Did fidel give a speech today?

Coño. I missed it.

Terri

Descanza en paz.

No, seriously, it hurts.

Since my head feels like it's in a vise and my tongue is glued to the roof of my mouth and I am so hungover, so painfully hungover that even my thoughts hurt, I offer a repost because it's pretty much all I can muster up right now.

No me pintes con brocha seca.

I promise I will never, ever drink again. At least until Happy Hour.

Ouch!

A friend came in from out of town yesterday. One of my best beer drinking buddies.

I am so hungover now I cant even see straight.

NOW THAT'S WHAT IM TALKIN' BOUT!!!!!

Remember how upset I was at that West Wing episode a few weeks ago? Remember how they kept insisting that the Cuban-American community was a "geriatric sect waiting to get their cabanas back in la Habana?"

Well, here's a news flash for all those that try to make themselves believe that the Cuban-American cause of a free Cuba is waning or dying off with the older generation:

Students Protest Crackdown in Cuba

More than two dozen Princeton University students held a silent march on campus Friday to protest what they said was a crackdown on dissent in Cuba two years ago in which more than 75 people were reportedly detained as political prisoners.
The march was staged by a newly formed student group called Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association. According to group co-founder Kenneth A. Sinkovitz, a Princeton sophomore, CAUSA received official recognition by the university and permission for its march just days before the protest occurred.
Mr. Sinkovitz estimated that the 10 or so expected marchers were joined by about 20 more as the silent procession made its way from the Frist Campus Center through campus to the front doors of Firestone Library.
CAUSA co-founder Chris Gueits, also a Princeton sophomore, said the group's decision to end its march outside the front doors of Firestone was symbolic of the absence of a free flow of information in Cuba and restrictions against free expression.
"In countries like Cuba, this would land you in jail," Mr. Gueits said in front of the sculpture outside the library. "There's a vacuum of information over there, and these people feel alone."

Read the whole thing.

The older generation of Cubans may be passing on, but their dream of a free Cuba is still alive, and it will not go away until the day it comes true.

The New McCarthyism Stems from Hollywood

My good friend Scott of Burton Terrace just sent me the following link from today's "Impromptus" column at NRO by Jay Nordlinger. It is a letter sent to Jay and reads as follows:

Jay, longtime reader of your column. Consider myself a 9/11 Democrat — one who actually uses his brain for thinking through issues. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were invited to a birthday dinner at the home of some friends. All are quite liberal (we live on the West Coast), and I often find myself the lone dissenter.

Also attending this dinner was a couple from Cuba, friends of the birthday people through the art world. We had normal chit-chat during dinner, then someone asked the Cuban husband how long he'd been in the States.

"Three years," was his response.

What followed was amusing and troubling at the same time. Everyone (except me) immediately jumped in and started raving about what a great country Cuba was, compared with the U.S.: better health care, lower infant mortality, and the music!!! Plus, Fidel, Che, and the revolutionaries — how romantic!

If I hadn't been reading NR and NRO, I might have just checked out. But I paid attention. Specifically, I watched how the Cuban couple reacted to these statements.

To put it mildly, the look on their faces was one of disbelief. In response to comments about health-care and infant-mortality statistics, the wife said, "And you believe the information coming out of the Castro government? They make those numbers up to look good to other countries."

The responses from the liberals were along the lines of "Well . . .," "Uh . . ." "Well, the U.S. should have a better infant-mortality rate in any case." They weren't ready to concede that people who'd lived in Cuba all their lives knew more about what was going on than they did. Because, of course, we knew better, thanks to reading the New York Times and The New Yorker.

I followed up and asked the husband what had motivated him to move to the U.S.

"I was persecuted."

Silence.

I asked what had happened. What did he do? How long was he persecuted?

"I was associated with the wrong people and was persecuted for seven years. Finally had enough and spent a year going to the American and Cuban authorities to get permission to leave."

Dead silence. It was clear he and his wife had endured some pretty horrendous treatment, all because he had associated with the wrong people.

I didn't feel comfortable asking him what they did to him. It was a birthday dinner. What did come out was that he had recently passed his citizenship test and was on his way to becoming an American citizen.

"This is my country now."

I said, "Welcome to our country."

The liberals at that party are exactly like those Hollywood elites we are always talking about here. The "free healthcare, 100% literacy and low infant mortality rate" spewing myopics who cannot stand Cuban-Americans because we actually know what the hell we are talking about when it comes to Cuba and it bursts their little moral superiority bubble.

Along the same "Hollywood loves communism" lines, dont miss this editorial from the Opinion Journal, sent to me by Ramón Miró of CubaFacts.com (Do check out CubaFacts.com, it is an excellent website and source of information on Cuban issues.):

Annoying as the Che adulation is, a recent comment by a 14-year-old on an online movie message board was truly disturbing: "I just saw The Motorcycle Diaries, which further made me question: Why is communism bad? . . . Young people are told how bad communism is, but we are not told why. . . . The Motorcycle Diaries showed me how Ernesto Guevara wanted to help people. . . . But this did not explain why he was such a 'bad' person and apparently deserved to be murdered by the U.S."

Is this a legacy of dangerous ignorance that the makers of "Che" wish to continue? Might this teen be taught that the product of Guevara and Castro's "revolution" is a nation whose inhabitants still risk their lives to escape--and an estimated one-third die trying? A nation where neighbor spies on neighbor, where dissent lands one in the clink--or worse--and persecution is punishment for everything from religion to homosexuality?

Read the whole thing.

I wont editorialize any further on Hollywood's love for dictators and murderous Marxists. All I will say is that they would be hardpressed to express any of their "artistic freedoms" in a country like Cuba, whose government sees the stifling of individuals' freedom as the number one priority.

Oh, and, kiss my Cuban-American ass, Hollywood. You bunch of panzy ass, holier than thou, self-righteous, morally abject, living in lala land collection of hypocritical elitist pricks.

I hope you havent had breakfast yet...

Because when you see what I am about to link to, you will most certainly want to puke.

Buck up, now. Take a deep breath. Get ready to be infuriated. You're blood is gonna boil and your blood pressure is going to go through the roof.

All set? OK. Click the link below.

"A Funky Hip Spot"

He aint my Blogfather for nuthin'

For those that idolize che, here's his idea of justice:

To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary...These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the El Paredón!" --Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

I picked up that quote from Dean - who I am proud to say is my blogfather -as he rakes the che lovers over some major coals here.

Gracias, Dean.

Cell is dead, baby.

And dead is dead.

My cellphone which Ive had for I think over 5 years just up and died. My trusty Samsung SPH-N200. The thing was the Abrams tank of cellphones. It had fallen in the pool I dont know how many times, was left out in the rain, dropped a jillion and a half times. It had been stepped on, kicked, thrown and slammed. Lost, stolen and found. It was even dropped once into a concrete pour at a job site. Never missed a damn call in all the time Ive had it.

And now it's dead. People can hear me, but I cant hear them.

So now it's new cellphone shopping time. I have no idea which one to get.

There's just too damn many options.

If any one out there has any suggestions about a phone - the purchase of which will not have me spending a few nights in the doghouse because of cost - in the above link, let me know.

A little Paquito for you.

In honor of Paquito D'Rivera's spanking of Carlos "I love Che" Santana, I submit, for your listening pleasure, some real music.

Paquito D'Rivera's 'Miami'

Vaya!!!Pa' goza'!!!

A letter to Carlos "Useful Buffoon" Santana

Remember Carlos Santana's attire at the Oscar's not too long ago? You know, the Che Guevara t-shirt I gave him the Useful Idiot Award for?

Well, one prominent Cuban-American musician sent Santana a letter to let him know just what a morally abject jerk he really is. The following is Paquito D'Rivera's letter in Spanish followed by my translation:

"Me enteré por nuestro amigo Raúl Artiles que pronto te presentarás en Miami; cosa que me parece poco recomendable, ya que no hace mucho cometiste la torpeza de aparecerte en los Oscar Awards luciendo con orgullo un enorme crucifijo sobre una camiseta con la esteriotipada imagen del Carnicerito de la Cabaña, que es como conocen al Che Guevara los cubanos que tuvieron que sufrir tan lamentable personaje en dicha prisión".

"Uno de estos cubanos fue mi primo Bebo, preso allí precisamente por ser cristiano. El me cuenta siempre con amargura como escuchaba desde su celda en la madrugada los fusilamientos sin juicio de muchos que morían gritando "Viva Cristo Rey!".

"El guerrillero de la boinita estrellada es algo más que esa ridícula película de la bicicleta, mi famoso colega; y combinar a Cristo con el Che Guevara es como entrar a una sinagoga con una Swástica (símbolo nazi) colgando del cuello; y es además una bofetada en el rostro de los jóvenes cubanos de los años 60, que tenían que esconderse para escuchar tus discos de "música imperialista", según definían el Rock & Roll en la jerga del mismísimo atorrante argentino y sus secuaces".

"Perdona que te escriba en español, pero es que no creo que tenga suficientes palabras en inglés para expresar mi indignación ante tu irresponsable actitud. Y créeme que a pesar de todo, como artista te deseo buena suerte, porque la necesitarás, Carlos "sobre todo en Miami".

In English (my translation skills are almost seriously lacking so bear with me):

I learned through our mutual acquaintance Raúl Artiles that you will soon play a concert in Miami, something I would not recommend, as you showed your stupidity by appearing at the Oscar Awards proudly donning a large crucifix over a t-shirt with the stereotypical image of the Butcher of La Cabaña, which is how Che Guevara is known to Cubans who had to lamentably suffer under him at said prison.

One of these Cubans was my cousin Bebo, incarcerated there precisely for being a Christian. The same one who always bitterly tells me how he could hear from his cell the firing squads at dawn murdering those who without trials would die screaming "Long Live Jesus Christ."

The guerrilla with the starred beret is much more than what's depicted in that ridiculous motorcycle movie, my famous colleague, and combining Che Guevara with Christ would be like entering a synagogue wearing a Swastika necklace. And it is also a slap in the face to those young Cubans who in the '60s had to hide to be able to listen to your records, Imperialist music, as Rock & Roll was defined in the slang of the Argentinian tramp and his partisans.

Please forgive the fact that I write you in Spanish, but I just don't think I have enough words or mastery of the English language to express my indignation at your irresponsible attitude. And believe me, as an artist I wish you good fortune, because you will need it, Carlos...especially in Miami.

Bien dicho, Paquito. Gracias.

Tremenda guayaba, fidel!

All evidence to the contrary, fidel castro will take to the airwaves once again this week to tell the Cuban people that everything is hunky-dory. There will be no more blackouts, the Cuban peso is being re-valued (again), rice cookers are on their way and official opinion polls show that out of 28,000 surveyed only 253 had anything bad to say about their maximo lider. Cubans will be glued to their sets this coming Thursday:

"It's been a long time since we've heard any good news. Let's just hope its all true," said one Havana City postal worker as he hopped on the #190 bus heading home after making his rounds.

"Let's just hope it's all true." Now, what are the chances of that? When was the last time fidel castro stated anything even resembling truth?

During last week's speech, castro quoted opinions critical of his regime and then made fun of them like a stand up comedian. I think it was rather nice of the bearded one,considering. Cubans could really use a good laugh.

Other opinions read by the Comandante included: "Fidel is crazy if he thinks he will solve the housing problem"; "What Fidel says we're going to get is fine but I'd prefer cooking oil and soap", a reference to items that disappeared from the shelves in the early 1990s and which for years have only been available at special stores in U.S. dollars; and "He talks about chocolate when what we need is food".

The reality is that fidel has no good news for his people.

Weighing in on the side of the critics is Cuban-American scholar Marifeli Perez Stable who has written extensively on the Revolution.

"None of the good news is coming from within the Cuban economy -- no restructuring, a return to centralization, a peso revaluation that has nothing to do with reality - and, instead, is originating in Venezuela's oil and supposedly splendid accords with China," she says. "Sure, ECLA is projecting a 5 percent growth this year but that's pretty meaningless if the bodegas [grocery stores] are still rationed and what average Cubans can buy with pesos is either scarce or overpriced. When Cuban women can get a week's groceries and other necessities in peso stores without sweating it out, then five percent growth will be meaningful."

So castro plays the rhetorical rope-a-dope:

In two moves by the Central Bank, and announced by Castro in his latest speeches, Cuba first upped by 7 percent the value of the original Cuban peso against the CUC and then raised the value of the CUC by 8 percent against the dollar effective April 9.

Castro pointed out the benefits of this by explaining how he'd just brought down the price of the new pressure cooker by 15 percent. His reasoning was as follows: the state picked up half the cost of the imported pots and converted the remaining 50 percent into its price in Cuban pesos.

By raising the value of the peso 15 percent, the state was also lowering the cost of the pot 15 percent so that instead of paying 150 pesos, consumers would only have to pay 122.50.

