Human Rights Watch is expelled from Venezuela for criticizing Chávez
Sept 19 - Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez expelled a delegation of Human Rights Watch on Friday after the U.S.-based group criticized him for eroding democracy in his nearly 10 years in power.

The move highlighted Chavez's intolerance of international criticism and will further strain ties with the United States, its main oil customer, a week after he also ejected the U.S. ambassador. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Venezuela an autocracy on Thursday.

Venezuela expelled Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson, who issued a report on the OPEC nation's human rights record at a news conference on Thursday during a brief visit. They said Chavez has stacked the courts and dampened freedom of expression.

According to Venezuelan newspapers, the representatives of Human Rights Watch were detained by Chavez's state security agents and taken to Maiquetia International Airport, where they were forced to take the next flight out of the country. More

Investor's Business Daily editorial: The Cuban "Katrina"

Sept 18 - Click here to see photos of Banes after the Hurricane, sent to one of our readers by his relatives in Cuba

Cuba's tobacco industry is "devastated"
According to the daily newspaper Granma, Gustav alone destroyed 3,414 curing barns and damaged another 1,590. In a blow to one of Cuba's top exports, more than 800 tons of tobacco products were damaged by Gustav. The hardest hit city was Consolación del Sur, where 1,836 of the existing 1,857 curing barns were destroyed.

The Cuban government estimates losses from the two storms at $5 billion. As the island struggles to rebuild, one of the few crops that can earn the hard currency it needs to bounce back has sustained damages that experts say could linger for years to come. Cuba made $402 million from tobacco in 2007. More

Cubans are hungry and homeless, but the Castro brothers couldn't care less
A civilian aircraft was ready to be loaded with supplies to help residents of this hard-hit province and fly out of Miami Tuesday, but Havana rejected the U.S. humanitarian assistance offer -- repeating that what it really needs is a temporary suspension of the trade embargo.

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon called the offer made to Cuban diplomats ''unique and unprecedented,'' because in the interest of speeding up delivery, the U.S. government was prepared to turn over up to $2 million in plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, blankets and other items directly to the Castro government -- an exception Washington was willing to make because of the extreme humanitarian need.

The latest US offer had no pre-conditions, but the Castro government still rejected it. For Raul and his brother, the only important thing is to remain in power, and they know that if the US, the European Union and others come in with the massive aid that is required, they will lose the control that they have been able to maintain for 50 years.

I have always said that Castro has used food as just another tool to maintain control. That is why he established the ration book at the beginning of his regime. If you dissent from the regime, they take away your ration book and make it more difficult for you and your family to survive.

Right now, the Castro brothers are selling food and construction materials at outrageous prices. Gasoline prices were raised 68% the day before the hurricane.

They keep exploiting the population even at this time of national disaster. And now they want to take this opportunity to get rid of the embargo and buy billions of dollars in products that will never be paid.

Read more about Castro refusal of US aid here

Residents of Havana sleeping outdoors

Independent journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira sent these 2 photos that he took in Havana during the weekend.

The first one is of a building located at 153 Consulado street, between Trocadero and Colon which is in imminent danger of collapsing.
The second photo is of the residents of that building, who moved all their personal belongings out, including the furniture, and are now sleeping outdoors.

Tourists were sent to their rooms with a bottle of water, one roll of toilet paper and a candle
Sept. 13 - A British newspaper published on Saturday photos taken by a UK couple, Matthew and Laura Adams, who were honeymooning in Cuba when Ike hit the island.
The couple was staying at the Playa Costa Verde hotel on Cayo Coco.

“We feared for our lives," Matthew told the newspaper. “We got sent to our room with a bottle of water, a toilet roll and candle and told the safest spot was the toilet. The hotel roof got ripped off and rain poured in.”

Click here to read the story and see the pictures of the hotel after the hurricane.

