Top US diplomat in Cuba on short list for new embassy
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – July 02, 2015
HAVANA (AP) — From his office high above Havana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis has a sweeping view of the cerulean Florida Straits and the blood-red letters declaring Cuba’s defiance of the United States.
“Homeland or Death!” reads the sign erected in front of the U.S. Interests Section, a declaration installed 15 years ago when DeLaurentis was a more junior officer working to defuse a standoff over the fate of child rafter Elian Gonzalez.
Now, on this third assignment in communist Cuba, DeLaurentis is the top U.S. diplomat on the island, working to bring an end to more than a half-century of hostilities between the two countries. Known for his low-key style and public discretion, the 61-year-old diplomat also is on a short list for U.S. ambassador to Cuba, if there is to be one.
On Wednesday, DeLaurentis hand-delivered a letter from the White House to the Cuban Foreign Ministry about converting missions known as interest sections in the countries’ respective capitals into full embassies.
Cuba said ceremonies to do that will be held July 20, though the U.S State Department said it does not yet have a date.
For Schizophrenic’s Family, the Pain and Love Are Inseparable : Mental illness: At first Jimmy seemed like any other kid. His sister describes losing her cherished childhood playmate.
ANITA SNOW – ASSOCIATED PRESS – February 23, 1992
NEW YORK — He is there on every almost page of the family photo album, the shy little boy with enormous dimples who captured my heart as a child and broke it as a grown-up.
There’s my little brother Jimmy, just 9 months old, sitting next to me on the couch and clutching my hand. We’re both giggling at someone to the left.
Here he is as a toddler, standing next to one of the Three Little Pigs at Disneyland, scared and delighted to be so close to such a strange and wonderful creature. Again, he holds my hand.
I study Jimmy’s eyes, expressions, the way he stands and sits. There’s a certain timidity in the eyes, perhaps. A hesitancy in his smile.
But there is no clue to what he would someday become.
Return visit to Communist Cuba finds new hope amid change
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – February 18, 2015
HAVANA (AP) – Rolling toward customs with a 60-pound suitcase filled with clothing and electronics for friends, my stomach clenched when a female agent in a light green uniform approached. As a former longtime Cuba correspondent returning after nearly six years, I thought I knew what would come next: a search of my luggage by stoned-faced military men, a scolding, maybe even a fine.
Instead, I got a pass.
“Pasa, mi amor,” the agent said with a smile, directing me to the exit. “Go right on through, my love.”
It was the first sign of the more relaxed and hopeful atmosphere I found during a brief visit back to Havana this month, a feeling that didn’t exist during my 1999-2009 tenure. The differences I saw and felt made me realize how much my decade in Cuba had been characterized by anxiety and isolation, and what a different country it is becoming under President Raul Castro’s modest reforms. Everywhere I traveled around Havana, hopes were high for more change after Cuba and the U.S. announcement on Dec. 17 they would move toward a more normal relationship. Cubans seem especially keen for more visits by Americans.
U.N. complex in New York gets $2 billion facelift
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – March 5, 2012
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The whirr of saws and buzz of drills flood buildings better accustomed to the speeches of world leaders as the United Nations’ iconic headquarters in New York gets a makeover. Gone are the pneumatic tubes and the toxic asbestos.
And blast-proof panes are replacing the original windows — addressing terrorism concerns in a post-9/11 world.
The first major renovation of the 60-year-old headquarters has been slowed by extra security measures, said New York architect Michael Adlerstein, the project’s executive director and a U.N. assistant secretary-general. The final cost will be nearly $2 billion — about 4 percent over the original budget.
Terrorists have increasingly targeted U.N. compounds, with 12 staff members fatally injured in August by a car bomb at the compound in Abuja, Nigeria. Top envoy Sergio Vieira del Mello was among 21 people killed in a 2003 attack on the organization’s Baghdad complex.
UN seeks to sweep away last traces of colonial age
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – August 14, 2011
UNITED NATIONS — One was Napoleon’s last place of exile. Another became home to survivors of the mutiny-stricken HMS Bounty. They are St. Helena and the Pitcairn Islands, flecks of real estate set in vast oceans, each occupying a special place in history.
These and 14 other territories — some would call them colonies — are listed by the U.N. as relics of a vanished age when Europeans ruled large chunks of the globe. The U.N. guided many colonies to independence, and what’s left of the former empires are territories, defined by the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization as “non-self-governing,” entitled in many cases to elect local officials but all under the ultimate authority of a distant capital.
The committee is one of the few forums in which colonialism’s last remaining subjects can make themselves heard. Its latest annual meeting, in June, featured voices as disparate as lawmakers from Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, a headman from a cluster of New Zealand-ruled islets, and a spokesman for a Saharan territory that has been fighting for independence for 35 years.
UN slaps sanctions on Gaddafi
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – February 27, 2011
NEW YORK – The UN Security Council moved as a powerful bloc on Saturday to try to halt Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s deadly crackdown on protesters, slapping sanctions on him, his children and top associates.
