Category: EFE

deployment in the Caribbean.

In addition to her family circle, representatives of the Latin American right are also traveling to Oslo to support the opposition leader.

The whereabouts of the Venezuelan opposition leader, who has been living in hiding in her country since the beginning of this year, remain unknown, and her appearance in Oslo would be her first in public since January 2025.

Argentine President Javier Milei took off yesterday on a special flight, while his Paraguayan counterpart, Santiago Peña, will arrive in the Norwegian capital on Wednesday for the official award ceremony.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino is already in Oslo, where he met with Machado’s family.

Also expected to attend tomorrow’s ceremony at Oslo City Hall is the Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain. He ran against Nicolás Maduro in the July 2024 elections when Machado was barred from running.

The secretary general of Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, lashed out on Monday against the award, calling it an “auction” given “to the highest bidder”: “With respect to Oslo, I don’t know. We know nothing about that, we didn’t participate in that auction,” he affirmed yesterday.

Cabello preferred to focus on the pressure exerted by the United States with its unprecedented military deployment in the Caribbean and denounced the fact that the International Criminal Court has not ruled on Washington’s attacks against boats allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

“The International Criminal Court is rude; its silence on massacres in different parts of the world is gross,” he added.

The opposition team conducted a detailed analysis of the Venezuelan Army and concluded that only a “limited” purge would be necessary, since only 20% of the officers are “irredeemable.”

He also rejected Panama’s offer to mediate between Caracas and Washington amid tensions between the two countries over the Panamanian government’s support for the Venezuelan opposition. “What the United States says goes,” he stated.

Amid these tensions, the Washington Post revealed that the Trump Administration reviewed the plans of Machado and her team in the event of Maduro’s departure from power, a plan that proposes creating forces to stabilize the country within the first 100 hours and 100 days after the current president’s exit and holding elections during the first year.

According to the newspaper, the opposition team conducted a detailed analysis of the Venezuelan Army and concluded that only a “limited” purge would be necessary, since only 20% of the officers are “irredeemable” and the rest are either opposed to Maduro or apolitical.

This information adds to Trump’s comments that he could soon begin ground attacks against Venezuela, fueling doubts about the scope of a possible Washington intervention under the guise of combating drug trafficking.

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Visits to the Peronist leader are restricted to only twice a week, a maximum of two hours, and no more than three people per shift.

While the Supreme Court prepares to act as administrator and auctioneer of the assets that for years represented the economic power of Kirchnerism, Cristina Fernández’s daily life has been spent under house arrest since June of this year. The same Federal Oral Court 2 that signed the seizure order has just restricted visits to the Peronist leader to only twice a week, for a maximum of two hours, and with no more than three people per visit. The decision comes after a meeting with nine economists that exceeded the limits of her legal status.

The new rules do not affect her immediate family, assistants, lawyers, or healthcare personnel, but they do limit Cristina’s ability to continue operating politically from her home, which she herself renamed San José 1111 on social media. On X, the former president attributed the decision to the “media circus” and defended the meeting with economists as part of a project for “productive and federal growth for the 21st century.”

Behind the fall of the Kirchner economic empire lies a geography that extends beyond Argentina, as a significant part of the family’s recent history unfolded in Havana. Florencia Kirchner traveled to Cuba in February 2019 to participate in a screenwriting course, already a key figure in the corruption cases involving her family. Just as she was due to return to Buenos Aires, Cuban doctors forbade her from flying, diagnosing her with post-traumatic stress disorder and mild lymphedema in her legs, in addition to other health problems. Cristina herself blamed the “fierce persecution” by the justice system for her daughter’s “physical deterioration.”

Between March 2019 and March 2020, Fernández traveled to the island at least ten times to visit her daughter.

From March 14, 2019, Havana became the former president’s second political and emotional home. Between March 2019 and March 2020, she traveled to the island at least ten times to visit Florencia. Some trips were to spend the end-of-year holidays, others to welcome 2020 with her daughter, and still others combined family and political engagements, such as the presentation of her book, Sinceramente, at the Havana Book Fair in February 2020.

