Odds and ends

• Canadian foreign minister John Baird visited Cuba last week, showing how a democracy can engage with Cuba and, in some cases, disagree with its government at the same time.  Imagine that.  (CBC, Globe and Mail, Juventud Rebelde)

• After about five minutes in Brazil, Yoani Sanchez is calling for an end to the U.S. embargo and the release and return of the Cuban Five.  How long before they call it a provocación in Miami?  There, she is slated to receive Miami-Dade College’s presidential medal in recognition of her human rights advocacy.  (See EFE, EFE again, El Nuevo, and Babalu’s translation of her remarks.)  Update: She tweeted last night that when she was speaking about the Cuban Five, it was with “tremendous irony” that was lost on her audience in Brasilia (and, apparently, everywhere else).  She also implied that the U.S. should get out of the Guantanamo naval base.

• IPS: Novelist Leonardo Padura on Raul Castro’s five years as President.

• A long profile in Cincinnati Magazine on Aroldis Chapman, the Reds’ enigmatic fireballer.

• Prensa Latina has a brief item on the upcoming selection by the National Assembly of the Council of State’s membership and officers, which will determine the line of succession in Raul Castro’s second term.

• Yahoo Sports on Cuba’s selection for the World Baseball Classic.

• Trabajadores: The 2012 rice harvest set a production record.

• Prensa Latina: Chipping away further at heavily subsidized goods and services provided to the public, the Cuban government announces that water rates will go up.