Voting 15-0 after daylong discussions interrupted with breaks to consult with capitals back home, the council imposed an arms embargo and urged UN member countries to freeze the assets of Gaddafi, four of his sons and a daughter. The council also backed a travel ban on the Gaddafi family and close associates, including leaders of the revolutionary committees accused of much of the violence against opponents.
Council members additionally agreed to refer the Gaddafi regime’s deadly crackdown on people protesting his rule to a permanent war crimes tribunal for an investigation of possible crimes against humanity.
U.N. Promotes Health Campaign for Women, Children
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – September 22, 2010
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – A global campaign that aims to save the lives of 16 million mothers and children over the next five years was being launched by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday with as much as $40 billion in commitments from world governments and private aid groups.
The so-called Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health was being announced at the end of a three-day summit to review efforts to implement anti-poverty goals adopted at a summit in 2000. These include cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring universal primary education, halting and reversing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and cutting child and maternal mortality.
“Women and children play a crucial role in development,” Ban said in a statement prepared for the event that was released by his office. “Investing in their health is not only the right thing to do — it also builds stable, peaceful and productive societies. “
Castro grip firm as Cuba’s revolution turns 50
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – December 20, 2008
HAVANA (AP) _ In the palace of a fallen dictator, the grade-school kids in their red Communist Pioneer bandanas are getting their mandatory introduction to the glories of the revolution.
Clattering from one display case to the next, they gaze wide-eyed at an antique gun, a fighter’s bloodied shirt, the engine of a downed U.S. spy plane. Moving on, they stare at the yacht named Granma that carried Fidel Castro back from exile to launch his guerrilla war, and the combat boots his brother-successor wore as a ponytailed 27-year-old rebel.
The palace of Fulgencio Batista, the ruler whom Castro overthrew, is now the Museum of the Revolution, and these 6- and 7-year-olds are the heirs to a communist government about to turn 50 _ a system that may be softening at the edges but appears determined to crush any threat to its grip on power, lest it crumble like its one-time godfather, the Soviet Union.
Living on ration card isn’t easy, but Cubans use ingenuity and organization to feed families
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – July 2, 2007
HAVANA (AP) _ No one on this communist-run island dies from starvation, but every month Cubans on the “universal ration” must use ingenuity and organization skills to ensure everyone gets enough to eat.
For 30 days, I lived on a similar program. I spent less than US$17 (euro12.50) for a month’s sustenance, dropped nine pounds (four kilograms) and learned _ like Cubans _ to budget carefully, plan meals ahead, buy only what was necessary and never throw food away.
Most importantly, I realized that like most Americans, I take food for granted, assuming I’ll always get what I want when I want it.
Cuba’s ration system began in 1962 to guarantee a low-priced basket of basic foods just as the U.S. cut off trade with the island, sparking food shortages. Initially characterized as temporary, the program remained as Cuba struggled to feed its people, turning to the Eastern Bloc for most of its food.
Cuban food project conjures up memories of family, Southern fare
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – June 06, 2007
HAVANA (AP) _ The fragrant smell of onions and coriander wafting from the bubbling pot of beans on my kitchen stove conjures up the memory of my mother, a Southerner who would have recognized and appreciated many of the humble dishes I am cooking for my study of how and what Cubans eat.
From a poor Virginia family that struggled through the Great Depression and later lived through the rationing of World War II, my mom’s stories of her early life were similar to those Cubans now tell me: struggles, scrimping and saving, wearing hand-me-downs and adding extra water to the pot for one more hungry person at the supper table.
She talked a lot about the food. Steaming plates of black-eyed peas ensured good luck every New Year’s Day. A Christmas ham glazed with pineapple was a rare treat for folks who regularly ate more lima beans than meat.
Living on rations in Cuba: Meals made up of rations and goods from farmers’ markets
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – May 31, 2007
HAVANA (AP) _ The ration book that determines most Cuban diets _ and that will briefly rule mine _ fits in my palm. Thick brown pages list amounts of foodstuffs to be checked, signed and stamped at “la bodega,” the local government distribution center.
In my eight years as Havana bureau chief for The Associated Press, I’ve developed great friendships and deep respect for the Cuban people. But as a foreigner paid in U.S. dollars, I’ve never lived the way most Cubans do, using their ingenuity to make sure there’s enough to eat at month’s end.
The foundation of the Cuban diet is the communist government’s ration book, or “libreta,” and as a foreigner, I’m not entitled to one. Cubans, meanwhile, are barred by law from selling or trading their deeply subsidized rations, which cost 33 Cuban pesos a month, about $1.30. That’s roughly 10 percent of the average government salary of 350 Cuban pesos, about $16.
But food is so central to life and culture that I won’t fully appreciate the Cuban experience until I eat as they do. So I’ve decided to spend June eating nothing but the rations and other food that Cubans earning an average salary can buy at farmers’ markets using Cuban pesos.
Castro temporarily cedes power to brother for surgery; condition ‘advancing positively’
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – August 01, 2006
HAVANA (AP) _ Fidel Castro, who has wielded absolute power over Cuba and defied the United States for nearly a half century, was recovering from intestinal surgery Tuesday, his allies said, after temporarily turning over authority to his brother Raul.