Now, I'm no economist, but this economic three card monty doesnt make a bit of sense to me. Truth of the matter is that Cuba's economy is still in dire straights, despite chavez's oil and whatever other trade agreements the regime has made recently. Things have to be paid for, you see, and fidel castro's government just doesnt have the money.

In the chavez/Venezuelan oil trade, fidel has sent thousands of Cuban "doctors" and other personnel, along with state security agents and other "diplomats" in order to help chavez tighten his grip over the Venezuelan people. What is fidel going to do in the case of Japan when their bill collectors come knocking at the door? Who will he send then?

Seems to me that an economy that has to be drastically re-tooled like Cuba's means that it's desperately gasping for life.

The day after Castro spoke, Cuba's Central Bank President Francisco Soberón elaborated on the measures.

"The decision to reevaluate as of April 9, the rate of exchange between the Cuban Convertible Peso and foreign currencies, and to eliminate the parity between this national currency and the U.S. dollar is part of a coherent, gradual and prudent strategy that the country will continue for the benefit of the people," he said.

Like Castro, Soberón charged that the sustained depreciation in the value of the U.S. dollar plus the Bush administration's increasing hostility toward the island has made it risky for Cuba to use the dollar as a means of payment or in its national reserve.

But the moves have unnerved many of the estimated 60 percent of the Cuban public with access to either U.S. dollars or other convertible currencies, such as the EURO, sent by relatives living outside the island or earned through their work. Estimates on just how much Cubans receive range widely from $400 million to over $1 billion.

"Fidel's speech was great but he dropped a bomb at the end, the reduction of the chavito, people lost thousands of pesos," went one opinion read by Castro on the 7 percent increase.

Previously people who bought Cuban pesos with CUCs received 26 for one, now they are only receiving 24. It doesn't sound like much of a difference but if they changed 100 CUCs they got 200 pesos less under the new rate. And many people count on the dollars sent by their relatives to help them pay the often high prices at the farmers markets where private vendors sell everything from lettuce and tomatoes to pork in pesos.

Cubans depending on remittances to get them through the month already took a blow last November when a 10 percent commission was introduced on the U.S. dollar. Since then every CUC they buy costs them U.S. $1.10.

Cubans rushed to CADECA to exchange their dollars before the November deadline, changing an estimated $1.2 billion. But some Cubans wary of the chavitos and reluctant to put all their money in the bank have hung on to their U.S. dollars.

So fidel castro, while telling Cubans he will give them more, is, in actuality, taking more.

"We have nothing against citizens who have and receive dollars from abroad," said Soberón. "It's legal and it's normal that people living in other countries want to help their relatives in Cuba. But the possession of dollars," he insisted, "puts Cubans and foreigners in positions of advantage and the Revolution has the moral obligation to seek improvements for all the people."

Soberón claimed that personal income in the United States has gone up 48 percent, so Cuban Americans are able to absorb the 18 percent difference. "If they want their families here to maintain the same standard they can send them more money," he said as TV viewers listened astounded.

This is castro's favotrite ploy when his economy is shot. Play to the Cuban family and get those Cubans living in exile to pay for his shortcomings and his failed revolution. Squeeze his people to the point where they are begging their family members living abroad to send dollars. Then, of course, the revolution, in all it's hypocrisy, takes its cut.

Castro's recent speeches make clear the direction in which he is taking the country. "I find myself increasingly attracted to the ideas of Marx, Lenin and Engel's. Their time is not past," he declared, going on to say he wanted Cubans to be in a position to enjoy a socialist society not measured by how many cars people have but by our potential."

Ah, yes, there's that "potential" comment again.

Let me explain it to you, fidelito, in plain Physics terms. There's potential energy - the energy a body possesses because of its body or shape - and then there's kinetic energy - he energy possessed by a body because of its motion. Potential energy will alway remain just that, potential, unless another body, through its own movement - ie: kinetic energy - engages it and thus transforms said potential energy into kinetic energy.

It's all about progress, fidel. Forward movement.

Kinetic energy.

Hat tip to Jeff Quinton for the article link.

More Elian and Terri parallels

From a friend of Herbert Meyer's:

In each case, the victim is under the legal control of a man who is no longer living with the victim, who in fact has run off with another woman and fathered her children, and who no longer plays an active role in the victim’s life. In Terri’s case, this is her husband. In Elian’s case, it’s his father. Moreover, in each case there are people willing and able to care for the victim – Terri’s parents; Elian’s relatives in Miami. Yet in each case, the man with legal control insists that the victim be harmed – Terri killed, Elian shipped back to Castro’s Cuba. And in each case, the liberals – who never shut up about their concern for the weak and the oppressed – have sided with the creep against the victim.

Read the rest here.

It's OK to break the law as long as youre a liberal.

Otherwise, shut up you fanatic overzealous moral majority religion monger.

From John Fund in today's Opinion Journal:

Selective Restraint

Liberals cheered when Janet Reno defied the courts to seize Elian Gonzalez.

The sad case of Terri Schiavo has raised passions not seen since five years ago. Then another bitterly divided family argued in Florida courts over someone who couldn't speak on his own behalf: Elian Gonzalez.

In both cases, those who were unhappy with the courts' decisions strained to assert the federal government's power to produce a different outcome. The difference is that in Mrs. Schiavo's case, Congress backed off after passing a bill that merely asked a federal court to hear the case from scratch, something that U.S. District Judge James Whittemore declined to do. By contrast, those who wanted the federal government to intervene in Elian Gonzalez's case went all the way, supporting a predawn armed federal raid on the morning before Easter to seize the 6-year-old boy despite a federal appeals court's refusal to order his surrender.

Both cases were marked with hypocrisy and political posturing galore. Both times some conservative Republicans talked about issuing subpoenas to compel the person at the center of the case to appear before Congress; they swiftly backed down when public opinion failed to support their stunt. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, argued that by opposing Elian's return to his father in communist Cuba, conservatives were abandoning the principle that "the state should not supersede the parents' wishes." In the case of Terri Schiavo, many conservatives who normally support spousal rights decided that Michael Schiavo's decision to abandon his marital vows while at the same time refusing to divorce his wife rendered him unfit to override the wishes of his wife's parents to have her cared for.

But liberals have gotten off easy for some of the somersaulting arguments they have made on behalf of judicial independence and states' rights to justify their position that Terri Schiavo should not be saved. Many made the opposite arguments in the Elian Gonzalez case.

Elian was plucked from the ocean off the coast of Florida on Thanksgiving Day 1999. after his mother died in an ill-fated attempt to bring him to freedom. Before he became a political football and Fidel Castro demanded his return, the Immigration and Naturalization Service granted him immigration "parole," which gave him the right to live in the U.S. for one year until his status was determined. Because Elian was underage, his fate would therefore be decided by local family courts. On Dec. 1, the INS issued a statement saying, "Although the INS has no role in the family custody decision process, we have discussed the case with the State of Florida officials who have confirmed that the issue of legal custody must be decided by its state court."

Then the Clinton administration reversed course after protests from the Castro regime reached a fever pitch. On Dec. 9, the INS declared its previous position "a mistake" and said that state courts would not have jurisdiction in Elian's case. They claimed that because Elain was taken directly to a hospital he was therefore never formally paroled into the U.S.--even though he was then turned over to his Miami relatives rather than the INS. "Technically, he was not paroled in the usual sense," said a Justice Department spokesman. But she could come up with no previous case in which a Cuban refugee had had his parole revoked and then had the INS move to return him to Cuba.

But it quickly became clear that was the INS's intent. Over the Christmas holidays the agency dispatched agents to Cuba to interview Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. After the interview, Mr. Gonzalez told reporters the agents and an accompanying U.S. diplomat had assured him Elian would be returned. The Clinton administration disputed those statements, although one of the government officials later privately acknowledged they had been made. Nonetheless, INS bureaucrats in Washington quickly determined that a man who had abandoned Elian and his mom for another woman was a "fit parent" who could "properly care for the child in Cuba." No public consideration was given to the fact that his father, a member of the Communist Party, might have been coerced.

If a state court had been allowed to hear the custody case, INS officials would not have been able to testify as to what Mr. Gonzalez told them to support his claim because it would have been hearsay. He would have had to come to the U.S. to testify on his own, subject to cross-examination. Even if the state court had granted him custody, it would have had to decide whether it was in the child's best interest to be returned to Cuba.

That's what Judge Rosa Rodriguez of Florida Family Court, complying with the original INS ruling, tried to do when she ruled in early January 2000 that her court had jurisdiction over the boy and gave Elian's great-uncle legal authority to represent him. Her order contravened an INS ruling that only Elian's father could speak for the boy and that he should be immediately returned to Cuba. Attorney General Janet Reno than promptly declared that Judge Rodriguez's ruling had "no force or effect." At the same time, INS officials assured reporters that under no circumstances did they intend to seize Elian by force.

The stalemate continued for another three months. On Thursday, April 20, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals--the same court that rejected the pleas of Terri Schiavo's parents last week--turned down the Justice Department's request to order Elian removed from the home of his Miami relatives. Moreover, the court expressed serious doubts about the Justice Department's reading of both the law and its own regulations, adding that Elian had made a "substantial case on the merits" of his claim. It further established a record that Elain, "although a young child, has expressed a wish that he not be returned to Cuba."

The Reno Justice Department acted the next day to short-circuit a legal process that was clearly going against it. On Good Friday evening, after all courts had closed for the day, the department obtained a "search" warrant from a night-duty magistrate who was not familiar with the case, submitting a supporting affidavit that seriously distorted the facts. Armed with that dubious warrant, the INS's helmeted officers, assault rifles at the ready, burst into the home of Elian's relatives and snatched the screaming boy from a bedroom closet. Many local bystanders were tear-gassed even though they did nothing to block the raid. Elian was quickly returned to Cuba; because he was never able to meet with his lawyers a scheduled May 11 asylum hearing on his case in Atlanta became moot.

Of course, there are differences between the Gonzalez and Schiavo cases. But clearly many of the people who approved of dramatic federal intervention to return Elian to Cuba took a completely different tack when it came to the argument over saving Terri Schiavo. Rep. Frank makes a compelling argument that Congress took an extraordinary step when it met in special session to create a procedure whereby the federal courts could decide whether Ms. Schiavo's rights were being violated. He may have a point when he accuses Republicans of "trying to command judicial activism and dictate outcomes when they don't like" rulings. But where were Mr. Frank and other liberals when the Clinton administration decided to sidestep a federal appeals court and order an armed raid against Elian Gonzalez? While Mr. Frank allowed that the use of assault rifles in the Elian raid was "excessive" and "frightening," he also defended the Justice Department's view that "of course [agents] had to use force."

According to some reports, Gov. Jeb Bush considered seizing Mrs. Schiavo, à la Elian, and taking her to a hospital so she could be fed. But he did not do so. "I've consistently said that I can't go beyond what my powers are, and I'm not going to do it," the governor says. Janet Reno and the Clinton administration showed no such restraint when it came to Elian Gonzalez.

What was it called again? Moral rela...what?

Si, claro...

...para la revolucion todo, y para la familia nico.

Photo - aptly titled: "La Familia - Three generations of Cubans living in the same shack. Trinidad. - courtesy of Ana Zangroniz. You can see more of her incredible photographs here.

Easter in Havana

As we peacefully gather for Easter Sunday supper with our families and loved ones, there's a very different kind of Easter happening in Cuba, where Easter Sunday looks like this.

The communist regime obviously is squirming on world opprobrium for its Palm Sunday thuggery. Today, they've held back, but I doubt the Women in White were told. Knowing they could easily be jeered by castro's harpies, the Women in White made a stand anyway.

Easter is for people like them:

Dissidents' wives march for freedom in Cuba

Havana, Mar 27 (EFE).- Some 30 wives of jailed dissidents staged a march here Sunday to demand the release of imprisoned members of the opposition and political change in Cuba.

The women, dressed in white and carrying flowers, attended Mass at Santa Rita Church, in the Miramar neighborhood, and marched peacefully down 5th Avenue, as they have been doing every week since the spring of 2003, when 75 peaceful dissidents were given long prison sentences by the government following a crackdown on the opposition.

The scene, however, was much different from last Sunday, when some 200 members of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) blocked the weekly march by the so-called "Damas en Blanco" (Women in White), chanting pro-government slogans and screaming insults.

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque defended the federation's actions last week, saying that "in Cuba, the streets belong to the revolutionaries." "The street belongs to the revolutionaries. We are revolutionaries, because revolution means change," Marcela Sanchez, wife of dissident Marcelo Lopez, said Sunday.

Marcelo Lopez was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 and released last November for health reasons.

The women responded to Lopez's statement with shouts of "change, change." The lack of problems Sunday "could be an attempt by the government to present this as an act of tolerance as the time for debate in Geneva nears," Gisela Delgado said, referring to the upcoming 61st annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in the Swiss city.

