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WORLD NEWSThursday 10 December 2015

A year in: CARIBBEAN

Detente with US reshapes Cuba’s psychic landscape News Briefs

ANDREA RODRIGUEZ the expectations of greater and that can open a path borders with Mexico this Jamaican bringing

Associated Press prosperity and new free- to a future of brotherhood year. With thousands more legal challenge to
anti-sodomy laws
HAVANA (AP) — An Ameri- doms. For others — the and mutual aid,” said Fer- sailing across the Florida

can flag whips in the wind poor, the old, the vast ranks nando Funes, a former gov- Straits, 2015 may witness

above the reopened U.S. of bureaucrats who’ve ernment agronomist who the biggest outflow of Cu- KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP)
Embassy in Cuba. Many of dedicated their lives to the runs a 20-acre environmen- bans since 125,000 fled dur-
the thousands of foreign communist system, the dra- tally friendly farm supplying ing Mariel. — A Jamaican gay rights
visitors strolling down the matic dual presidential an- vegetables such as aru- The exodus has prompted
cobblestone streets of Old nouncements of Dec. 17, gula and chicory to private a crackdown by Cuba and activist has brought a rare
Havana are booking their 2014 and the steps toward restaurants in Havana. its regional allies, with Ni-
stays through Airbnb. normalization have led to Those in favor of the warm- caragua closing its border legal challenge to the Ca-
At the same time, a surge feelings of fear. ing in relations are hoping to Cubans last month, and
in Cubans seeking to leave Cubans with businesses that the anniversary of the Ecuador suddenly requiring ribbean island’s anti-sod-
the island before their pref- have been buoyed since presidential announce- Cubans to get a visa.
erential status for U.S. resi- then by the prospect of ments will add momentum A panicked crowd of omy laws that criminalize
dency ends has flooded better relations. Hotels, pri- to negotiations to connect visa applicants outside
Central America with mi- vate bed-and-breakfasts the countries with commer- the Ecuadoran Embassy sex between men.
launched a rare street pro-
test on Nov. 27, their ire di- Maurice Tomlinson has
rected at the government.
“This is all Raul Castro’s fault, filed a claim in Jamaica’s
no one else’s!” shouted
Adriel Acosta, a computer Supreme Court challeng-
scientist. “He’s the one who
caused this problem!” ing the constitutionality of
Cuba declared Dec. 1 that
its medical system was in a the rarely-used 1864 laws
critical situation because of
a U.S. program that offers that ban anal sex and any-
special treatment for doc-
tors who want to emigrate. thing interpreted as “gross
Physicians would now
need exit permits to leave indecency” between
the country for any reason.
It was a dramatic rever- men. In a Wednesday
sal for a government that
two years ago eliminated statement Tomlinson said

the longstanding laws are

a “gross violation of my hu-

man rights” and those of all

LGBT people in Jamaica.

Tomlinson is a senior policy

analyst at the Canadian

HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

Aanother Jamaican gay

rights activist made head-

lines in 2013 after initiating

a constitutional court chal-

lenge to the laws.

But that activist withdrew

the case last year because

of safety concerns.

the permits Cubans once

needed to leave their own Cuba, US start up
country.
People shop at the El Egido food market in Havana, Cuba. Cubans with businesses have been After Fidel Castro took pow- talks on damages,
buoyed by the prospect of better relations with the U.S. Hotels, private bed-and-breakfasts and er in 1959, every aspect of confiscated lands
elegant restaurants have been packed, with hundreds more expected to open in the coming

year. Cuban life was infused with

(AP Photo/Desmond Boylan) a sense of struggle against HAVANA (AP) — Cuba and

the United States, from its the United States have be-
grants in what could be the and elegant restaurants cial flights and direct mail, art to its medical system gun trying to resolve billions

biggest exodus since the have been packed, with perhaps paving the way to its politics. Government in dollars in claims for the

1980 Mariel boatlift. hundreds more expected for a visit by Obama in the critics were tarred as U.S. confiscation of American

In the year since Presidents to open in the coming year. first half of next year. agents and dissent was properties by the island’s

Raul Castro and Barack Pope Francis, who played a But for others, the changes considered an attack on socialist government.

Obama announced a critical role in negotiations are happening much too the country. Cuba in turn is demand-

rapprochement between that led to detente, made fast. Elaine Diaz tried to stay ing more than $100 billion

bitter the Cold War en- a stop in Cuba on his way Many fear normalization loyal to the ideals of the in damages for the half-

emies, Cuba has been to the United States in Sep- will end the guarantee of socialist revolution after century old U.S. trade em-
transformed. A country tember. U.S. Secretary of legal residency that Cu- she graduated from jour- bargo on the island.

that once seemed stuck in State John Kerry reopened bans receive the moment nalism school in 2008 and Resolution of the issues is

time suddenly faces an un- the embassy in person in they touch U.S. soil. Roughly founded a blog that criti- seen as fundamental to

certain future of disruptive August. 45,000 Cubans are expect- cized government misman- the reestablishment of

change. “It’s a breath of fresh air, ed to travel by bus, boat, agement and inefficiency. trade between the coun-

Particularly for those with knowing that they’re fil- taxi and on foot from Ec- Government supporters tries.

money, property or con- ing away the rough edges uador and other South and called her a counterrevo- A U.S. commission has cer-

nections, the frothy opti- between the two peoples Central American countries lutionary. Critics blasted her tified nearly 6,000 claims

mism is palpable, as are and their governments, to the Texas and California as too tame. q against Cuba by American
and U.S. firms whose prop-

Brazil suspends impeachment commission for 1 week erty was taken after Cu-
ba’s 1959 revolution. The

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — week as it decides whether late Tuesday to suspend the speaker Eduardo Cunha’s claims are worth as much

Brazil’s Supreme Court has Congress acted correctly proceedings that gave the decision to hold the vote as $8 billion. U.S. court rul-

suspended impeachment in how it formed a commis- opposition more influence to decide the commission’s ings against Cuba add an-

proceedings against Presi- sion to deal with the case. on the commission.Pro- members in secret was un- other $2 billion. q
dent Dilma Rousseff for one Justice Edson Fachin ruled Rousseff lawmakers say that constitutional. q