The Venezuelan government said Fidel Castro’s recovery was “advancing positively” after surgery, citing information from the island’s government without providing details. A leftist Argentine lawmaker said Castro aides told him the surgery was successful and that Castro was resting peacefully.
The surprise announcement that Castro had been operated on to repair a “sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding” stunned Cubans on the island and in exile, and marked the first time that Castro, two weeks away from 80th birthday, had relinquished power in 47 years of rule.
Elian Gonzalez returns home, ending seven-month American saga
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – June 28, 2000
HAVANA (AP) _ Seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez returned to his native Cuba Wednesday evening, bringing to a close an international custody battle that stirred Cold War passions.
After a three-hour journey from Washington, Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, lifted the 6-year-old boy down the plane’s staircase to the tarmac in Havana, where they were embraced by Elian’s tearful grandmothers and other relatives.
“Elian! Elian! Elian!” chanted about 800 children from the first-grader’s elementary school, waving small red, white and blue Cuban flags in the celebration at the small Jose Marti Airport. They sang along as a military band struck up Cuba’s national anthem.
Cuba’s Guantanamo
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – May 28, 2000
GUANTANAMO, Cuba (AP) _ The watchtowers along the barbed wire severing the U.S. military base from communist territory bear silent witness to decades of Cold War still playing out in southeastern Cuba.
An American UH-1N Huey helicopter buzzes the line, swirling dust around cactus and grayish henequen plants dotting the sun-baked semidesert that hugs the deep blue Guantanamo Bay.
Camouflage-clad Cuban soldiers schooled in the politics of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Karl Marx keep watch in what they call “free territory.”
But while Cuba’s elite Frontier Brigade considers Guantanamo the front line of defense against the “Yanqui enemy,” tensions that once crackled along 17.4 miles of tornado fencing are now whispers.
“There has been a relaxation since around 1995,” Col. Gamalier Estevez, the Frontier Brigade’s commander, said during a rare visit by American journalists to the area patrolled outside the 45-square-mile U.S. base. “Before, there were many provocations by American soldiers.”
Guatemalan Rebels Try To Prepare Young Combatants for Peace
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – May 11, 1996
ESCUINTLA, Guatemala(AP) _ Manolo learned everything he needed to know about politics the day he saw soldiers kill his mother.
The 14-year-old Ixil Indian, standing about 4 1/2-feet tall in his olive green uniform and bandolier, typifies the younger generation of Guatemalan rebels in Central America’s last and longest war.
Now that their leaders are negotiating peace, what happens to the young guerrillas, many without parents, is a major worry.
Manolo saw his mother die when he was 9.
“Manolo cried and cried,” his 17-year-old cousin, Rodolfo, said beside a campfire at a rebel camp in the mountains of southern Guatemala. “And when he was done crying, he and I joined the guerrillas.”
Old Anger, New Repression Make Guerrero Ripe for Revolt
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – July 22, 1995
TEPETIXLA, Mexico (AP) _ A massacre of civilians by soldiers two decades ago set off one of Mexico’s rare modern rebellions, pitting a strong-arm governor against a guerrilla leader in this rugged western state.
Now history threatens to repeat itself.
Many worry that last month’s massacre of 17 peasants by police working for Gov. Ruben Figueroa Alcocer could spark another revolt in impoverished Guerrero state.
“It was after just such a massacre that Lucio Cabanas armed himself and went to the mountains,” said Cirilo Placido, a leader of the Guerrerense Council of 500 Years in Resistance, an Indian rights group with thousands of members statewide.
United States muscled toward total military control of Haiti
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – September 22, 1994
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The United States muscled toward total military control of Haiti on Thursday, breaking up the army’s heavy weapons, guarding pro-democracy activists and giving U.S. troops more leeway to use force.
In a methodical effort to unravel the 1991 coup that overthrew elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American forces also planned to move into the countryside and take over the training of rural police forces notorious for their harsh repression of civilians.
In the northern city of Cap-Haitien, Marines parked armored personnel carriers in front of several police stations. “There should be no misunderstanding by now that the Marines will intervene if necessary to prevent violence,” said Maj. Steve Little, a Marine spokesman.
Armed Indian peasants battle Mexican army soldiers
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – January 03 1994
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) – Armed Indian peasants battled army soldiers Sunday on the second day of an uprising in one of Mexico’s poorest states. The Indians took over three towns near the Guatemalan border, and dozens were reported dead.
The worst fighting occurred in Ocosingo, after government troops were attacked by rebels. The Chiapasstate governor’s office in a statement late Sunday said 57 people – 30 soldiers and police, 24 rebels and three civilians – had been killed in Sunday’s fighting. At least eight died in fighting Saturday.
The rebels claimed they were from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a previously unknown group named for the Mexican hero Emiliano Zapata. They said they were protesting abuses by the authorities against Lacandon Indians in the region and unspecified foreign economic domination.
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