Joseph Mizzi, the chairman of the Bronx museum’s board of trustees, speaks at the ceremony to unveil a replica of a New York statue of Cuba’s independence hero Jose Marti in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. Sunday was the 165th anniversary of the birth of Marti, a renowned poet, journalist and fighter for Cuban independence who was fatally wounded in an 1895 battle for independence from the Spanish. The statue has been placed in a prominent site in Havana, near the Museum of the Revolution and facing out toward the Florida Straits and the United States. The binational sculpture project began shortly after Castro and President Barack Obama announced in December 2014 that they were moving to re-establish diplomatic ties and begin normalizing relations. The Trump administration accuses Cuba of responsibility for what U.S. officials call mysterious attacks affecting the hearing, vision and cognitive functions of American Embassy staff in Havana.

Source: Washington Post January 28, 2018 19:12 UTC