Center for Democracy in the Americas

Emi MacLean, Open Society Justice Initiative – Only ten days after a trial court issued its historic verdict convicting Efrain Rios Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentencing him to prison for 80 years, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, in a 3-2 ruling, overturned the verdict and set the trial back to… read more »

Sheyla Hirshon, Havana Times – The non-governmental Center for Democracy in the Americas recently recently released a fascinating and highly readable study of gender relations in Cuba titled Women’s Work: Gender Equality in Cuba and the Role of Women building Cuba’s Future [1]. The document, the third installment of a series on 21st Century… read more »

Rep. Kathy Castor (FL-14), Tampa Bay Times: The flight from Florida to Cuba is a little over an hour, yet the countries remain a world apart. Cuba is changing, however, as I learned on my recent fact-finding visit. Cuba has embarked on meaningful economic reforms, which deserve encouragement by the… read more »

On Thursday, Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) agreed to make a secret financial payment to Alan and Judy Gross to settle the lawsuit the couple filed against it last year. DAI lured Alan Gross with a lucrative contract to smuggle banned satellite communications equipment into Cuba on a mission that left… read more »

Elisabeth Malkin, New York Times – A Guatemalan court on Friday found Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, the former dictator who ruled Guatemala during one of the bloodiest periods of its long civil war, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Judge Yasmín Barrios sentenced General Ríos Montt, 86, to 80 years in… read more »

Earlier this week, Vice President Biden said Cuba had made some “small encouraging signs of change,” but that the administration still wants to see “real change.” Unsurprisingly, this didn’t make headlines.  It’s a little sad but it’s not news that their two-year-old message about Cuba, “your change isn’t big enough,”… read more »

Just before we hit send, there was an important development in the case involving René González, a member of the Cuban Five. González, who was permitted by U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lenard to travel to Cuba for two weeks under strict conditions pursuant to his probation, will renounce his… read more »

Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times – Cuba’s communist leadership was quick to send condolences to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings and to reiterate to Washington that it “rejects and condemns unequivocally all acts of terrorism.” Once a key supplier of arms and training to leftist rebels in… read more »

Victoria Burnett, New York Times - In many ways, it was a typical May Day: Hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers — doctors, sailors, dancers, bank clerks — marched Wednesday toward this city’s vast Revolution Plaza, waving flags, holding aloft banners that proclaimed fidelity to socialism and tooting plastic horns. But… read more »

Office of Rep. Sam Farr, WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) today sent a letter signed by 59 Members of Congress to President Barack Obama, asking the Administration to expand its current policy for travel to Cuba. The letter encourages President Obama to allow all categories of permissible travel… read more »