The Latest Breaking News from Havana

By Dave Sherwood

Ricardo Alarcon, one of the most powerful men in Cuba under former President Fidel Castro and a key player in relations with the United States, died in Havana on Saturday evening, his family said.

Cuban foreign minister says Washington is pressuring governments to block Havana from Summit of the Americas in June.

The United States is considering resuming migration accords with Cuba at a time tens of thousands of people are leaving the island to come to the U.S., Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday.

American and Cuban officials are due to meet in Washington on Thursday to discuss migration concerns, people familiar with the matter said, in the highest-level formal U.S. talks with Havana since President Joe Biden took office last year.

The U.S. State Department said it has received credible evidence of unlawful killings, forced disappearances and torture of political activists in a scorching assessment of the Cuban government’s record, released this week as part of the agency’s annual report on human rights practices.

MIAMI — A Cuban diving instructor was recently rescued near Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, after sailing from Cuba on a windsurfing board. If the attempt seems desperate, it is not exceptional:

MIAMI — In a consequential ruling Monday night, a Miami federal judge said four major cruise lines with South Florida ties — Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises — engaged in “prohibited tourism” and “trafficking activities” by carrying passengers to Cuba and profiting from the use of Havana port…

Bray Perez, a 19-year-old Cuban university student, is fast losing friends to a growing wave of migration off the island.

By Dave Sherwood

A limited increase in processing immigrant visa petitions in Havana will not include thousands of pending cases of a family reunification program suspended by the Trump administration, a senior State Department official told reporters on Monday.