Meanwhile, the Argentine Justice system imposed conditions: Florencia had to appear every 15 days at the Argentine Embassy in Cuba to report on her state of health and any changes of address, a form of minimal control over a key figure in the corruption cases involving the family.

From Cuba, Cristina fostered a narrative in which the Island was presented as a medical and political refuge from an Argentine Justice system supposedly aligned with “the hegemonic media.”

The thread that connects Río Gallegos, El Calafate, and Havana is that of a power that believed it could shield itself with properties, legal privileges, and international connections, and that is now discovering that the courts can also seize deeds, accounts, and hotels. Kirchnerism insists on speaking of “persecution.” The judicial reality, however, shows the end of an impunity that, for years, traveled first class between Buenos Aires and Havana. So far, Cuban state media have avoided mentioning the seizures.

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easy for us to draw strength and confidence from those happy times,” he said.

Steinmeier asserted that everyone who knows him knows that he does not tend towards alarmism or describing apocalyptic scenarios, but he added that given the current situation, one must dare to look at the threats that exist.

“We cannot lend ourselves to a new fascination with authoritarianism and then fall into a lack of freedom, only to have everyone later say that they neither wanted it nor knew it was coming. Today, November 9th, I say it clearly: we can know it, and we do know it,” he stated.

According to Steinmeier, never before, since the reunification of Germany, have democracy and freedom been so threatened as they are now.

“Never before, since the reunification of Germany, have democracy and freedom been so threatened.”

“Threatened by a Russian aggressor who has shattered our peaceful order and against whom we must protect ourselves, and threatened by far-right forces that attack our democracy and gain support among the population,” he declared.

Simply waiting for the storm to pass is not, according to Steinmeier, a solution. “We have to act, and we can act. Our democracy is not doomed to surrender,” he emphasized.

“Our historical experience teaches us that the reckless attempt to tame anti-democrats by giving them power is something that failed not only in Weimar. Extremism, according to the American political scientist Daniel Ziblatt, never triumphs on its own. If it succeeds, it is because others allow it. That is the lesson of the Weimar Republic,” he remarked.

Therefore, Steinmeier called for maintaining the existing cordon sanitaire against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), although without explicitly mentioning that party.

“There can be no political cooperation with extremists. Not in the government, nor in parliaments,” he emphasized.

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The UN accused the Trump Administration of having “violated international law” with these attacks, which it considers “extrajudicial executions.”

Trump denied considering attacking Venezuela while traveling aboard Air Force One when asked about the reports published by these media outlets. “No, they’re not true,” he replied, without providing further details.

If carried out, the attacks would escalate tensions with the government of Nicolás Maduro following the military deployment in the Caribbean – which will soon include the largest US aircraft carrier – and attacks on vessels under the pretext that they are loaded with drugs and heading towards the US.

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated that he will stop drugs entering “by land” after almost two months of bombing 15 boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean, which have left 61 dead and three survivors since the 1st of September.

“We are finally waging war against the cartels. We are waging a war like you have never seen before, and we are going to win this battle. We are already winning it at sea,” the president declared in a speech to U.S. troops in Japan.

The UN accused the Trump Administration of having “violated international law” with these attacks, which it considers “extrajudicial executions.”

“These attacks, and their growing human cost, are unacceptable. The United States must put an end to them,” demanded Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In a few days, the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the most modern and important in the US fleet, is expected to arrive in the Caribbean, joining the rest of the naval forces that are off the coast of Venezuela.

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“The economy continues to decline, and the crisis has no way out; it can’t be resolved. What is being done is having no result.”

“The economy continues to decline, and the crisis has no way out; it can’t be resolved. What is being done is having no result. Are we at the end of a nearly 60-year-old regulatory model? It is likely,” he replies.

Monreal paints an alarming picture. He highlights the “completely collapsed levels” of agricultural production, which “continue to plummet from the peaks of 2016-2018,” and warns of a “very, very serious” food security crisis.

