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☆ Cuba sees rare protests amid power cuts and food shortages
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Demonstrators took to the streets in at least four cities on Sunday to complain about hours-long power cuts and increasing food scarcity. The island has seen frequent power cuts and shortages of food, fuel, and medicine since the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting Cubans to flee to the United States in record numbers. US diplomats said Sunday they were monitoring the protests and called on the Cuban government to listen to the demonstrators. The Cuban government, which typically does not allow organized dissent, did not say how many protesters had been arrested. After island-wide demonstrations in the summer of 2021, more than 1,000 Cubans were put on trial and convicted of rising up against the communist-run government, according to human rights groups.

Persons: Miguel Diaz, Canel, Fidel Castro’s, Diaz Organizations: CNN, Cuban, country’s Communist Party, Twitter Locations: Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, United States, Miami’s, Cuban, Havana

☆ Two demonstrators killed amid anti-mining protests in Panama
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Anti-mining protests that have roiled Panama for the last two weeks turned deadly on Tuesday when a man allegedly shot and killed two demonstrators, according to police. For weeks, tens of thousands of protestors have vented their fury at a controversial mining contract given to Minera Panama, the local subsidiary of a Canadian mining company, to extract copper, a key component in electric car batteries. Teachers march to protest the deaths of two people during a demonstration against the government's contract with Canadian mining company First Quantum and its subsidiary Minera Panama in Panama City on November 8, 2023. Roberto Cisneros/AFP/Getty ImagesA march against the government contract with Canadian mining company First Quantum and its subsidiary Minera Panama in Panama City on November 3, 2023. In 2017, Panama’s Supreme Court declared another contract to operate the copper mine as unconstitutional, forcing the mining company and government to renegotiate the deal.

Persons: Manuel Noriega, Roberto Cisneros, Panamanians, Martita Cornejo, Panama John Feeley, ”, Weeks, Laurentino Cortizo, “, ” Cortizo Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Pan, Panama’s National Police, Central, Minerals, Minera, AFP, Getty, ”, Panama’s Locations: Panama, Central American, Canadian, Minera Panama, Panama City, Panamanian, Colombia, Panamanian State

☆ Why Cubans are fighting for Russia in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Men like Miguel, who in July traveled to Russia and soon after was on the front lines of the war with Ukraine, his mother Cecilia told CNN. After her son responded to a post on Facebook looking for Cubans to work as cooks and construction workers in Russia, Cecilia said two women reached out to him via WhatsApp. But soon Miguel told his mother that he wanted to return home. Since the war began Cuban officials had increasingly echoed Russian propaganda that NATO aggression was to blame for its invasion of Ukraine. When apprised by CNN of the conflicting statements by Cuban officials, Cecilia responded with a question.

Persons: Cuba CNN —, Miguel, Cecilia, “, ” Cecilia, isn’t, ” Miguel, Mama, ’, ”, Pedro Roberto Camuza Jovas, ” Camuza, Russia Julio Garmendía Peña, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, fumed, Pedro Freyre Organizations: Cuba CNN, Russia, CNN, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, Cuban State, Russia’s Ministry of Defense, Cuban, NATO, RIA Novosti, Cuban Foreign Locations: Santa Clara, Cuba, Ukraine, Russia, WhatsApp, Varadero, Moscow, Cuban, Russian, Washington , DC, Havana, China, American

☆ Cuba: A Russian navy ship docks in Havana as tough times bring the old friends together
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Havana, Cuba CNN —As a series of welcoming cannon blasts rang out from a nearby colonial fort, the Russian navy’s training class ship Perekop sailed into Havana on Tuesday. “We are condemning, we are rejecting, the expansion of NATO towards Russia’s borders,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told Russian-controlled network, RT, in a rare interview in May. He also blasted US economic sanctions on Russia, while heralding Russian “projects of cooperation and collaboration” under development in Cuba. But following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba lost its main trading partner and entered a deep economic depression. Despite the high cost of the war in Ukraine and economic sanctions, Russian officials say they are committed to Cuba.

Persons: Perekop, “, Miguel Diaz, Canel, Patrick Oppmann, Jorge R, –, Russia –, Yamil Lage, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Biden, ”, Ric Herrero, ” Herrero, “ There’s, ” Benjamin Ziff, Chargé d’Affaires, Sergey Shoigu, Alvaro Lopez Miera, ” Shoigu Organizations: Cuba CNN, Prensa Latina, Cuban, Soviet, NATO, CNN, University of Texas, Austin Energy Institute, Russian, Getty, Trump, Cuba Study, US Naval, Russian Defense Locations: Havana, Cuba, Russian, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Cuban, Moscow, Russia’s, Russia, USSR, AFP, Trump, Spanish, Guantánamo, East, West, “ Cuba

☆ Cuban police crackdown on demonstrators protesting widespread shortages
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Videos posted to social media show a crowd protesting in front of government buildings, before riot police arrived and forcibly arrested several demonstrators. Netblocks, an organization that tracks internet activity, said it appeared the Cuban government had taken down the internet across the entire island as news of the protests spread. Pro-Cuban government bloggers blamed the protesters uploading videos of the protests for the internet disruptions. However, the Cuban government has a history of taking down the state-provided internet during previous protests, sometimes for several days. Internet connectivity appeared to be largely restored on Sunday, and Cuban state media Cubadebate said no more protests had occurred.

☆ Cuba fuel shortages spark fistfights, queues and holiday cutbacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Havana, Cuba CNN —As the gas lines grow longer, tempers in Cuba are growing shorter. Since mid-April, Cuba has been beset with its most dire fuel shortages in years, prompting comparisons to the severe disruptions Cubans suffered after the fall of the Soviet Union. Lines stretch for blocks even at gas stations where there has been no fuel for days. Taxi drivers wait in line to fill fuel at a petrol station in Havana. “How can we go to May Day when we have to be in a line for gas,” she said.

☆ Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel wins a second term
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Havana, Cuba CNN —Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was given a second five year term by the country’s National Assembly on Wednesday, despite the severe economic conditions currently faced by the communist-run island. He replaced Raul Castro as president in 2013 and as First Secretary of the Cuban communist party in 2018. Following the Obama administration’s policy of rapprochement with Cuba, former President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course, implementing some of the toughest economic sanctions in decades. Diaz-Canel said the protestors were pawns of the US, part of a plot to bring down the Cuban government. The Biden administration responded with additional economic sanctions and has called on Diaz-Canel to release the prisoners.

Nassau, Bahamas CNN —FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried Monday morning arrived in court in the Bahamas where he is expected to drop his extradition fight, clearing a significant hurdle to return him to US soil to be prosecuted on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy. Bankman-Fried had initially planned to fight efforts to return him to the United States. But after a week in Nassau’s notorious Fox Hill prison, he appears less interested in keeping up what would have likely been a yearslong battle to avoid extradition. The US State Department reported that conditions at Fox Hill, the Bahamian prison where Bankman-Fried has stayed since his arrest last Monday, are harsh. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer declined to comment on a timeline for his return to the United States.

☆ Hurricane Ian knocks power from an entire country
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

CNN's Patrick Oppmann is live in Havana, Cuba, where Hurricane Ian has knocked the power from the entire country.

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