Delgado is the wife of Hector Palacios, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison following the Cuban government's crackdown on the opposition two years ago.

Gisela Delgado was one of the Women in White who met Saturday with European Union Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, the first high-ranking EU official to visit since relations with the island were normalized in January.

Michel "was receptive" to the requests of the dissidents' wives, Gisela Delgado said, although he said "that there was nothing firm in the way of advances on the situation of the prisoners." On March 18, 2003, Cuban authorities began arresting members of the opposition, many of them backers of dissident leader Oswaldo Paya's Varela Project, a democratic initiative now bearing more than 25,000 signatures that was presented to Cuba's National Assembly in 2002.

The Varela Project proposes calling a referendum on amending Cuban laws to introduce freedom of expression and association, amnesty for political prisoners, free elections and more leeway for private enterprise.

At the trials in the spring of 2003, 75 dissidents were given sentences of up to 28 years following speedy convictions on charges of conspiring with the United States, jeopardizing the independence of the state and undermining the principles of the revolution.

The wave of repression elicited harsh international criticism and a mild "hardening" of European Union policy toward the island, a move that sparked a bilateral diplomatic crisis that only came to an end in January.
The Cuban government has so far released only 14 of the jailed dissidents, citing health reasons. EFE mar/hv

Joel P. Brewer

My good friend Ward Brewer's father passed away suddenly yesterday. Please keep the Brewer family in your prayers this Easter Sunday.

Descansa en paz, Sr. Brewer.

Good Friday

The story behind the story.

Many people have expressed their concerns over my safety because I publicly air news items coming from Cuba as well as criticize fidel castro and his ridiculous revolution. You never know what they're capable of they say. Ten cuidado. Be careful. And I must admit, I've found myself a little more aware of my surroundings, a bit cautious, and have increased security of my home, as well as my person, if only to assuage my loved ones. I'm not paranoid, mind you, just careful.

So imagine my thoughts after receiving the following email yesterday:

Buenos dias Val,

My name is (withheld)and I live outside of
(withheld), NY. My father introduced me to your blog a few
months ago, and now we are both faithful readers.
I have a sort of strange favor to ask of you. Right
now, my father, (name withheld), is in Miami
coming back from a camping trip in the Dry Tortugas
Park. He has been trying to get in touch with you, why
exactly I'm not sure, but he just called me this
morning and asked me to email you and give you his
cell phone number so that you could call him.

It is: (number withheld). Please don't worry, my father
is a fellow Cubano, he came over to the States on the
Peter Pan flights in 1962. I'm guessing the reason
that he is trying to communicate with you is because
while he was camping at the Dry Tortugas, 14 Cuban
balseros landed and he was there for the whole thing.
He photographed the event and acted as a translator.

All sorts of caution bells were ringing. I kept hearing my father saying Be careful, Valentin. You never know what el caballo is capable of doing. What if my father and all the others who have told me to be careful were right. What if this guy wants to meet me to do me some harm. What if the guy is one of fidel's infiltrados, one of his moles that he has planted everywhere, especially here in Miami. For a moment I even had the notion that I would meet with the guy, he would knock me out somehow and I would wake up in one of fidel's jails or something. As you can imagine, I really wasnt sure what to do.

I emailed a response saying that I was busy and that I would try to contact the person in the afternoon. I must say that although I was a bit cautious, I really wasn't that concerned because the person also sent me a link to a website that had pictures of Cuba from a recent educational trip and these photos were astounding. (More on those photos a a later date.) But the pictures and the link notwithstanding, I thought it best to err on the side of caution.

I decided not to wait until the afternoon to call the guy. In my mind I was running down a checklist: Use *67 so that he can't see the phone number Im calling from. Meet in a public place. Don't let him know where you are. Don't give too much information...and so on...I felt like I was in some kind of espionage movie. Some kind of Cuban James Bond without the good looks, fancy gadgets and licence to kill.

But I made the call. Introduced myself when the guy answered.

"Coño, Val! Babalú!" the voice over the phone said. "Mucho gusto. Es un placer."

"Gracias gracias," I said. "The pleasure is all mine."

The voice over the phone was cordial and respectful. To me it was no longer the "man" on the phone but the "gentleman" on the phone.

And this gentleman on the phone went on to say how he had found my blog after the Herald article and been reading ever since. He thanked me for my hard work. Said he had told friends about my site.

I thanked him profusely. Mind you, still aware somewhere in the back of my mind that this could all be a ruse. That maybe he was ingratiating himself so that he could toss my ass on a boat back to Cuba.

"I'm an independent journalist," he said. "Used to work for the Herald years ago when I lived in Miami."

"I was in the Dry Tortugas working on a piece on scuba diving," the gentleman continued. "When 14 Cuban refugees washed ashore this past Wednesday. I took a ton of photos."

He went on to tell me about the refugees and their arrival at Fort Jefferson. How they were all practically naked. How they had all arrived and sat calmy at a picnic table. How he wasn't allowed to talk to them until the Park Rangers realized they needed a translator.

"Naturally," he said. "I called my old contacts in the Herald but there wasn't much interest. 14 Cuban refugees washing ashore isnt too newsworthy here, I guess. So I immediately thought of Babalú. Would you be interested in the story and the photographs?"

I was a little taken aback. I mean, here is a perfect stranger from the Northeast who not only reads my blog but has witnessed a story and then gone through the trouble of calling his daughter at home to email me here in Miami so that he could get me to call him so that he could give me the story so I could post it on my blog.

"I would be thrilled," I said. He told me he was driving back up to Miami from Key West at the moment but would be arriving in the city in about an hour. I was still at the office and asked if we could meet in the evening.

"I have a compromiso," he said. A previous engagement. "I came here through Pedro Pan in '62. Tonight I'm meeting two friends who also came through Pedro Pan and were my buddies. We haven't seen each other in forty years."

I think my heart broke right then and there. Not only has this man gone through all this trouble to meet me and give me a great story for my blog but he has practically just gotten off the ferry from Fort Jefferson and in a few hours he will be living what must surely be a very precious moment in his life.

Imagine having been sent to another country as a child and living in an orphanage for years with other kids in the same situation and then forty years later, after having built lives and families and careers and everything else, meeting these boys you left so long ago as grown men. Men with children and grandchildren. Men who have probably lived their lives thinking about those Pedro Pan days and asking themselves "I wonder how so and so is. Que sera de su vida? What kind of a life have they lived?"

However important the story of the refugess arriving at Fort Jefferson was, it seemed almost trivial at the moment. Those 14 refugees risked their lives for freedom and may very well have arrived in a country where they will be free, but somehow it seemed like the beginning of a story.

The real epic is in the lives of these three men who will just now see each other for the first time in 40 years. Their accomplishments. Their heartaches. Their nostalgia. Their lives. Their lives! How many times in these forty years have these men thought about those kids that were like brothers in that orphanage? How do they picture their long lost friends in their minds despite having possibly spoken over the phone many times? Who do they see when they hear their adult voices? Do they imagine an old man whose face they cant really make out or do they still picture them as a smiling kid in that old black and white photograph they all kept as the one tangible reminder of those days?

Later on in the afternoon I called him back. Told him I was off of work and asked if we could meet somewhere.

"I'm at a photo shop making you a cd of the pictures I took of the refugees," he said. I told him I could be there in a few minutes. He said he would be either at the picture place or the cafeteria next door. "I havent had time to eat anything all day." he said.

I was still a bit wary about meeting with this man despite our conversations over the phone and the fact that he was gracious and cordial and for all intents and purposes seemed on the level. Ten cuidado, Valentin, my dad's voice mulled over in my mind.

I arrived at the photo shop and he wasn't there so I walked a few doors down and walked into the cafeteria. I recognized him immediately. There he was finishing his cafecito, tanned, dressed in a pair of shorts and a tshirt just like anyone who had just gotten off a boat from a dive trip and driven for hours.

He looked at me, I looked at him. "Julio?"

"Val? You recognized me!"

"I saw the tan," I reponded. We shook hands both echoing "Encantado" at the same time. His white hair and beard contrasted against his tanned skin. He had kind eyes.

We made our way to the photo shop and chatted. About the blog, about the refugees, about the pictures, about the postcards he bought for the refugees to send word to their families, about the dive trip, about politics, about Cuba, about ourselves and our families. We stood for what must have been a good ten minutes talking like long lost friends in front of the photo studio people. Just a couple of guys that hadnt seen each other in a while covering every topic imaginable in front of perfect strangers.

I asked him if he would write something to accompany the pictures he'd just handed me in a cd. "I would be honored," I said.

He agreed. And perhaps recognizing that the story of the refugees couldnt wait, that perhaps there were some family members here that were sitting intently in front of the TV waiting for news of their family, and that there really was no better moment than the present to write that story he asked "Is there someplace we can go to write this right now?"

That's how it came to be that, despite everyone's concern for my well being and my father's Ten Cuidado, Valentin's, I invited a perfect stranger into my office and onto my computer to write onto my blog a story that he had just been a part of and that we both understood needed to be written.

And we continued to chat like old friends. Telling each other about our lives, reminiscing about family and friends and hearing each others thoughts about Cuba with winsome and with an understated sadness. I don't know how many times we looked at each other through watery eyes.

I sat there and watched this man, who not more than an hour prior had been a perfect stranger save for the words written on this blog, write a beautiful and touching piece about a moment in time that as a man he would probably never forget, but as a Cuban he probably felt he was destined to experience. He wrote the article about the 14 refugees landing on the Dry Tortugas with vigor. Vibrant. As if the words themselves had risked it all to find their freedom on the page.

And when he was done I think neither of us wanted that moment to end. We chatted some more, made our way to our cars and both probably realized that this experience, this small slice of our lives born out of pure coincidence was something we could never forget.

After more than a few minutes of our trying to prolong our solidarity, standing there, by our cars, I extended my hand. "Come on, Julio. You're just stalling now. Don't you have some old friends to meet?"

With that we shook hands, embraced like brothers and went our separate ways.

And all of this on Good Friday.

Viernes Santo

14 Cuban Refugees Arrive at the Dry Tortugas
by Julio C. Zangroniz

Last Wednesday morning, March 23, just as the sun began to crawl over the horizon and light up the Dry Tortugas –the tiny group of Florida islands about 70 miles west of Key West— those placid grounds normally occupied by campers and vacationers became alive with excitement.

Did you see them… did you see the Cubans? nearly yelled one camper to another as he ran from camp to camp.

A group of 14 Cuban refugees, 13 men and one woman, had walked quietly into the grounds surrounding historic Fort Jefferson, then sat meekly at a picnic table, just as if they were just another group of tourists exploring the remote outpost.

Only four days before, on Saturday, another group totaling about a dozen Cubans seeking freedom had landed there. The second group, confirmed one of the rangers later, puts the number of Cuban refugees arriving at the Dry Tortugas at close to 250. Last year, some 450 made it to freedom there.

The park volunteer ran to notify one of the rangers, a female, who ordered someone to bring a couple of jugs of water and a stack of Styrofoam cups to distribute the precious liquid to the eager customers.

When the ranger noticed a visiting journalist snapping photographs of the group, she came over to warn him about “park regulations concerning the commercial use of photographs taken here.” The journalist assured her that he was visiting the fort at the express invitation of the top representatives of the National Park Service there, and that he would make sure to comply with any and all regulations. But in the meantime, he asserted that he would continue to fulfill his journalistic duties.

Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos, the journalist told the group, choking back some tears. Had there not been a park ranger closely watching the situation, it’s easy to see how there would have been a lot of hugging. It’s a Cuban thing, you know.

The journalist pointed out to the ranger: “It looks like you need help to communicate with these people.” That would be wonderful, she agreed, because none of the refugees spoke English, or maybe didn’t want to admit to it, and none of the park personnel spoke Spanish –hard to believe, considering that it is one of the closest points in the United States closest to Cuba, even closer than Key West.

The ranger wanted to know when the group had left Cuba. Sunday at midnight, a few of them replied, almost in unison.

Did they have a boat? Yes, they said. It was on the opposite shore of Long Key, where they ran aground, only a few hundred yards from the front gate of the historic brick building known as Fort Jefferson.

Did their boat have a motor? Again, yes. One of the members of the group elaborated: “The motor broke down when we were about 24 miles from Cuba, so we had to row for a while. Then we got it to work again, but it broke down a second time and we had to finish the trip by manning the oars.”

Where did they leave from, asked the ranger. We left from Playa Herradura, near the port of Mariel.

And they had landed on U.S. soil on Wednesday at about 6 AM, after nearly 54 hours at sea.

The group said they hadn’t eaten since they left Cuba, and of course they were tremendously thirsty, as evidenced by the way they approached the two jugs of water sitting on the picnic table in front of them. Though the rangers could provide drinking water, they had little else to offer the men and the one woman, who one of the members of the group called “our lucky charm.”

