New Cuban "Freedoms" Now Extend to Computer Ownership

Add being able to own a computer to the list of freedoms Cubans now have under Raul Castro. Last Friday, The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time.

A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind. The Cuban PCs have Intel Celeron processors with 80 gigabytes of memory and 512 RAM and are equipped with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Both could be violations of a U.S. trade embargo, but not something Washington can do anything about in the absence of diplomatic relations with Havana.

What has not been lifted however, is the ban on internet access from Cuban homes.

Some people buy limited e-mail access on the black market, usually sharing an account with the authorized holder, who usually works for the state. Even if they could access the Web, Cubans can't shop on line because they don't have credit cards.

Source : NYT,
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Image Source : Huffington Post

Elian redux? - Parents battle over Cuban girl’s custody in Miami

A custody battle currently taking place in south Florida may possibly boil over like the affair over Elian Gonzalez in 1999 and 2000. However, the complexities of the case reveal a different story.

Cuban fisherman Rafael Izquierdo is in court seeking custody of his biological daughter who was taken legally to the U.S. in 2005 with his consent by her mother- Elena Perez. Shortly after, Perez attempted suicide and the state of Florida took custody of the girl. She would soon be adopted by Joe Cubas- a former sports agent who represented several Cuban defectors including Orlando “el Duque” Hernandez.

Cuban-American activist and attorney Pedro Freyre told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the case will not be like the hullabaloo over Elian:

"It is being decided as Elian should have been ... instead of being decided in the streets of Miami," he said. "The fact pattern in this one is different, and it just got handled differently from the beginning."

The ardor of the Cuban exile community also appears to have cooled since the Elian case, Freyre said. That could be partly because of a generational shift, he said.

"We're all a little older and wiser and disconnected," said Freyre, who is not involved in this case.

In testimony yesterday the girl’s half-brother alleged that Perez was very physically abusive towards him and his siblings but also described Izquierdo as “not a bad guy.”

Image- BBC News (Elena Perez sits in court behind Rafael Izquierdo)

Sources- BBC News, Times Online, Baltimore Sun, International Herald Tribune, PBS