Hurricane Maria’s destruction on Puerto Rico could spawn one of the largest mass migrations in US history. Some 97% of the island’s residents are still without power, and half do not have running water. Thousands now awaiting flights from San Juan’s airport might be permanently displaced and become the planet’s newest “climate refugees.”
CounterVortex editor Bill Weinberg will give a presentation at New York’s Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on ecological alternatives instated in Cuba after the Soviet collapse, and how they are faring in the current economic opening.
Cuba responded to Trump’s reversal of thawing relations in the name of human rights pressure by pointing to ongoing rights violations in the US, especially “murder, brutality and police abuse.” (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)
Facing an intractable economic crisis, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló approved a law calling for a non-binding referendum on statehood for the US territory. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Map Library)
Guy Philippe, a former paramilitary boss and coup leader recently elected to Haiti’s senate, was arrested by the DEA days before he would have been sworn into office. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Map Library)
Oscar López Rivera, the longest-held Puerto Rican political prisoner in the US, was among 209 federal inmates granted clemency by outgoing President Barack Obama. (Photo via PM Press)
A spokesperson for the United Nations made the organization’s first-ever acknowledgment of responsibility for a cholera epidemic that has wracked Haiti since October 2010.
Obama's embrace of Cuban dissidents allows the Castro regime to to more easily paint any push for greater democracy on the island as part of an imperial agenda.
With Haiti's presidential elections repeatedly postponed amid widespread protests, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged political actors to reject all forms of violence.
Cuban street artist Danilo Maldonado AKA "El Sexto" was released after 10 months in prison for "disrespect toward government officials"—which holds a penalty of three years.
The US government formally removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism as a step toward restoring full diplomatic relations. Cuba had been listed since 1982.
Political and economic issues combined to generate an effective two-day general strike that was honored in the capital and some other parts of Haiti.