A few minutes later, the ranger warned some bystanders who had come from the camping area that some armed park rangers would arrive soon, to try keep the group of refugees under control, as well as to carry out an individual search, for weapons or drugs.

In reality, there was little chance the members of the group --who sat peacefully at two picnic tables—could hide anything, because most of them wore only swimming trunks or underwear. When they got out of their boat, one said, they had removed their clothes because they were contamined with diesel fuel. Only three of the new arrivals had anything that covered their upper body: the lone woman, a 21 year old, had a dress; one of them men had a dark blue windbreaker and a third one sported a yellow and black sleeveless t-shirt.
Others had lycra bathing suits and none had shoes. If they did, all footwear must have been abandoned with the boat. At least one of the men had a red baseball cap, another one a Miami Dolphins cap, and a third one had brought along a greenish ski cap. None of the refugees had a complete change of clothes.

When the two armed guards arrived at the picnic table, one stood about 10 yards away, holding an M-16 rifle, which he mercifully kept pointed at the ground. The second guard handed a single-barreled shotgun to another park employee and put on rubber gloves.

“Ask them to stand up one at a time and to go over to the officer near the table,” requested the guard with the gun. The refugees did so and each was patted down. The process went rather quickly, because there was hardly any hiding places, though it took some time to open up some of the small pouches most of the Cubans had brought with them. Most of the little containers held some cash –U.S. dollars, not Cuban currency—and a few had religious items. Two men admitted to have lost all their documents during the crossing.

One of the members of the group, Narciso Orioso Montalvo, 40, told the news reporter to inform the park ranger searching him that he had “some religious items” in his small pouch, which he had sewn shut to protect it while at sea. His prized possession: a small necklace of seashells. Another member of the group wore about half a dozen beaded necklaces, all very colorful, indicative of his Santeria beliefs.

Once the search was completed, the 14 were instructed to form a single line and to follow the guard with the shotgun into the fort. They did so and they were led into a small room in the innards of the huge brick fortress, where there was a bed, a sofa, a small table and some plastic chairs. Additional chairs were brought in so everyone could have a place to sit.

The one guard remaining in the room pointed to a closed door and said: “This is a bathroom, which you can use at any time.” Almost immediately, one of the men jumped up and virtually ran into the room. “I’m going to take a shower right now,” he declared, laughing. When the guard heard a translation of the comment, he told the translator to knock on the door and instruct the man NOT to take a shower, because fresh water is strictly limited in the fort –they only have whatever rain water they can catch and store in some underground cisterns, as well as a smaller amount made by a desalinization process. The Cuban, regretfully, sheepishly stepped away from the shower.

A number of the refugees asked that the ceiling fan be turned down, or off altogether, because they were getting extremely cold, so it was done. Soon after, yet another park ranger showed up with a huge box of clothes. Tell them these are for them, so they can feel more protected.

The group practically tore the box apart and soon each one was totally outfitted.
The members of the group of Cubans are as follows:

--Elida Bello Peraza, 21
--Lenier Corcho Perez, 21
--Moikel Corcho Perez, 21
--Adonis Danier Diaz Valdez, 27
--Jordan Perez Tirado, 21
--Giorlis Rodriguez Guzman, 29
--Driser Chirino Alonzo, 27
--Abel Martinez Martinez, 27
--Carlos Alberto Betancour Hernandez, 35
--Juan Carlos Garcia Delboys, 41
--Evaristo Martinez Bremer, 36
--Leonardo Torrez Pimienta, 39
--Narsiso Ariosa Gonzalez, 40
--Richar Valdez Rodriguez, 25

The park supervisor said that the Coast Guard had been notified already. The usual procedure is for the Guard to send a ship from Key West and transport any refugees back to the Keys, where they are processed and then forwarded to the refugee camp at Krome Avenue, in South Florida.

The NPS must, given its limited resources, move any refugees out of their facilities, so the new arrivals won’t impede with the normal activities of the park –particularly one with such limited facilities like the Dry Tortugas National Park.

The NPS efforts did not go unnoticed by the refugees. “Tell them we thank them for everything they did for us,” one of the men said to the reporter-translator.

On Wednesday, however, the Coast Guard did not have a boat available. Instead, the agency sent two armed escorts, who with a third armed park ranger, took the 13 men and one woman to Key West on a special boat that usually makes the crossing from the Dry Tortugas twice a week for the National Park Service.

As the ship left the dock, one of the refugees, peeking from the lower rear edge of the blue tarp rigged to protect them from the sun during the three-hour crossing, gave the reporter and those at the dock the thumbs up sign.

Welcome to America. Que país!

(Ed.: Editorial forthcoming. You won't be disappointed.)

No phone for you!

Every time I hear some fidel loving cultists state that the majority of Cubans on the island love fidel and are behind their government 100% I want to scream. In Cuba, if you want to be afforded things that will make your life easier - things that the rest of the world pretty much takes for granted - such as a telephone or a job or a home, you absolutely must state with no uncertain terms that you suport fidel castro and the revolution completely.

It's kind of like the schoolyard bully that takes the best part of your lunch everyday through duress and then pins you on the floor and makes you scream "Uncle! Uncle!" before he lets you keep the veggies your mom always packs but you hate to eat.

SANTA CLARA, Cuba,March 24 (Karel Castillo, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - An employee of the state-run Cubapetroleo Company (CUPET) was denied the installation of a telephone in his home because he failed to participate in activities of the Commitees for the Defense of the Revolution, known popularly as bloc committees.

Julio Cabrera Rodríguez, 41, was the subject of an investigation last weekend by the block committee in the area where he resides with his parents, both over 75 and suffering from various ailments.

A committee team told Cabrera Rodríguez did not meet the requirements for a telephone, leaving with him the impression that this meant he should was being punished for not participating in committee activities.

Tira la piedra, esconde la mano.

Throw the rock, hide the hand.

The extent to which the castro regime will go stifle those with the cojones to speak the truth about their lives is beyond the absurd:

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 24 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - An independent journalist who called authorities when she discovered a bloody machete in the entrance to her home was later accused by police of of stealing and butchering a cow.

María Elena Alpízar Ariosa did not enter the home last week in the municipality of Placetas but went instead to a public telephone where she called police.

She was joined at her home by fellow dissidents Bertha Antúnez Pernet, Amado Ruiz Moreno and Alejandro García Sardinas.

When no one else showed up, they went to the local unit of the National Revolutionary Police, where a captain named Julio said he was unaware of any complaint.

Bertha Antúnez then called Major Rubén Álvarez, who said he would order an investigation. When they returned to the journalist's home, José Ramón Valdés of the revolutionary police entered the residence. He accused Alpízar Ariosa of stealing a cow and butchering it.

If the corruption and the stifling of dissent is prevalent even at the local government level, how can anyone truly believe that there could be any honest dialogue with anyone in the castro regime?

castro's Pollution

Fresh Bilge reports that haze from castro's pollution is beginning to cover southern Florida. Seablogger Alan Sullivan writes:

It's part of a larger environmental tragedy afflicting the tropics worldwide. The principal cause is not overpopulation or poverty but culture and misgovernment. Slash and burn agricultural practices, irresponsible logging, unchecked industrial discharges all take place in a context of public ignorance and weak, corrupt, or incompetent government.

Could this be castro the Kyoto scold? I thought we were told castro was so close to nature!

Great unexplored issue. Somebody send castro a bill.

A sure sign of the apocolypse

IN DC Journal's Bill Ardolino and Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein partnering up to host a web broadcast.

Oh. Dear. Lord.

I hope you all have your bunker pantries stacked with non-perishables and plenty of drinking water 'cause the end is near, folks.....Very near...

Cuba Nostalgia Update (Updated)

You'll notice that I have added a link on the sidebar to the Cuba Nostalgia Convention. I met with the organizers yesterday to iron out some of the details of my exhibition space and toss around some ideas and I decided that it's probably time to start giving updates as to the whole process.

I was pretty much given carte blanche as to the actual size and layout of the space. I can have up to a 30'x30" area - 900 sq. feet! - to use as I see fit. I'm presently working on designing the layout, both the form and function aspects. I dont want too large a space nor do I want folks visiting the booth to feel cramped. Even though I work architecture for a living, this design is not an easy task. Too many factors. Portablility, ease of movement, practicality, well themed, aesthetic and adaptability to computer and tech needs. Basically, I need a great, cool looking, techonolgically advanced set design. No es facil.

What worries me the most is the computers and the internet connections. What good would blogging from a big booth at a huge convention be if I cant get people to participate? Ideally I would like to have at least 10 computers - laptops - set up. One for myself to live blog the event, one or two set up specifically to have folks stop by and email fidel castro their thoughts and the rest for participatory blogging. I really want to show to the attendees how they can access news and information on Cuba - or anything - instantly through blogs.

I've contacted several computer manufacturers with the hope of getting them to sponsor the computer aspects of the exhibit. I cant possibly purchase 10 laptops and I dont know how feasible it would be to ask for a sponsor other than a tech company to provide the funds for these. I've yet to get a response from any of the pc makers I contacted. Ill probably wait another week or so and then look into other means of obtaining the laptops.

Im thinking of setting up a separate blog specifically for Cuba Nostalgia where I can have people write their own entries and posts telling stories about what Cuba means to them and how they lived before exiling to the states. There's nothing like the look on an old Cuban when he or she is telling a story of the old days. They are simply vibrant in their expressions. Their eyes are always so full of life when they recall their island days. Of course, this is generally true of most older folks when the recall their youth, but it seems a bit different when it comes to Cuba. As if not only the youth is gone but something else. The culture maybe, the way of life. Something was stolen from them taht they'll never get back.No se.

It's you guys reading this that have made all of this possible. Without you Babalú would be just another webpage with a bunch of unread stories and rantings. I'm eager to hear any suggestions you may have about our Cuba Nostalgia Convention blogging. How do I get more folks interested? How to get people to actually come into the exhibit space? How do I set up the space? How do I procure laptops? What's the best internet connection for a bunch of pc's? What should the booth look like? Should I sell a few tshirts and if so which ones? What on Earth do I wear?

Come on people, help me out here! Im losing it.

Update: Reader Tati suggest a web cam set up so that those that arent in Miami can experience the convention. Sounds like a great idea!!! Ill get the Babalú tech support team working on that right away. Gracias tati!

Plus, Sheila of Piquant has graciously offered web design expertise and hosting for the Cuba Nostalgia blog!!! Thanks sooooo much Sheila!!!

Update II: Also, the organizers suggested that along with the banner with the Babalú eyes I come up with some catchy slogans to attract patrons to the exhibit. I know you guys out there are perfectly capable and more than willing to come up with some doozies, so let me have'em.

Re-Update: Rhianna of A Texan Abroad suggests the following:

I keep getting this idea of 'hands on' as well as 'hands on blogging'. I'm not sure it would be easy for you, but sometimes getting 'stuck in' as they say in the UK is the method that keeps the impression best.

Might I also suggest one of the laptops set up with links to the other blogs you read about Cuba, and the news sites you quote? Some flyers with all their addresses, for the visitors to take home, would also help to get the word out.

Excatly, Rhianna. What I plan on doing is not only showing people at the convention what blogs are and how to manuever them, but I will be pestering every single blogger on my blogroll and others to write something specifically about Cuba at least once per day for those three days.

And you all thought it was going to be easy, huh?

Cuba and the UN

Like a domestic call on COPS with a restraining order and everything.

I deleted a comment from one of those useful idiot types that comes here to spew castro's rhetorical venom - despite being banned numerous times (Note to Matthew: If someone throws you out of their house, chances are they dont want you back again.). But there is one point of his party-line comment that I want to address here quickly.

He mentioned that the US could not get at least one Latin American country to denounce the castro regime for its record on human rights. And that may be so. The region is rife with instability right now. Starting with chavez, FARC, and the goings on in Bolivia and castro's dream of exporting his revolution. And I wont even mention the cesspool of anti-American sentiment proliferating there from the uninformed and dare I say the envious.

Funny, but why is it that people from all of these countries mentioned above - and others in the region - are always trying to emmigrate TO the US?

But that's neither here nor there.

Here's a report from the Guardian regarding the UN Human Rights Commision, Cuba and reality:

U.N. Expert Rejects Cuba's Accusations

Thursday March 24, 2005 12:31 AM

By JONATHAN FOWLER

Associated Press Writer

GENEVA (AP) - A top U.N. investigator clashed with Cuban officials Wednesday over her report criticizing human rights conditions on the communist-ruled island.

Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mora Godoy told the U.N. Human Rights Commission that Christine Chanet was playing into the hands of the U.S. campaign against Havana.

But Chanet, a French legal expert, slammed Cuban authorities from banning her from the country, making it ``almost impossible'' to prepare balanced report.