Ike caused extensive damage to what's left of Cuba's sugar industry
Sept 13 - Hurricane Ike flattened and swamped 740,000 acres (300,000 hectares) of Cuban sugar cane and damaged a large number of facilities when it churned along the entire island a week ago, state-run radio said on Saturday. Cuba's top sugar reporter, Juan Varela, citing a Sugar Ministry report, said on Radio Progreso that as of Friday 476,000 acres (192,706 hectares) of cane were reported flattened and 267,000 acres (108,107 hectares) were under varying amounts of water. Varela said hundreds of buildings, from mills to warehouses, were damaged, particularly their roofs.

Ike caused extensive damage to what's left of Cuba's sugar industry
Hurricane Ike flattened and swamped 740,000 acres (300,000 hectares) of Cuban sugar cane and damaged a large number of facilities when it churned along the entire island a week ago, state-run radio said on Saturday. Cuba's top sugar reporter, Juan Varela, citing a Sugar Ministry report, said on Radio Progreso that as of Friday 476,000 acres (192,706 hectares) of cane were reported flattened and 267,000 acres (108,107 hectares) were under varying amounts of water. Varela said hundreds of buildings, from mills to warehouses, were damaged, particularly their roofs. More

A desperate Chávez insults the US and tells the US ambassador to leave the country (UPDATED)

Sept 12 - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has thrust the OPEC nation into its worst diplomatic crisis for years by expelling the U.S. ambassador in a growing feud between Washington and Latin America's leftist leaders.

Chavez, who calls cuban doctator Fidel Castro his mentor, also on Thursday repeated a threat he has made often to cut off Venezuela's oil supply to the United States. "Go to hell, s--- Yankees, we are a dignified people, go to hell a hundred times," Chavez shouted at a political rally to thousands of roaring supporters dressed in red. More

See the video

320,000 homes destroyed by Gustav and Ike

Sept 11 - The Cuban Housing Institute said 200,000 homes nationwide were damaged, including 30,000 total losses and the majority of the others roofless. Adding the houses damaged by Hurricane Gustav when it walloped Cuba's western province Aug. 30, the tally comes to 320,000 -- a staggering figure in a nation already enduring a woeful housing shortage. More

Has anyone seen Raul?

Sept 11 - The day after Hurricane Gustav roared through western Cuba, families were salvaging belongings from their flattened homes when state-television cameras turned up. Storm victims posing among the rubble soon began chanting "Fidel! Fidel!" Nearly a half-minute went by before anyone realized they were forgetting the man who replaced Fidel Castro as Cuba's president six months ago. "And Raul! And Raul!" someone yelled. Then came a revised chant: "Fidel and Raul!"

It was an easy mistake, considering the 77-year-old Raul Castro has not addressed the nation or appeared in public during the past three weeks — even though a tropical storm and two monster hurricanes have battered the island over the same period.

Rather than tour the hardest-hit areas after each storm, Raul has dispatched vice presidents and army generals. Instead of a televised address, he has appeared only in a few shots, speaking by phone to officials in devastated areas and presiding over a closed-door meeting of civil defense leaders as they prepared for Ike in Havana. More

At least 64 buildings collapsed in Havana, 4 of them in one block

Sept. 10 - The death toll from Hurricane Ike went up by one this afternoon, as emergency workers finally reached the body of a man trapped under three floors of rubble after a section of a building gave way across from Havana's seawall. Crying relatives stepped into the street and told neighbors, simply: "He's dead." The death brings the total to five so far. The search had gone on since shortly after 8 a.m., when residents say a chunk of a neighboring building crashed through the roof and triggered a chain reaction. Floor after floor gave way under the weight.

Cuban media reported 64 partial or total building collapses so far in this country's capital, brought down by a combination of age, decay and Hurricane Ike's torrential downpours and winds. Tuesday, 16 gave way, including four aged buildings in a single block that crumbled into rubble. This morning, the number shot up sharply. More

Video of the destruction caused by Ike in Holguin and Gibara

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