaper Rebel Youth that the two films, “A Cuban Fight Against […]

Plattsburgh-Havana flights are coming soon

Apr 27, 2015 — New York’s North Country travelers might be able to hop on a plane in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and get off in Havana, sometime soon, according to Garry Douglas, one of the region’s top economic development leaders. “It will happen,” Douglas said. Douglas is co-chair of the North Country’s Regional Economic Development Council […]

Small worlds

HAVANA, April 27  (Travel weekly) A friend in the U.K. told me she’s seen a number of articles recently in London newspapers on the topic “Get to Cuba quick, before the Americans arrive.” I told her it was too late. When I was there last month, four other American friends, none traveling together, were also […]

Havana Motor Club – the fast & furious, Cuban style

HAVANA, April 26  Cuba is both paradise and purgatory for a car enthusiast. The streets are flush with mid-century automobiles, beautiful American cars that pre-date the embargo. “Cubans are inventive,” says one of the drivers, which is the understatement ofHavana Motor Club. Cars and the things the owners do to their cars exemplify the Cuban […]

The book lover’s guide in Havana

HAVANA, April 25  With the US recently lifting various trade and travel restrictions on Cuba, the Caribbean island is expected to see a boost in tourism. Most tourists will be excited by Cuba’s beaches, cigars, coffee, rum and colonial architecture. But if you are a bibliophile, you may want to immerse yourself in the rich […]

Havana Challenge, sailing race from Key West to Havana

HAVANA, April 25, – Imagine a dozen, 2-man, 16-foot Hobie catamarans sailing across 90 miles of treacherous seas to the land of the forbidden, Cuba. There the adventurous but experienced sailors from the eclectic island of Key West challenge the Cuban Olympic Sailing team, explore the Caribbean island from a local’s perspective, exchange cultural peculiarities, […]

Ferry operators eye Florida to Havana service

The City of Havana car ferry in its slip while waiting to take Americans from Havana to Key West, Fla., on Jan. 4, 1959. The ferry service used to be popular with American tourists who were keen to visit Havana’s legendary night clubs and casinos. Photo: AP HAVANA,  April 24,  (By COSTAS PARIS)  Ferry operators […]

“Nosotros La Música” Tours Cuban Musical History

Nosotros la Música HAVANA, April 23  Music permeates Cuban culture. That fact was tunefully demonstrated in the documentaries presented during the 16th Havana Film Festival New York last week. Curated by film critic, historian, and researcher Luciano Castillo, director of the Cinemateca Cubana, the series “Celebrating Nosotros la Música” offered a varied glimpse of some […]

Cuban foreign minister highlights new stage with the EU

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 23 (acn) A round of political talks between Cuba and the European Union (EU) – that will mark the beginning of other meetings that could conclude by the end of the year- will start in June, with the purpose of strengthening relations between the two parties. This was announced by the head […]

Tourists to Cuba jump 15 pct in Q1

HAVANA, April 23  — Tourists to Cuba jumped by 15 percent in the first quarter of 2015, and the trend is expected to hold for the rest of the year, the country’s Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said. Speaking at the opening of the 7th International Gourmet Festival of Varadero, the island’s leading seaside resort, Marrero […]

US trade mission to Cuba reaches unprecedented accords

Havana, Cuba, Apr 22. (ACN) The recent visit to Cuba by  a trade mission from the US State of New York, headed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, yielded two bilateral accords in the area of health and opened doors for further collaboration. The accords include the commercialization in the United States of a Cuban lung cancer […]

Spain’s Hotelsa 1st firm to build factory in Mariel spezial zone

HAVANA, April 22  (EFE) Spain’s Hotelsa, a maker of food and beverage products for hotels, will become the first foreign company to build a factory in Cuba’s Mariel special development zone, sources with the multinational told Efe Wednesday. Hotelsa recently obtained authorization from the Cuban government to create a fully owned subsidiary for the production […]

U.S. companys reach deals in Cuba

HAVANA, April 21 (Reuters) – A U.S. cancer research center and a software company reached agreements with Cuban partners during a two-day trade mission to Cuba led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the first trip of its kind since the rapprochement between the longtime adversaries. The Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New […]

Cuban art awards to be presented in Havana

Courtyard of the Wifredo Lam Center Courtesy cubaabsolutely.com HAVANA, April 21  The Farber Foundation, sponsor of Cuban Art News, announced its first international Cuban Art Awards to be presented at the Havana Biennial. The event will be hosted by the Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art, the 12th Havana Biennial, and the National Council on the […]

5 facts explain the economic upsides of an opened Cuba

HAVANA, April 21 The Caribbean country could be the next frontier of global business Taking Cuba off the list of nations that sponsor terrorism is the latest development that will attract foreign companies to the island. So who wants in? These five stats explain which industries present the most opportunities as Cuba opens for business. […]

Entrepreneurs from USA landed in Havana

HAVANA, April 20 New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to touch down in Havana, Cuba, late Monday morning, where he’ll lead an approximately 25-hour trade mission to the country. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, was set to board a chartered JetBlue flight to the island from John F. Kennedy International Airport, along with state Assembly […]

Offspring of cold war-era crocodiles en route to Cuba

HAVANA, April 20 Cuba’s efforts to sustain the critically endangered Cuban crocodile are getting a boost from Sweden, home to a pair of reptiles that Fidel Castro gave to a Soviet cosmonaut four decades ago. A Stockholm zoo on Sunday is sending 10 of the couple’s babies to Cuba, where they will be placed in […]

Cuba opposition candidates defeated

HAVANA, April 20  (AP) Two dissident candidates conceded defeat Sunday in Cuban local elections that offered them a chance to become the first officials elected from outside the Communist Party in 40 years. Hildebrando Chaviano and Yuniel Lopez had been chosen as candidates by a show of hands in Havana neighborhood nominating meetings and hoped […]

Dial-up Web slows down Cuban startups

Photo:SARAH L. VOISIN Young Cubans gather around a laptop to watch videos at a cellphone repair shop in Old Havana. In Cuba, broadband accounts are restricted to government offices, state businesses and a few foreigners. HAVANA,19 April (The Washington Post)  Great technology companies are born in garages, of course, and that is where 31-year-old Bernardo […]

2 Havana dissidents are candidates for local elections

HAVANA, 18 April ( EFE) Two Cuban dissidents living in Havana appear among the candidates for municipal elections to be held this Sunday on the island, an “unprecedented” situation and an “achievement” in the political context of Cuba, they said in a statement to Efe. The candidates are Hildebrando Chaviano, 65, an attorney with ties […]

Sinhala & Tamil New Year Celebrated in Havana

HAVANMA, 18 April  The staff and families of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Cuba joined by members of the Sri Lankan community and students celebrated Sinhala & Tamil New Year ( “Aluth Avurudhu” in Sinhala and “Puththandu” in Tamil ) on 14th April at the chancery premises in Havana in a truly festive atmosphere resembling […]

Tropic ocean airways offers private flights to Havana

HAVANA, 17 April  Tropic Ocean Airways offers flights from Sheltair’s private terminal at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to José Martí International Airport (HAV) in Havana. Tropic is positioned as a leading airline in South Florida and the Caribbean providing clients with a premium travel experience. The airline has experienced rapid growth in the first […]

Pope Francis Considers Stop in Cuba as Part of U.S. Trip

HAVANA, 17 April — Pope Francis is considering a visit to Cuba when he travels to the U.S. in September, said a person familiar with the situation, a move that would provide political support to both nations’ controversial attempts to restore diplomatic ties after more than a half century. The Argentine pontiff may add a […]