The clash occurred when Chanet presented her report on human rights in Cuba to the 53-nation commission, which is part-way through its annual six-week session. The commission is the world body's top human rights watchdog.

Cuba has never allowed a U.N. human rights envoy to visit the island, claiming such visits could infringe on its sovereignty. Chanet prepared her report based on meetings with campaigners, human-rights investigators and other governments.

``This report, based on lies and slander, only serves as a platform for the anti-Cuban campaign of the government of the United States, which is completely immoral,'' Godoy told the commission.

He said the United States had been waging a campaign of ``aggression and manipulation'' against Cuba for the past 45 years.

In her report, Chanet noted that Cuba's release of 18 political prisoners last year was a positive step, but did ``not signify the end of the repression'' because other political detainees were still behind bars.

The report said Cuban authorities arrested people in 2004 for expressing anti-government opinions, working with international human rights organizations and participating in associations or academic groups deemed counterrevolutionary.

She urged Havana to improve its treatment of political prisoners, who often receive poor food, hygiene and medical treatment, the report said.

Chanet also said Cuba should stop penalizing journalists, academics and activists for acts of free expression. But she gave good grades to the country's health care, education system and level of gender equality in employment.

The United States has had economic sanctions against Cuba since President John F. Kennedy imposed them in 1963, four years after Fidel Castro came to power.

fidel castro's goons slam Chanet, stating her report is based on lies and slander, but doesnt allow Chanet or other UN representatives to enter the island to conduct the investigation to actually prepare the report.

Why doesnt the castro regime allow UN inspectors in if he's got nothing to hide? If one is to believe that Cuba is in fact the paradise of humanity that castro, chavez and all the other leftists baffoons claim her to be then why cant the system stand up to a little scrutiny?

We all know why.

Cuba's Children

Can you IMAGINE growing up in a tyranny you wouldn't send your worst enemy to? That's right, you are a little kid and you are also in castro's communist Cuba. It's kind of unthinkable.

You wouldn't be exposed to freedom, your "apartment" would be a health hazard, you'd know all about ration cards, your odds of being from a broken home would be high, you'd eat inferior food, you'd know what the black market was, you wouldn't be allowed to go to church, you'd learn early to keep your mouth shut, you'd be taught that snitching is your 'revolutionary duty,' your 'education' would be communist parroting, you wouldn't be allowed to pick out your own books, and you'd never experience the trust and freedom and friendship that all little children need to become well-adjusted, thinking people when they grow up. You wouldn't get that.

What's more, if you ever wanted to change that, or your mother or father did, you'd be subject to one of the most dangerous high-sea voyages in a rickety raft known in the world today. You might make it to freedom (where you'd learn all about safety standards! Like child seats in your car - ironies!). Or you might meet a watery grave. You wouldn't know until you try. And you must try.

There are thousands of children who experience this environment - Little Elian and all his little friends are just a few of them. What indeed must that young boy dream about when he looks over the ocean now?

Today, Florida's Hispanic Legislative Caucus, a group of state lawmakers in Tallahassee, to its credit, is holding a Free Cuba Day with many Cuban-Americans coming to the capitol for a day of events explicitly to remember these forgotten children. Anyone who's in the vicinity ought to check it out, make an appearance, be a witness. This will put legislators on notice that this is important.

Orlando Sentinel has the scoop here.

And if you need more details, the program is here.

Conviction

Cuban dissident Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses to the Brigade 2506 members and US congressmen via telephone:

...(the government of Fidel Castro) ``has never been as weak as it is now.''

''If it weren't for the 53,000 barrels of oil that Hugo Chávez sends every day to Cuba, it would be over. You can be sure that we won't betray the confidence which Cubans have placed in us.''

Read the whole thing.

Elian Gonzalez back in the news.

No, he wasnt posing for photos with fidel. This time little Elian is used a precedent for Terri Schiavo's case.

Way to go, Bill and Janet!!!

/sarcasm

Because Doctors grow on trees in Cuba...

The castro regime can afford to beat and incarcerate MD's who voice dissent:

HAVANA, March 22 (José Antonio Fornaris, Cuba Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - Four men, allegedly led by the first secretary of a local branch of the Communist Party, forced their way into the home of dissident medical doctor Darsi Ferrer and beat him up.

Ferrer, who represents the Juan Bruno Zayas Health and Human Rights Center, showed his right hand, which he said suffered a inch-long gash from a knife wielded by one of the intruders.

"They beat me as soon as they arrived," Ferrer said in an interview. "They wanted to destroy the photos of political prisoners that I have on the wall. I suffered the cut hand when I defended myself."

Ferrer told of the attack during a meeting at his home this week to honor six imprisoned medical doctors: Marcelo Cano Rodríguez, Oscar Elías Biscet González, Luis Milián Fernández, José Luis García Paneque, Alfredo Pulido López and Ricardo Silva Gual. At least 20 persons, between members of the opposition and independent journalists, were on hand for the homage.

'The intruders grabbed me by the neck and told me they were going to kill me," Ferrer said. "After what happened, I fear I could be killed at any moment."

The Juan Bruno Zayas Health and Human Rights Center is a new dissident organization.

Oh, yeah. It's all about the healthcare.

Rather, Craig, Elian, fidel, and a partridge in a pear tree

Provided for your commentary. From (Human Events Online).

Rather Interview Staged

Posted Mar 22, 2005

Could Dan Rather be in trouble again? A new book on Castro tells of a staged Dan Rather interview that was master-minded by a Clinton lawyer.

In Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, author Humberto Fontova reveals for the first time how Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" interview with Juan Miguel (Elian Gonzalez's father) was stage-managed by former Clinton lawyer and friend, Gregory Craig.

According to a Cuban-American translator from the U.S. Treasury Department: "The questions for Juan Miguel were actually fed to Dan Rather by Gregory Craig. After a taping session, Craig would call Dan over, give him some more instructions and exchange papers with him. Then Dan would come back on the set and ask those."

The book reports that during the interview Craig acted like the movie director and even got a bona fide dramatic actor to translate and mouth the responses of Miguel.

Once again, Rather's "reporting" is nothing but elaborate deception.

Nice, eh? The unbiased and fair press. I don't want to dredge up the Elian mess again, but this is just one more teaspoon of salt in that painful wound. And what kills me is that Rather still has a job at CBS, and his producers were canned!

Welcome Truckanauts!!! (Updated)

They made it, three tries, and they made it! The Cuban people who first riveted the world with their truck-bound voyage on the high seas to Florida, only to be turned back twice, have really made it at last. Through snakes and sharks and bugs and saltwater, through jungle and desert and thugs, bureaucrats, oceans, secret police, mountains, and borders. This has had to be the longest hardest journey to America ever recorded. And given their optimism, their determination and their obstacles, who thinks they won't be a blazing success in this country? Nothing is going to stop them. God Bless America, and God Bless these Truckanauts. They're where they belong now. They're home!

Update: Chrenkoff, from Down Under, also marvels at the Truckanauts.

Che-avez

Bad Hair Blog wants to know if we should expect Hugo Chavez to be the next "market the revolution" poster boy after Che.

The paleoliberal establishment has its heroes. fidel. Che. And now Hugo. Fresh from this morning's El Herald:

Academics, social scientists, college students, Catholic and Protestant clergy, social activists and anti-globalists, are currently members of the most prestigious group of supporters of the so-called Bolivaran revolution in the United States, a network that conveys access to podiums of the most prestigious American intellectual and traditionally leftist forums.

That the revolutionaries target the intelligentsia is nothing new. It's the modus operandi straight out of castro's "The Smart One's Ain't So Smart: How To Convince Intellectuals That the Sky Is In Fact Red" book. Play to the idealisim found on college campuses and get them to back you, then when things go awry blame the US.

Some Venezuelan intellectuals arent fooled, however, as Daniel of Venezuelan News and Views points out:

The Forum Venezuela at Harvard University is pleased to invite you to their first Spring Conference:

"The State of Venezuelan Democracy and the Rule of Law after the Recall Referendum: Sliding towards Authoritarian Rule?"

by:Ana Julia Jatar

Where : Land Lecture Hall, 4th Floor Belfer Building,
Kennedy School of Governement, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA
When : Wednesday, March 23th. Hour: 6:00pm

Humberto Fontova on Fox (Updated)

Cuban-American author and friend Humberto Fontova is scheduled to be on the O'Reilly Factor tonight to discuss his new book "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant." I'm told O'Reilly was trying to line up some fidel loving Hollywood celebs to debate Humberto on his show.

Make sure to tune in and watch Humberto take it to the Oliver Stones, Danny Glovers, Katie Courics, etal. for their support of the Western hemisphere's worst human rights abuser in history.

Gracias, Humberto. Kick ass, take names.

Update: My wife was in the kitchen making dinner while I was in the living room watching O'Reilly waiting for Humberto Fontova's piece when the gentleman whose daughter was killed by an illegal alien in Texas comes on. He talked for a few seconds and I hear the Mrs say "Hmm. Ese es Cubano."

She was right.

Two Cuban-Americans back to back on O'Reilly. Gotta love it.

Oh, and Humberto, te la comistes mi hermano. Great job of exposing those Hollywood hypocrites on national TV. Beers are on me.

Thanks, suckers...

That would be you, eurotrash, sucking up to me, el barbudo, not because you stood for anything, but because you wanted to get back at those gringos. See, I know how to play you like a bongo. Being a haughty Spanish plantation grandee's son who can't even dance, I can't exactly play real bongos, either ... but I sure can play you.

So now I show my 'gratitude' to you fools for giving me the diplomatic recognition I sought by thumping you right in the cojones. You're so easy to gull, all I had to do was release a couple dissidents from my dungeons, and you thought you had your proof that I had 'changed.' You girly-men.

Today I had my Future Parks Keeper, err, Foreign Minister, (pathetic little man, I'll make him dogcatcher if he doesn't 'arf' just right) declare you 'disgraceful' for daring to bring up my abysmal human rights record. I made him say you Europeans 'automatically' sided with the U.S., just to lump you in with those godawful cowboys. This'll be enough to neuter you for awhile, and I'll snicker at your next move, which will be to appease me even more.

Then, to twist the machete a little, I had him say this:

"The European Union can't talk with Cuba, on the one hand, and vote with the United States, on the other. That will make (Europe) lose credibility," he asserted.

Heh heh. See? It's either-or. Or as the gringos warned, you can't negotiate with me, you can only take orders. Nice to discover, after the fact, no? And this, before you and I have had so much as a chance to kiss on the lips for the Yahoo! News photo slideshow. That's what you get. But don't think I didn't see how you smiled earlier when the gringos shreiked about your recognition of me. You had your fun. Now I'm having mine. Every pleasure has its price. And there's gonna be a whole cigar-box more of it coming along because I know you guys. You signed away your souls, ignoring the warning of Vaclav Havel, who told you not to do it. And now you can't back away. You're not man enough. So now you get me, suckers, and I intend to abuse you every step of the way. You'll have to go along. But you know you like it.

signed,
fidel

Mondays SUCK

I've been up to my ears with work and preparations for the Cuba Nostalgia Convention, so obviously blogging has been and will be a bit light today and possibly the rest of the week.

In the meantime, you can read about my leaf blower.

Gusanas

Female worms. That's the official government connotation for the Ladies in White - mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of imprisoned dissidents in Cuba.

Every Sunday, despite the consequences and possible retribution from castro's regime, these women march in peaceful protest of the incarceration of their loved ones and their inhuman treatment by the hand of their jailers.

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, fidel castro launched an organized counter-protest against these women. Paxety Pages has the details.

All I can say is that I commend the Ladies in White for their strength and their courage to voice opposition in a country where only one official voice is allowed.

No net for you.

I wonder why the castro government would have a problem with someone using their 100% literacy:

HAVANA, March 18 (Roberto Santana Rodríguez / www.cubanet.org) - Two dissidents were stopped last week by police officers after leaving the U.S. Interests Section where they had surfed the Interet.

Ibrahim Pina Borges of the Nacional Christian Alliance said a police captain asked to see his identity card. Pina Borjes told the officer that this violated his human rights, but the agent replied he was just following orders.

Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, the Havana South delegate of the Marti Current, said two officers asked for his identity papers, which he refused to produce. When asked what he was doing at the Interests Section, he said he was studying journalism.

Oh, Canada...

Canadian chef Jamie Kennedy "brings a bit of Canada to the island country" by preparng a culinary feast for patrons of Club Havana, a "private seaside spot that looks like the tropical twin of Toronto's Sunnyside Pavilion."

How wonderful. A full course meal served to Europeans and Canadians - each paying $200 a plate - while just down the street somewhere there's a line for bread and a handful of beans.