He also warns about the energy situation, with repeated breakdowns at obsolete thermoelectric plants; the budget deficit; the loss of the driving capacity of the tourism sector; the lack of “productive support” for the Cuban peso; and the 30% collapse in the purchasing power of wages in just four years due to inflation.

In his opinion, Cuba is experiencing a “systemic crisis,” “a profound and protracted alteration of the matrix” of the economic model that affects its foundations. “It’s the type of crisis from which a country cannot recover from within the framework of the system,” he says, lamenting that the country’s leadership does not seem willing to embrace the “radical” nature of the necessary changes.

“Every economic reform is a political act,” emphasizes this economist, who insists that maintaining the planned economy in Cuba “has more to do with political persistence, not so much economic.”

The lack of political action in this area, in his opinion, can only be explained by two reasons. First, the attempt to “preserve power” by the government and the Cuban Communist Party (PCC, the only legal party) because, as in almost all other socialist economies, these needs “dictate the pace and direction of reforms.”

The second, he points out, is the fear that economic changes could modify “institutional functioning,” diversify the interests of elites, and subsequently “fragment” the country’s leadership.

In his opinion, the “calculation” of these elites is that “it is preferable to assume the risk of economic disintegration,” trying to prop up only “the most critical elements,” than to launch “more radical reforms that could completely disrupt” the power structure.

“In Cuba, there is obviously a very high risk that the loss of economic dynamism could drag the population into a social crisis that could turn into a political one, of which there have been glimpses.”

“In Cuba, there is obviously a very high risk that the loss of economic dynamism could drag the population into a social crisis that could turn into a political one, of which there have been glimpses,” Monreal notes.

With respect to the government’s program to correct distortions and boost the economy, which has been implemented piecemeal for almost two years, Monreal points out inconsistencies: “It is an attempt to resolve a structural crisis without substantially changing the framework.”

He believes the program, which primarily included budget adjustment measures and the partial dollarization of the economy, has no chance of achieving its objectives because “it continues to maintain the idea that the system can be rebuilt through modifications—I would say— that are cosmetic.”

One of the measures contemplated in this plan is a reform of the monetary system, which has been deeply strained by the so-called Ordering Task of 2021, a failed attempt by the Cuban government to remove the dollar from the local economy. “It’s a disaster, something that has turned the Cuban economy upside down more than anything else,” Monreal believes.

However, any action in this area now is also complex, he acknowledges. The economist doesn’t believe the government will unify the exchange rates (currently two official ones, both very far from the informal one) or that it could establish a new rate based on fundamentals because it would “starve the country.”

Regarding whether it would be a floating exchange rate, as the government announced at the end of last year, Monreal also has doubts. A “dirty float” between two bands would be more likely, although that would require the central bank to hold foreign currency to defend the rate.

The government has indeed been “successful” in reducing inflation and the public deficit, the economist points out, but this has been achieved “basically by impoverishing the country,” due to the decline in the purchasing power of state workers and cuts in services.

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On the other, it seeks to provide the large hotel chains operating on the island with greater autonomy and flexibility to improve service—one of the main handicaps in the sector today—and, consequently, also improve the image of these establishments, which has suffered in recent years due to the country’s crisis.

According to EFE, the new system aims to begin with pilot projects in establishments belonging to several major international hotel chains. Cuban authorities are negotiating the terms of these agreements separately with each chain, and there are apparently no common scales for setting the rent or fixed fees. Neither party has agreed to disclose the agreed rental amounts.

With this decision, the Cuban government seeks to increase its foreign currency income in two ways. Directly, through the revenue it earns from renting out properties to hotel chains. Indirectly, this measure also seeks to boost a key economic sector for the country.

With this decision, the Cuban government seeks to increase its foreign currency income in two ways.

Tourism is also Cuba’s third largest source of foreign currency (behind professional services and remittances), which it needs because it imports 80% of what it consumes. This is intended to revitalize visitor numbers, which are currently at their lowest levels this century (excluding 2020 and 2021, due to COVID-19 restrictions).

