Blockade is obsolete and illegal says European Commission vice president

Europe has told the US many times that “the blockade is not the solution,” said Federica Mogherini during a conference in Havana on 3 January.

The vice-president of the European Commission, who was in Cuba for a series of high level meetings, said: “We know well that the sole effect of the blockade is to worsen the quality of life of women, men and children”, “the blockade is obsolete, it is illegal.”

She confirmed that the EU would keep working to end the blockade, and that the union wants to “open doors and build bridges”, in contrast to others that “build walls and close doors”.

• Read the full article from TeleSur

Over 50% of parliament candidates are women

Cuba may become the second highest country for female participation in parliament following its general elections in March.

Of the 605 candidates to the 2018 National Assembly, 53.2 per cent are women. If all the nominees are ratified, only Rwanda with 61.3 per cent would have a great number said president of the National Candidacy Commission, Gisela Duarte.

According to Duarte, the number of young people between 18 and 35 years old would also grow, reaching 13.2 per cent of the candidates.

• Read the full news story

Find out more about Cuba’s electoral system:

• Download the CSC Democracy fact sheet
• Spotlight on the 2018 Elections

Raffle winners announced

The CSC 2017 Blockade Buster national raffle was drawn at the CSC Executive Committee meeting on Saturday 6 January by CSC Chair and AGS of Unite the Union, Diana Holland. The raffle raised more than £10,000 for CSC campaigns and we would like to thank everyone who bought and sold tickets this year.

The winner was CSC member Matthew Bailey, from East Sussex. When he received news of his win he said:

“I am chuffed to bits and a little bit gobsmacked as I never normally win anything! I really didn’t expect a prize and brought a ticket to help support CSC and its work. I visited Cuba quite a while ago and unfortunately we couldn’t get to Havana that time. I am now really looking forward to going back to enjoy the country and the people, and definitely visiting the capital this time around”

• View the full list of prize winners

Washington creates Internet Task Force to promote subversion

The US government has created a new Internet Task Force which aims to promote internal subversion according to a report by the Cuban newspaper Granma.

On 23 January the US Department of State convened a meeting of the task force which would look at “opportunities for expanding internet access and independent media in Cuba.”

The US government has a history of attempting to destabilise countries using new technologies. Most recently, they funded ZunZuneo, a messaging platform similar to Twitter aimed at Cuban youth, but intended to build opposition to the government, as exposed by an Associated Press report in 2014.

• Read the Granma report