Just look at this menu:

Hors d'oeuvres

Pan-Canadian oysters on the shell

Canadian caviar with crème fraîche on wild-rice blinis

Wild mushroom strudel

Bloody Caesar gazpacho with lobster and clams

Mains

Surf and turf of wild caribou marinated in blueberries and baco noir wine with wild Coho salmon in a rye whisky and maple syrup sauce

Pear and Quebec Benedictine cheese sandwich served on black walnut bread

Dessert

Warm chocolate cake with Ontario fruits preserved in Newfoundland screech

And I'm sure none of those Omnipotent Tourist Europeans and Canadians had any trouble whatsoever indulging in such a fantastic meal while the natives of their quaint little vacation island eat vulture instead of turkey, soy instead of hamburger and their children drink powdered milk.

How lovely. And some Americans rant and rave about being able to travel freely to Cuba and rub elbows with these morally abject jerks?

If I hear one more fucking Canadian or European criticize the US trade embargo I am going to fucking scream.

fidel, can you say "blogs"?

It's no wonder why fidel castro limits and sometimes forbids his people from using the internet. The only way he can stay in power is through the ignorance of his people to what the outside world really is. The more news and information the Cuban people are exposed to, the more they see just what a failure his self heralded revolution really is.

In Cuba there are no blogs. None. Not one. Ni uno. Allowing blogs by Cubans would mean the end of fidel castro's reign. There are no opinions or beliefs in Cuba save for the official ones.

Take the Cuban Mythology entry I posted about castro's vaunted healthcare. Had I been a Cuban blogger living in Cuba and had the intestinal fortitude to post those pictures of that disgustingly maintained hospital, I would either be running scared, hiding or already serving a maximum sentence in a gulag.

Luckily, I am not in Cuba and fidel castro cant control what I do or say. I am a Cuban-American blogger with freedom to think for myself and freedom to express those thoughts however I see fit. Gracias, Tio Sam.

Blogs are a powerful thing. Right now, the photos in the Cuban Mythology post and its associated links have been seen by thousands upon thousands of people around the world. And all of those people have been exposed to the truth about Cuba's "free universal healthcare." Information gleaned through blogs spreads like wildfire. It really is a huge, world wide spiderweb.

Below are blogs that linked to the Cuban Mythology post:

I'm sure there are quite a few more blogs that I have missed (if so, please drop me a line and let me know). There were also numerous links from web discussion forums all around the world.

And that's the beauty of this whole blogging business. Information and opinion and debate as easy as one-two-three. Right at your fingertips and fast as lighting.

I know for a fact that Babalu is read by some in Cuba. Some with good intentions and others not so good. To those in the latter I can only say this: You are being exposed. The world is opening their eyes to your travesty.

No es un bloqueo, fidelito. Es un blogueo, con 'g', y este no tiene que esperar 46 años para tener efecto.

(Thanks you to all of those bloggers mentioned above as well as everyone of you that read the posts and every one of you the commented. Gracias.)

El Diamante Negro

Sin comentario:

My brother dreamed of a free country

BY BERTHA ANTUNEZ PERNET

PLACETAS, Cuba -- On March 15, 1990, the Cuban regime incarcerated one of the island's best sons for the sole crime of living in liberty and democracy. It all began when my brother, Jorge Luis ''Antúnez'' García Pérez expressed his ideas in a public plaza. In our country, this constitutes a crime that is punished with prison time -- plus ill treatment and abuses committed with equal impunity.

Jorge Luis has since been a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience. This week, he completed 15 years of a 17-year sentence. He has endured beatings, punishment cells, sealed cells, hunger, the lack of medical and religious assistance and being forced to sleep on the cold, humid floor.

During this time in prison, he has been exiled for more than 10 years from his beloved native province.

Jorge Luis had a dream of being an athlete. Instead, he has suffered through beatings that shattered his youthful health. By age 21, he had turned into an adult riddled with chronic illnesses that will accompany him for the rest of his life. He wanted to be a martial artist, and prison guards used him as practice for different martial-arts techniques, even while he was handcuffed.

Jorge Luis dreamt of being a lawyer. Yet while in prison he has been subjected to the most merciless laws and repressive attacks against his individual liberty. In exchange, he learned how a man is treated when he dares to think differently in a totalitarian society. He learned nothing to become a lawyer, only how to develop defensive reflexes.

Jorge Luis had a dream of a free country. But he has had to live these past 15 years in prison, knowing that his family and compatriots, too, are serving their own sentences in a larger prison on the outside. He has traveled the entire island from prison to prison. He has known first hand each method and form of inhuman treatment practiced in each place he has been imprisoned, yet he has always tried to create an atmosphere of internal liberty that is so necessary when external liberty is lacking.

Other prisoners have understood him, cared for him and have chosen him as a leader who provides them the necessary elements for a different way of thinking. Because of all this, prison authorities have continued to beat and relocate him. That's when he begins anew to demonstrate the real nature of freedom to those who do not know the true essence of what it is to be free.

Jorge Luis has not been able to be a lawyer or an athlete. Little by little, however, he has been able to achieve the foundations of a free country. Through all the places he has passed, he has brought together groups of men of noble ideas who have formed an organization that morally distinguishes itself as the political-prisoners' Pedro Luis Boitel Association. This is a movement that unites the families of political prisoners, that is present before each injustice committed against a prisoner -- wherever it may be, under whatever conditions, political or not, as long as a human-rights violation is being committed.

Jorge Luis' dream has not been completely snatched despite all the measures used by the regime intent on silencing his voice. The Black Diamond, as my brother is known in the prisons, is there. He maintains his defiance and cannot be silenced. He is recognized by people of goodwill worldwide who have acknowledged his values and have given him international awards for his work defending human rights.

Jorge Luis' fundamental motto is, ``Do more for the prisoners because they need help, otherwise they will have no one to advocate for them, and one day the homeland will be free.''

Bertha Antúnez Pernet is sister of Cuban political prisoner and prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis ''Antúnez'' García Pérez.

Para Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, etal.

One more year in prison: The Status Quo.

Today is the second anniversary of the crackdown on and arrest of the 75 writers, librarians and journalists in Cuba. I've written about their plight many times, including last year's first anniverary post here.

This past year fidel castro released a handful of these dissidents in an effort to appease the European Union to remove sanctions against the island. As is always the case with fidel castro's political machinations, it worked. The European Union blindly accepted the release of this handful of dissidents as a magnanimous gesture on castro's part and began the lifting of sanctions. Not all members of the EU were convinced, however, as seen in this statement released by Vaclav Havel, the former Czech Republic's president.

Of course, releasing a prisoner of conscience in Cuba from prison is really a moot point. It's like releasing that person from a small jail cell to a jail cell the size of an island in the Caribbean. There has been no progress in the areas where these dissidents risk their very lives to change, despite declarations from almost every human rights group in the world demanding their release and support with their cause.

The following is a press release issued by Mothers and Women Against Repression offering solidarity with the imprisoned dissidents and their families:

PRESS RELEASE / M.A.R. POR CUBA - Mothers and Women Against Repression

For immediate distribution – Miami, Florida, March 17, 2004 – M.A.R. POR CUBA joins the exile community in the various activities programmed in support of the immediate and unconditional liberation of Cuban political prisoners on this second anniversary of the wave of repression unleashed by Dictator Fidel Castro’s regime, which resulted in the massive arrests, summary trials and large sentences of 75 human rights activists, independent journalists and leaders of Cuba’s democratic opposition, as well as in the execution of three Cubans who attempted to flee the island in search of freedom.

The representative of the tyranny that rules Cuba, Pérez Roque, seeks to confuse international public opinion with statements that attempt to deny the systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the totalitarian regime he represents, in order to avoid being sanctioned again during the 61st session of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland.

In light of the thousands and thousands of documented crimes committed by Castro’s regime, and the arbitrary incarceration of hundreds of Cuban political prisoners under sub human conditions, the irrefutable evidence is that in Cuba nothing has changed, and that all and each of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights continue to be trampled upon.

Democratic States will have the opportunity to stand in solidarity with the victims of repression on April 14 and 15, through their vote as members of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. It is our hope that they remember the nature of Castro’s repressive system and the alliances forged among the world’s greatest human rights’ violators, which inexplicably sit on the Commission to silence the voices of those they oppress.

M.A.R. POR CUBA joins the “Damas de Blanco” in the island – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and family members of Cuban political prisoners -- in the just clamor for their ¡freedom!

This past week, two of these former political prisoners also sent out a press release calling for solidarity with their cause:

Cuban dissidents seek support for peaceful rally

Cuba today is dominated by a communist regime similar to those that once spread through Eastern Europe. For more than 46 years, power has been exercised by the same man; only one party exists; dissent over official policies is forbidden.

Amnesty International has declared Cuba the country with the largest number of prisoners of conscience in the world. When it comes to economics, the people are mired in poverty; the average monthly wage is less than $10. In sum, all human rights are violated.

Surrounded by this situation, several hundred small independent (not legalized) organizations have decided to join together, form the Assembly for the Advancement of Civil Society and gather peacefully in Havana on May 20 to debate ways to democratize Cuba.

It is easy to understand that, in these circumstances and facing the power of the totalitarian state, our project needs the support and encouragement of the greatest possible number of men and women of good will in the world.

To that end, we respectfully invite you to write and give us your valuable opinions and, if you wish, express your support for our peaceful efforts.

We hope to answer each and every one of you, with much appreciation and recognition.

You may write to us at the following electronic address: mbroque1712@yahoo.es
RENE GOMEZ MANZANO

MARTHA BEATRIZ ROQUE CABELLO,

former political prisoners, Havana, Cuba

I urge each and every one of you reading this to send these dissidents a note showing solidarity. Add your voice to oppose the despotic regime of fidel castro and show these folks who risk their very lives to have the same freedoms we take for granted that they have your support.

One voice will make a sound, but many voices in unison is what makes freedom ring.

CSI: Cuba

They've called in the CSI team in Cuba. The area's been cordoned off. Theyre dusting for prints. The luminol is being used generously.

Was it a murder? No. Was it a rape? No. Heist? No. Breaking and entering? Home invasion? Nope nope.

Some Cuban had the audacity to write anti-government slogans on walls:

Santa Clara, Cuba, March 17 (Karel Castillo, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - A group of garbage collectors saw some anti-government slogans painted on walls at a pickup point last week, prompting a team of state security agents with sniffing to cordon off the area.

Garbage man Pedro Leiva Pedraza said the slogans were painted on bathroom walls and other places in the Santo Domingo district. He said they said "Down with Fidel," "Down with the dictatorship" and "They're killing us with hunger."

The agents dusted the area for fingerprints.

Leiva Pedroza said that the guard on duty during the night - a man named Alexandre - was picked up by the agents, who said he would be fired, presumably for not seeing the slogans being painted.

fidel's Fortune

The news today was pretty interesting - fidel came out screaming that Forbes magazine had included him on its annual billionaire's list earlier this month, under the special category of 'kings, queens, and dictators.' Since I know someone at Forbes, I'll add a few tidbits.

Here is the background:

First, that Forbes list of billionaires is very conservative. It consists of only what fortune Forbes magazine can really prove. What they can't prove, they don't add in, even if they are pretty sure the billionaire owns it anyway. They have to be legally pristine because, let's face it, these billionaires are the kind of guys who wouldn't have much trouble rousting up the resources to sue if they wanted. And Forbes almost never is sued. Being conservative with one's numbers is the reason why.

But the flip side is, most of these guys own way more than they admit or Forbes can prove. Once in awhile, a billionaire comes along who will open his books if he's asked but most of them are hiding as much of their fortune from Forbes as they possibly can. Part of it is to deter kidnappers (and this is prevalent everywhere), part of it is because they are cheating on taxes (you see a lot of this in the private Anglo fortunes - U.K., Australia, Canada, NZ), and part of it is because they fear jealousy and populist revolts - especially if they live in a country like Mexico that is full of poor people. In the U.S., it's mainly that they just want to be left alone and don't want calls from telemarketers.

The most transparent fortunes are in the U.S. where stock data can easily prove ownership, and the most complicated ones are the private European fortunes which are profoundly old, tangled and secretive (except the Swiss). The most volatile fortunes are the Russian ones - which pop up one day and are gone the next with none looking too savory in origins. The most intransparent fortunes are in the third world - those family cross-shareholdings among overseas Chinese fortunes are an absolute bitch to calculate. And the most muddled and utterly dishonest fortunes are the political ones, like those of political cronies, regardless of where they exist in the world. Politicians' fortunes, themselves, are the worst of all, and among politicians, dictator politicians are truly the most corrupt fortunes on earth.

That brings us to fidel.

The premise of the Reuters news article is that most people would be 'honored' to be on the Forbes list. That's completely wrong - almost all of them yell about it and say they don't want to be on. They slam down receivers and threaten to sic their lawyers when they get wind they are going to make the Forbes list. Happens a lot. But that is a clear sign to Forbes that it is doing its job and getting it right, because this is the way they all act.

