Latest Foreign relations of Cuba Stories

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With Cuba and its foreign partners preparing to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. embargo prohibits American companies from joining Cuba in efforts to extract offshore resources, denies Cuba access to U.S. equipment for drilling and environmental protection, ties the U.S. government's hands, leaving it unable to plan adequately for a potential spill, and puts our coastal assets at great peril. These are among the findings...

By Anthony Boadle HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba will hold a summit of 116 developing nations in two weeks, but the man who championed their cause for decades, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, is not expected to host the event. Diplomats in Havana believe Castro is under doctors' orders to stay in bed after intestinal surgery in late July and will not be strong enough to meet 40 to 50 heads of state expected for the meeting. His younger brother, Raul Castro, Cuba's acting president since July 31,...

By Anthony Boadle HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's armed forces, a one-time guerrilla outfit that became the communist country's most efficient and business-savvy institution, will play a crucial role whatever happens after Fidel Castro, experts on Cuba say. With their commander, Defense Minister Raul Castro, now taking over at least temporarily from his brother Fidel Castro as president, the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) are virtually running the country, they said. "We have the head of...

By Anthony Boadle HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans love most things American. They play baseball with a passion and ride in vintage Dodges and Buicks. But few on the island want the United States to intervene in shaping their country's future. With Fidel Castro convalescing in a hospital bed after relinquishing power to his brother for the first time in his 47-year rule, President Bush has stepped up calls for multiparty democracy in Cuba. Anti-Castro exiles in Miami have called for a revolt...

By Esteban Israel HAVANA (Reuters) - For hundreds of thousands of poor people from the Andes to the Himalayas, the legacy of Cuba's ailing communist leader Fidel Castro will be not revolutionary war but eyesight. For decades, the now ailing Castro, who temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul on Monday, prescribed armed revolution to cure the Third World's ills. But more recently he has preferred to export doctors to treat poor people in the undeveloped world. The programs...

By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. presidents sought his overthrow, most have tried to isolate him and a few tried to engage him. But Cuban President Fidel Castro -- now ailing and at least temporarily sidelined -- has confounded them all. Since leading the revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Castro has been Washington's nemesis through the tenure of 10 U.S. presidents including President George W. Bush. The move by Castro, 79, to hand power to his...

(Reuters) - Following are some key facts about Cuba, where President Fidel Castro announced on Monday he was temporarily handing over power to his brother, Raul, after undergoing surgery. PEOPLE - Cuba's population of more than 11 million is made up mainly of descendants of Spanish colonists and slaves brought from Africa. More than one million people of Cuban origin live in the United States, most of them in Florida. GEOGRAPHY - With an area of about 42,000 square miles , Cuba is the...

By Saul Hudson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is unlikely to heed calls to loosen its embargo against Cuba that are expected to intensify following President Fidel Castro's temporary transfer of power to his brother. A State Department official said there would be no change in policy toward Cuba, whether Castro or his brother Raul were in charge, because of American laws restricting U.S. dealings with the communist government. "This is one of our most regimented policies. Our...

By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should act fast to boost a transitional government in Cuba when President Fidel Castro's rule ends and get advisors on the ground within weeks, a U.S. government report recommends. The report, which was ordered by President George W. Bush and is due to be released next week, also recommends a new U.S. "democracy fund" for communist-run Cuba worth $80 million over two years to boost opposition to Castro. In addition, the Commission...

By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Tuesday dismissed as a "blatant" lie U.S. charges that power has been deliberately cut off at its Havana diplomatic mission. President Fidel Castro's government said the Bush administration and Miami-based Cuban-American groups opposed to Castro were seeking a pretext to close the mission and end limited cooperation between the long-time ideological foes on immigration and other matters. "They lie blatantly ... "We categorically deny that there...