Word: havana
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...they talked for more than seven hours, and she did her best to assure the Prime Minister-an admirer of Fidel Castro-that U.S. policy toward Cuba was changing. Indeed, four days later the White House announced plans for a limited exchange of diplomats with Havana, a step toward resuming full relations...
Covering Senator George McGovern's visit to Havana two years ago. Reporter Barbara Walters extracted a promise from Fidel Castro: the Cuban leader would give her his first major interview for American television. Thus Castro personally chauffeured Walters around the island over a four-day period last month, and ABC will present the choicest hour of their conversation this Thursday (10 p.m. E.D.T.). But somebody got to Fidel first...
...happier than cigar aficionados. They had been deprived - legally, at least - of the pleasures of Cuban stogies since 1962, when the embargo on trade with Fidel Castro's island was imposed. A smoker is now free to ask a Cuba-bound traveler: "Hey, going to Havana? Pick me up a couple of boxes of Montecristos." But lately many Americans returning to the U.S. from points outside Cuba laden with Havana's best have been rudely awakened by customs inspectors to the fact that their purchases are still taboo...
...worldwide inflation has made imports so expensive that Cubans have little to buy. New rationing rules allow citizens to purchase just one ounce of coffee a week, and one shirt, a pair of trousers and a pair of shoes in a year. In one food store in old Havana, near some posters proclaiming ALL CUBA IS A GARDEN, only some scrawny carrots and withered beets could be found on display. There is a thriving black market in food and clothing, and young Cubans regularly approach foreigners to offer money for their shirts, jackets, sunglasses and portable radios...
While the peasants' lot has greatly improved since the revolution, Havana has suffered-even more so lately from Castro's African adventure. One example: the regime sent hundreds of Havana bus drivers to Angola to drive trucks in the war zone. As a result, scores of buses sit idle, and the daily commute for some Cubans has increased by hours...