What perks up the Forbes antennae with suspicion is something entirely different: when some rich guy calls Forbes up and asks to BE on the list - as Banana King Alvaro Noboa of Ecuador once did. That is its own proof that such a person is NOT a billionaire because no real billionaire would do such a thing.

NOT that these billionaires don't watch that list with utter fascination, mind you. That's their peer list, so billionaires watch and read it very closely for information about their rivals and neighbors. Not too long ago, I heard secondhand that a fidel diplomat approached a Forbes reporter and explicitly asked to see the Forbes file on the Bacardi family, who are of Cuban orgin. Forbes declined. But it showed that fidel was definitely curious about other billionaires.

All this tells me one thing: fidel's screaming about his inclusion on the Forbes richest-people-on-earth list is a pretty accurate sign he's got a huge fortune socked away, because his reaction was so utterly normal - for a billionaire.

What could his inhibition to being on the Forbes list be? He's been on the list before, but this is the first year he came out screaming and drew attention.

I think it's fear. He's on his last legs, he can't take it with him, and he doesn't want it advertised to his lieutenants who are scheming for position at his deathbed, as vultures do, waiting for the roadkill. Not only that, castro could easily anger the beleaguered Cuban people if news got out about his millions, since they have, after all, been told to be contented with a humble rice cooker and be so grateful to el barbudo for it that they never deign to ask about the absent electricity or the missing rice.

There is one interesting line at the bottom of the Reuters writeup that I hadn't expected, in which fidel's press statement declares: "Cuba is the only Latin American country that fights inequality and has the fairest income distribution in the world." This is a lie in itself, with everyone being dirt poor except for castro and his 'special class' nomenklatura with their dollar stores - but can you imagine what Hugo Chavez's reaction to this is? fidel forgetting to mention his little buddy Chavez? It means fidel considers him not quite in his league, a lightweight. For a megalomaniac like Chavez, that has got to sting. One wonders what the nightly phone call between them was like. I hope the two of them get into a fight over this, since Chavez probably actually gave castro "his" fortune. Perhaps with a fight, these two hemispheric problems could solve themselves.

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers. Today is the second anniversary of the crackdown on the 75 dissidents presently still rotting away in castro's gulags. I urge you all to read this post and offer your solidarity with their cause and your support in seeing to their release. Gracias.

...And now for something completely different! (Updated)

This was sent to me by a colleague. I do not know who Enrique Fernandez is. However, reading this, it will obvious that he is a poet of Cuban gastronomie. (My apologies to Monty Python for absconding one of their signature lines.)

Croquetas and cafecitos 101

By Enrique Fernandez

I have asked both professional and amateur gastronomes how the croqueta became the Cuban-American signature food, and no one has given me a satisfactory answer.

The croqueta was a party staple in Cuba, but somehow it has become our national food in exile -- though ''food'' is a stretch for a tiny torpedo of deep-fried, ham-chicken-or-fish-flavored mush. (The lower the protein-to-carb ratio, the more profitable for the purveyor -- and the more authentic.)

Croquetas are available at the coffee windows of all Cuban cafes. God knows why, for croquetas and Cuban coffee are a terrible combination. (Frankly, I don't know what you chase a croqueta with. A tropical fruit batido? A beer?)

My older sons, who grew up mostly in the heartland with their heartland mom, got hooked on croquetas the first time they visited Miami. They would eat 10 at a time each, then pack more for the road.

They asked me for a recipe. I sent them two. One came from a classic Cuban cookbook, which I carefully translated. The other, for a French croquette made with a proper béchamel, came from Julia Child. They tried them.

''Dad, they don't taste like the croquetas we get in Miami.''

''Maybe it's because they haven't been sitting under a hot light for hours,'' I replied.

I, too, have been hooked on croquetas since childhood, when they were my snack-bar lunch every noon one summer after swimming lessons at a Havana pool. One afternoon, my parents sprang a surprise: I was joining them for lunch at a rather nice restaurant. I did not dare admit I had already eaten my fill of croquetas.

I don't recall the food I forced myself to eat, but I do remember a glass of sweet vermouth my parents allowed me to sip. Predictably, things did not go well after lunch. And though for years the scent of Cinzano made me ill, I kept loving my fried torpedoes.

I may not be able to explain our collective croqueta passion, but I can tell you exactly how to eat one: Take the cellophane wrapping off a packet of saltines, keeping the crackers intact. Put the croqueta between the crackers. Press to mash the croqueta more or less flat. Eat. Starch on starch. Perversely delicious.

And though I advise against mixing croquetas with Cuban coffee, you get them at the same walk-up windows, so here is more advice, on how to drink the coffee.

First, drive to Versailles (please, no French pronunciation; in Cuban street style it's bare-SIGH-yes) on Calle Ocho. Why? Mainly because they make the best Cuban coffee in town, but also for the same reason that once upon a time you only ate cheesecake at Wolfie's: because it's the place.

Park out front if you have a car worth showing -- a Hummer or Ferrari would not be considered wretched excess. Otherwise, use the parking lot. Don't enter the restaurant unless you're in for a meal. Coffee is outside.

Walk up to the window and ask for a cafecito if you want an espresso or a cortadito if you want an espresso ''cut'' (cortar in Spanish) with steamed milk foam. And that's another reason to go to Versailles. Unlike other Cuban coffee joints, they know a cortadito is not a junior café con leche (which, by the way, is only for breakfast), what in English we call by the Italian latte. A cortadito is what Starbucks calls machiatto.

Now, here's the bonus. At Versailles you can get a cortadito cut with the foam of steamed evaporated milk -- just ask for it. It's heavenly. Or, as with croquetas, maybe it's just Cuban.*

They'll ask if you if you want your coffee in a vaso, but by that they mean a Styrofoam cup, not, in old-time Cuban style, a true glass. Just say no to vaso and yes to tacita (little cup).

Finally, the body language. Hold the cup in front of your face. Arch your body forward so if any drops are spilled they will fall on the ground, not on your white linen suit or dress or guayabera. If you are a fully dressed man, use your free hand to hold your tie close to your chest so it won't get stained either.

Sip.

*The steamed evaporated milk and Cuban coffee (un cortadito con leche evaporada) is truly heavenly. I can personally attest to the excellence of this God-inspired libation at Versailles Restaurant. As a matter of fact, there is one lady in particular that my wife requests to make her cortadito. Better than hers, she says, and hers are pretty damn good!

Man, now I'm hungry again!

Update: The following was sent to me by good friend and reader Nancy D:

For all the Cubans out there, or those who are lucky enough to be married to Cubans, or even to be friends of Cubans. . .

An elderly Cuban man lay dying in his bed, while suffering the agonies of impending death, suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite Croqueta wafting up the stairs. Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs. With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen.

Where if not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite croquetas.

Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted Italian wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?

Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a crumpled posture.

His parched lips parted, the wondrous taste of the croquettes was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life.

The aged and withered hand trembled on its way to a croquette at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife.....

"Back off!" she said, "They're for the funeral."

Solidarity from Latin America

A few days ago some 200 intellectuals, activists and artists from Latin America and elsewhere issued a letter Monday urging the United Nations to side with Cuba in an expected battle over the communist country's rights record. We covered that item here. Of course, the signatories of this letter are nothing but anti-American castro cultists, who choose to ignore Cuba's own abyssmal human rights record and ongoing repression to further their own socialist agenda.

Yesterday, more than 100 Latin American writers, editors and reporters demanded the release of jailed Cuban journalists in an open letter to fidel castro:

March 16, 2005

Fidel Castro Ruz
President of the Councils of State and Ministers
Republic of Cuba
c/o Cuban Interests Section in the United States of America
2630 16th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009

Via facsimile: (202) 797-8521

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists, together with the following 108 Latin American journalists and writers, calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all imprisoned Cuban journalists. We further demand that the sentences of six journalists released on medical parole be annulled.

With 23 imprisoned journalists, Cuba remains one of the world's leading jailers of journalists, second only to China. The journalists have been jailed since March 2003, when the Cuban government arrested them as the world's attention was focused on the war in Iraq. Two weeks after their detentions, the journalists were tried summarily—their trials lasted one day—behind closed doors, and they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years.

Although the Cuban government has labeled them "mercenaries," an analysis of trial documents shows that the journalists' work was within the parameters of the legitimate exercise of free expression established under international human rights standards.

The imprisoned journalists have reported unsanitary prison conditions and inadequate medical care. They have also complained of receiving rotten food. Unlike the general prison population, most journalists are only allowed family visits every three months and marital visits every four months. Their relatives have been harassed for talking to the foreign press, protesting the journalists' incarceration, and gathering signatures calling for their release.

Those journalists who were ill before being jailed have seen their health worsen in prison and have been transferred to hospitals or prison infirmaries, while others have developed new illnesses. Some journalists went on hunger strikes during 2004 to protest their conditions. Because prison authorities refused to allow outside contact with the strikers or to disclose information about them, their families were unable to monitor their health.

Between June and December 2004, Cuban authorities released six journalists on medical parole. One released journalist, Carmelo Díaz Fernández, was warned that he would be sent back to prison if he recovered from his illnesses—or if he did not maintain "good behavior."

In late 2004, the remaining jailed journalists were transferred to prison hospitals in Havana, ostensibly for medical checkups. The transfers came as Cuba resumed formal diplomatic contacts with Spain in a possible precursor to normalizing relations with the European Union. The circumstances fueled speculation that additional releases were imminent, but all 23 were returned to their prisons.

Most jailed journalists are far from their homes, adding to the heavy burden on their families. The imprisonment of these journalists in reprisal for their independent reporting violates the most basic norms of international law, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone "the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

As writers and journalists in Latin America, we earn our livelihoods by gathering and disseminating information and, in some cases, expressing our opinions. We believe that our activities benefit the societies in which we live and that our right to freedom of expression is protected by international law. For the Cuban government to arbitrarily abrogate this right is an affront to human dignity. We urge the Cuban government to respect international law by allowing journalists to work freely, without fear of reprisal.

Ann Cooper
Executive Director

(Emph. mine)

The list of writers who signed this letter can be found here. Notice how there is no writer representing Cuba. A Cuban publicly signing such a letter critical of the castro regime would basically be signing his own prison sentence.

The castro regime and its cultists will ignore this call for the release of political prisoners. They always do and probabl;y always will. They lack the dignity to address it and the morality to validate it.

Via The Committee to Protect Journalists. More information of castro's systematic stifling of voices can be found here.

Hollywood Disconnected

After last night's portrayal of fidel castro as a sane puppy wanting some love from the US on NBC's West Wing, I am so glad this book is out:

Perhaps we should take up a collection and send one to each person in the cast of the West Wing.

Gracias, Humberto, for telling it like it is and taking those Hollywood fidel ass kissing panzies to task.

Ninety Miles Away?

Just finished watching NBC's Castro Appeasement Edition of the West Wing. In one hour with commercial interruptions, I have been insulted countless times. From the standard "crazy Cubans down in Miami" to the criminal congressman to "a bunch of geriatric exiles want their cabanas back" to everything in between.

The Cuban-American community patronized, slandered, denigrated and stereotyped by what I'm sure is a bevy of writers that I can safely say have probably never even spoken to a Cuban or Cuban-American much less know what we are as a people, what we are as exiles, what we are as Cubans, and what we are as Americans.

I am so incensed right now that I am finding it incredibly difficult to maintain a modicum of control.

Tonight's entire episode was as if its script had been written by fidel castro himself. The Cuban-American community made responsible for all of Cuba's ills while the aging dictator - despite his record of oppression and brutality and his crimes against humanity - made to seem the pitiful dying "president" of an island representing nothing but cigars, beaches and prostitutes. Of course, Democratic President John F. Kennedy's betrayal of the Cuban American community was never mentioned. Nor the fact that had he had a moral compass and been interested in what was right instead of politically expedient there would never have even been a need for an embargo or a blockade or sanctions or a missile crisis or an exodus of a people or the deaths of thousands.

What I saw on NBC tonight was more than moral relativism at it's pinnacle. It was a calculated and careless and complete slandering of a sector of Americans who have been nothing more and nothing less than the epitomy of the American soul. And who have strived for not only the betterment of their lives and the progress and enrichment of the country that adopted them, but for what is morally and ethically right.

The festering sore that is the Hollywood entertainment community continues to promote an agenda of fallacy and innaccuracy and outright disdain towards Cuban-Americans. They continue their attempt to rewrite history and point fingers without so much as an reasonable attempt at the portrayal of truth.

NBC, the West Wing, Martin Sheen, the liberal morally myopic left and the rest: Fuck you. Im a fucking Cuban-fucking-American and damn fucking proud of it.

And I have a fucking VOTE.

