News & Public Affairs

What Do The Recent Changes Announced In Cuba Mean For US Cuba Relations?

09/23/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: Cuba, Al Fox, Johannes Werner, embargo, co-ops, oil

Cuba is calling workers across the island to special meetings so labor leaders can brief them on half a million government layoffs coming in the next six months and suggest ways that those fired can make a living.

Cuba announced two weeks ago that it would lay off 500,000 workers by March and loosen state controls on private enterprise so that many of those fired can find new jobs. It said it would also beef up the tax code and revamp state pay scales to better reward high job performance....

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Frank Sanchez supports travel from Tampa to Cuba and opposes Arizona law listen

08/02/10 Franco Silva, Yadira Caro & Seán Kinane
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Tags: Frank Sanchez, Cuba, Cuba embargo, Arizona, immigration, Latino issues

Former Tampa Mayoral candidate Frank Sanchez serves in the Obama administration as the Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade.

In an interview that will air Wednesday morning on WMNF, The hosts of Latino 54, Franco Silva and Yadira Caro, speak with Frank Sanchez about a range of subjects including Arizona’s new immigration law and the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

"We already d a fair amount of trade with Cuba. Mostly agricultural and medical goods. In fact, I believe we are Cuba'...

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Castor signs on to bill lifting ban on travel to Cuba listen

07/22/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Cuba, Cuba embargo, tampa international airport, kathy castor

Today U.S. Representative Kathy Castor (D-Tampa) announced she is the first member of Congress from Florida to sign on to a bill that would lift the ban on travel to Cuba. "It’s time to modernize those travel restrictions,” Castor told WMNF.

"Well today I signed up to open up the bill that would allow travel to Cuba by all Americans, known as the Travel Bill sponsored by Congressman Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts. I signed onto the bill for two main reasons. One, to continue to put pressu...

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Cuban environmentalist on climate change listen

12/11/09 Kelly Benjamin and Seán Kinane
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Tags: Cuba, climate change, Climate Conference, Copenhagen

Roberto Perez Rivero is an environmental coordinator with a Cuban nature foundation, and is attending the Copenhagen climate conference.

WMNF asked him how Cuba has started to combat climate change.

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Two members of Cuban Five resentenced listen

12/09/09 Lauren Martinez
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Tags: Cuba, Cuban Five, U.S

Yesterday two members of the Cuban Five had their sentences reduced. WMNF spoke with Gloria LaRiva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, who attended their hearings.

"The Cuban Five are five men who've been in prison in the United States since September 1998. They were Cuban agents who came into the United States, specifically Miami and Tampa, in order to infiltrate terrorist organizations. These terrorist organizations have been financed, armed, given the green l...

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Tampa port director on Obama extending Cuban trade embargo listen

09/15/09 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Cuba, Cuba embargo, Port of Tampa

Yesterday President Barack Obama signed an order extending the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba for another year. The director of the Port of Tampa says he is not surprised by the move, but predicts that all Americans will be allowed to travel to the country within a few years.

Obama’s move is largely symbolic because the 1996 Helms-Burton Act keeps sanctions in place regardless of whether Obama signed the extension. But had the president declined to sign the extension it would have been seen as...

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Tampa City Council discusses Cuba listen

07/23/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Tampa City Council, Cuba, Mary Mulhern, Linda Saul-Sena

Tampa City Council member Mary Mulhern has just returned from a 5 day trip to Cuba. But she appeared less than enthusiastic today when a colleague said the Council should take time out to discuss promoting international trade with the communist island.

The proposal came from Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, who asked that a special discussion take place on the issue next month.

Mulhern said the timing appeared premature.

Although the economic embargo against Cuba continues, President O...

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Conference on possible Tampa-Cuba business relationships listen

06/29/09 Mitch E. Perry
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Tags: Cuba

On Saturday, approximately 130 people packed into the historic Italian Club in Ybor City to hear a day-long discussion on improving Tampa’s trade and travel relations with Cuba.

Three Tampa City Council members, all possible Mayoral candidates in 2011, were at the event. Three members of Congress working on legislation to lift the travel ban to the communist island called in.

The event was put together by Al Fox, a 2006 Congressional candidate from Tampa, who runs the anti-embargo group...

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Conference on future business with Cuba held in Tampa listen

05/29/09 Arielle Stevenson
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Tags: Foreign policy, Cuba, embargo

The Tampa Bay Council on World Affairs and Commerce held a panel discussion this afternoon in at the University Club in Tampa. On the table, the implications of lifting the trade embargo with Cuba. The issue has been continually battled politically and economically. However the embargo has received additional attention recently because both Cuba and the U.S. have new heads of state.

Terry McCoy is director of the University of Florida’s Latin American Business Environment Program. He spo...

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Martinez on plight of Cuba after Castro listen

02/20/08 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Cuba, Mel Martinez, Fidel Castro

A day after Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba, dozens of Cuban-Americans are waiting in the Miami airport to greet relatives from the island nation. Cuban-born Republican Sen. Mel Martinez said that yesterday’s change just formalized what has already taken place.

WMNF asked Martinez whether he would continue to support the U.S. government policy to restrict the freedom of Americans to travel to Cuba.

“Not until such time as the Cuban people are treated better by their own gover...

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