So far this year, international tourist numbers have fallen compared to 2024, when they were already the lowest in 17 years. Industry sources expect the year to end at around 1.8 million visitors, compared to 2.2 million in 2024 and the 4.7 million—the island’s all-time high—reached in 2018.

The hotels also perceive the measure as beneficial, according to people involved in the negotiations with the Cuban government. First, because it allows them to have “totally autonomous” management for the first time. Until now, although they managed hotels owned by Gaesa, they had to follow multiple official guidelines and obtain state approval for many issues, from investments to menus, including salaries.

The plan, after these pilot tests, includes expanding the process of change in management to the country’s hotels, although no timeline has been set.

In a context of global tourism growth, Cuba’s figures are alarming and have been disastrous for Spanish hotel chains, such as Iberostar and Meliá. As the specialized media outlet Hosteltur recently pointed out, consistent with another article published by the economic daily Cinco Días, these companies have persisted in their commitment to Cuba despite it being the country that is going against all the positive global forecasts for the sector, especially its direct competitors, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

In a context of global tourism growth, Cuba’s figures are alarming and have been disastrous for Spanish hotel chains.

At the end of August, the same outlet published graphs highlighting the situation of Spanish companies compared to the official figures reported by Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). Hosteltur notes that “in 2018 and 2019, the island received 4.6 and 4.2 million international tourists, respectively, driven by a more favorable context in relations with the US and greater openness to travel.” Although pre-pandemic rates have already been surpassed in other countries, this is not the case in Cuba by a long shot.

After hitting historic lows due to COVID-19, Cuba’s numbers slowly climbed to 2,436,980 tourists in 2023. Since then, it has been on a downward spiral. Last year, the number of foreign visitors fell to 2,203,117, and in the first half of 2025, only 981,856 were received, which proportionally amounts to fewer than two million a year.

The consequences for the interests of the Spanish chains have been catastrophic. They have 71 hotels on the island, primarily Meliá (34) and Iberostar (18). Further behind are Roc (with five establishments), Valentin Hotels (with four), Sirenis (with three), Barceló, Blau, and Minor (each with two), and Axel Hotels with one. In total, they have 27,679 rooms.

The island, in fact, is the third country in terms of the number of rooms offered by Spanish hotel chains, behind only Mexico (around 50,000 rooms in 125 hotels) and the Dominican Republic (36,000 rooms in 75 establishments). The significant difference is that in these two countries, the sector continues to set records for occupancy and profits.

Between January and July of this year, the Dominican Republic received almost 7,200,000 tourists, 3.2% more than the same period last year, and Mexico registered, from January to June, no less than 47.4 million international visitors, 13.8% more than in the same months of 2024.

Taking into account that only 981,856 were received in the first half of 2025, proportionally it would not even amount to two million annually.

Meanwhile, in Cuba, only 1,259,972 international visitors arrived as of August, representing a 21.64% drop compared to 2024.

Although this represents an improvement compared to July—when the drop reached 23.2% compared to 2024—the figures already make the government’s goal of reaching 2.6 million tourists this year unfeasible. Considering that only 981,856 tourists were received in the first half of 2025, proportionally, this would not even reach two million annually, which would surpass the record negative figure of 2024, when 2.2 million travelers were received.

It was the worst record in 17 years, excluding 2020 (with 1,085,920 foreign visitors), 2021 (with 356,470), and 2022 (with 1,614,087), the years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Onei recorded that 135,985 international travelers arrived on the island in August, a lower number than in July, when 142,131 arrived.

On the other hand, according to the Onei semiannual report, between January and June of this year, revenues fell below one million ($981,856), a 25% decrease compared to the same period in 2024 ($1,309,655). Consequently, revenues plummeted by 20.6% (from almost 71 billion pesos to just over 56 billion).

Onei does not provide net income after deducting operating costs—very high in the tourism sector—but in Cuba’s case, it is estimated that these represent 70% of gross income, which would give a net income of $703 million, in the best-case scenario.

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