In praise of Real Men

Jose Maria Aznar. He may not be prime minister of Spain anymore, but that doesn't stop him from remaining a leader. Spain's craven voters - who had to be out of their minds - threw him out of power at al Qaida's 'request' last March after getting the terrorists' train bomb 'message' a couple days before an election. In that travesty, the brave righteous Aznar lost.

But Aznar remains our friend and he is still as magnificent as the bug-eyed weasel who succeeded him, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, is ugly and puny.

Unlike that little puke, Spain's former prime minister, Aznar, continues to stand up to human garbage like castro and shove it right in their faces. Here is what brave former Prime Minister Aznar had to say today to the Monster At Our Door:

Aznar said that under his administration, Spain stood proudly with the two strongest democracies in the world, the United States and Great Britain. And now, he said, Spain stands with Cuba and Venezuela, countries he called bedfellows in exporting trouble throughout Latin America. ...

He said Spain and the European Union should not forge closer ties to Cuba because only Cuba will benefit, and nothing will change while Castro is in power. Aznar distanced Spain diplomatically from Cuba after Castro's government jailed 75 dissidents in 2003.

Is that a man or what? Anzar's saying what needs to be said, doesn't care what fidel 'thinks,' continues knocking sense into Europe and the rest of the hemisphere and warns them all that that this ogre is not their answer. I can't say a whole lot more except that, wow! Let's praise real men here! Is this a real man? I'm just glad to know there's a few left in Spain who still know what cojones are. Go, Aznar!

Speaking of cool things from Spain, my favorite writer, Carlos Alberto Montaner, has a good essay out today on Cuba, and he shares the same thoughts about the doltish Europeans, warning, like Aznar, that castro can't be negotiated with and if they are serious about 'dialogue' on human rights, they have no business trying to reason with castro's minions but must insist that castro dialogue with his opposition. THAT would be showing seriousness. There's also a funny detail about what castro did to his last minion, some guy named Robaina, who didn't act sycophantic enough - castro took him from his foreign minister job and made him 'parks director.' I think Stalin did that to Molotov once.

Think Europe will take Montaner up on it? Well, no. There's that real-man shortage over there. But these two have spoken up today in an edifying hammerblow for victory. Viva Aznar! Viva Montaner!

Holy Exodus, Batman!

Quick Robin, hand me the Bat-translator!

Even the bats are leaving Cuba:

KEY WEST - The little furry creature that appeared out of nowhere had Keys naturalists puzzled. They had never seen anything like it, so they put out an alert for bat experts to help out.

Researchers had a surprising answer: The tiny animal, weighing in at just over half an ounce, is a Cuban Fig-Eating Bat, a rare species never seen in the United States.

Maybe they ran out of rice cookers.

Now, about those rice cookers...

Seems fidel can't make up his mind about those rice cookers:

The changing nature of electric rice cookers Miguel D. Tejeda, Cubanacán Press

SANTA CLARA, March (www.cubanet.org) - The announcement by the head of the Cuban government that electric rice cookers manufactured in China would be sold, one per family, surprised the population, particularly since for years the sale of such appliances was forbidden on the grounds that they consume excessive energy.

Nevertheless, announce it Castro did, on March 8, during a ceremony commemorating International Women's Day. And, stressed Castro, the Chinese rice cookers would contribute to reduce energy consumption in the residential sector, presumably by replacing home-made ranges, which may be electric, or burn kerosene or alcohol, but are usually inefficient and made with parts for the most part stolen from government concerns.

Up to now, the Liya-brand cookers had been available in reduced numbers, and their distribution "awarded" to meritorious members of unions or political organizations, and disputes over who was awarded the right to buy one often led to acrimonious disputes between friends and fellow workers.

But now, the cookers are to be found in quantity, at every government distribution center in Santa Clara and Cienfuegos.

According to Castro, the use of the cookers, along with that of electric ranges and pressure cookers to be distributed in the future, will save 500 million dollars a year in generating costs.

Comment and Trackback problems

I am having some comment and trackback problems and am working on their solutions. Hopefully they'll be up post haste.

Thanks.

UPDATE: I seem to have blindly fixed the problem and comments and trackbacks are back up.

Another "Dignity " Round-up

The castro regime has instituted another "Dignity" round up. This time young men, teens, who are well dressed and don jewelry are being picked up in Havana for being suspiciously homosexual, among other things, and taken to the Cobinado del Este Prison.

The following is the news article from an independent jousnalist in Cuba in Spanish (I am working on the translation and will post as soon as possible):

Lanzan operativo contra jóvenes bien vestidos

LA HABANA, 14 de marzo (Aleaga Pesant, UPECI / www.cubanet.org) - Una nueva persecución está realizando la policía y su departamento técnico de investigaciones, en coordinación con la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC) y los Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (CDR), contra los varones jóvenes, bien vestidos y que portan joyas en las calles céntricas de los barrios Vedado, Centro Habana y Habana Vieja.

La justificación de la recogida de estos jóvenes, que tiene el nombre "Operación dignidad", es que muestran sospechas de homosexualismo, prostitución, proxenetismo y mercado negro, lo que se expresa, según las autoridades, en la forma de vestir de los jóvenes: ropa y calzado caros, joyas y prendas vistosas que no pueden ser justificados con una actividad laboral autorizada.

Los jóvenes varones, luego de ser identificados y clasificados en las unidades de la policía de los municipios Vedado, Centro habana y Habana Vieja, son enviados al edificio 3, piso 4 de la prisión Combinado del Este, en Ciudad de La Habana, donde dicen fuentes bien informadas, que existe una sobrepoblación vinculada a la "Operación dignidad".

Según las fuentes, las autoridades señalan que si los salarios en Cuba no son mayores de 15 dólares al mes y eres un joven que deberías estar estudiando o incorporado a los planes de la revolución, ¿de dónde sacas un reloj Seiko, una cadena y dientes de oro; una moto MZ, ropa Benetton y zapatillas Adidas?

Operaciones parecidas se llevaron a cabo en los años 90 del siglo pasado contra mujeres jóvenes en las zonas del Paseo del Prado, el Malecón, y la Quinta avenida de Miramar, así como en el balneario de Varadero.

A las jóvenes capturadas en las más disímiles circunstancias se les aplicaban juicios sumarios y se les condenaba a cuatro años de prisión en un correccional. Además, las jóvenes que eran atrapadas en estas operaciones y se encontraban lejos de sus provincias de residencia, eran enviadas a sus hogares con custodia policial. A esa operación se le llamó Lacra.

Las operaciones policiales contra las mujeres jóvenes han contado en todo momento con el apoyo y el respaldo de la Federación de Mujeres Cubanas. Esta organización, creada para la promoción de los valores femeninos y de igualdad social, se encargaba en esas circunstancias de un supuesto trabajo social, que se trastocaba en abuso sexual y psicológico sobre las jóvenes, para más tarde ponerlas a disposición de la "ley de peligrosidad social".

El gobierno de Fidel Castro tiene amplia experiencia en estos tipos de operaciones, desde los años sesenta, cuando reconcentró a los campesinos del Escambray durante la guerra civil, y los envió hacia la zona del Cabo de San Antonio, remedando al Capitán General español Valeriano Weyler durante la guerra de independencia de 1895. También a mediados de los sesenta, cuando cazaba en plena calle a los varones jóvenes por ser católicos o apolíticos, y los enviaba a las Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción (UMAP).

Actualmente los niveles de desocupación laboral, el descontento social y la frustración entre los jóvenes contradicen en la practica a la propaganda oficial de la batalla de ideas, y al eslogan de que todo va bien.

The usual suspects...

Perhaps Mr. Glover, Ms. Walker, Ms. Menchu, Mr. Zinn, et al are unacquainted with the plight of Dr. Biscet? No. They know. They are glad that dangerous counter-revolutionary is in prison.

These folks are as guilty of propping up this bloody regime as those who run it. And, of course, they use the favorite idiotarian tool of the left: moral equivalence.

The word "vile" is not strong enough to describe these barbarians.

From NewsMax.com (Tuesday, March 15, 2005 6:20 p.m. EST)

Danny Glover, Alice Walker Back Castro on Human Rights

HAVANA – About 200 intellectuals, activists and artists from Latin America and elsewhere issued a letter Monday urging the top United Nations human rights watchdog to side with Cuba in an expected battle over the communist country's rights record.

A U.S.-backed resolution to condemn the island's record is usually presented at every spring meeting in Geneva of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which this year was to open Monday and run through April 22.

No resolution targeting the island has emerged this year, but Cuba expects such a proposal will be presented and considered in mid-April. Last year's resolution passed narrowly, adopted by 22 votes to 21, with 10 abstentions.

"We urge the governments of the commission's member countries to not permit [the resolution] to be used to legitimize the anti-Cuban aggression of the administration of [President] Bush," the letter said.

Washington maintains a four-decades-old trade embargo against the island, and trade and travel restrictions have been steadily tightened in recent years.

Nobel Peace Prize laureates including Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina and Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala signed the letter, as did South Africa's Nadine Gordimer and Portugal's Jose Saramago, both recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Among American signatories were actor Danny Glover, author Alice Walker and historian and activist Howard Zinn. Other international figures included filmmaker Walter Salles of Brazil, the music group Manu Chau and France's former first lady, Danielle Mitterrand.

The letter said the U.S. government has no moral authority to criticize Cuba's human rights record after its own scandals over treatment of terror suspects at prisons in Iraq and the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Some who signed the letter had criticized Cuba when the government sentenced 75 political opponents to long prison terms in 2003.

© 2005 The Associated Press

And, by the way, Alice Walker's prose is dull and confused.

I hope it hurts, bitch.

Every single year for as long as I can remember - sometimes, even, two or three times a year - rumors abound about fidel castro's health. It's been speculated throughout his dictatorship that he has had everything from heart attacks to embolias (strokes) to venereal diseases to AIDS and everything else.

Every year the Miami airwaves buzz with talk of the bearded one's impending doom. Radio shows have callers screaming everything from "praise the Lord" to "I hope it's painful" to "me cago en su madre" on the air. Talk show hosts even get Cubans living in Cuba to comment on the air about the latest medical condition castro is suffering from. Obviously, all of these past rumors have been just that, rumors.

The latest rumor making it's way around the island is that the dictator has cancer. Some say it's lung cancer, others say it's skin cancer. This will probably be the umpteenth time fidel castro has had cancer during his tenure as el lider maximo. Also circulating around the island is that fidel castro has gout. Right now, most Cubans on the island are clinging to the hope that fidel castro does in fact have the cancer, any cancer plus gout. Swelling, throbbing excrutiatingly painful gout.

And perhaps that is how these rumors begin, with hope. Cubans hoping for their lives to improve, Cubans hoping for their slave master to croak. Cubans hoping for a change in their government. Cubans hoping to be released from their bondage.

There are also those that insist these "fidel is sick" rumors are begun by the government itself simply to keep the people's minds off of their own troubles. The possibility of castro being fatally ill opens up news worlds in their minds. Ya queda poco, they say to themselves. It wont be long now. And then they forget the fact that they have none of the intangibles that every human being should have. Even if they forget but for a little while. Daydreaming escapism.

I have no way of verifying if these cancer and gout rumors circulating lately are valid. But like any freedom loving Cuban - native or exile or otherwise - I sure do hope they're true. Forty-six years is one heckova long nightmare with very few good dreams in between. A very restless sleep indeed.

I will say one thing, though, if fidel castro is in fact sick, if he has cancer, let it last months. Let it eat away at every single muscle, bone, organ and cell of his body. Let it take over his body like a plague of locusts, swarming and unstoppable and destroying everything in its path. And let it be compounded by gout, the King's disease, and cause excrutiating pain in every tiny joint of his body. Let there be a shit load of crystals in those joints before the swarm of cancer reaches them and gnaws on them until there's nothing but a bloody pulp. Make it hurt like a motherfucker.

If anyone deserves the pain, it's you, fidel.

More from the Worker's Paradise:

Presented without commentary:

HAVANA, March 11 (Reinaldo Cosano Alén, Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org) - Lázaro Oliva worked at the dental clinic for 15 days before he was fired for belonging to a human rights advocacy group, the Partido Federalista de Cuba.

"There was a job open in administration," said Oliva. "I applied and got the job. I showed I was able to do the job, but on February 14 the Communist Party secretary, Marcelo Salabarría, called me in and told me they had received word from State Security that I belong to an opposition group and that I once tried to leave the country illegally, so he was rescinding my employment contract because I'm a political conflict."

"I couldn't even make a claim, because the contract stipulates that it is subject to cancellation by any of the parties at any time," said Oliva.

Where is The Manolo when you need him?

Unbelievable, yet true:

RANCHUELO, March 11 (Félix Reyes Gutiérrez, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Workers at the Ramiro Lavendero cigarette factory here say they are very unhappy the government has not kept to its commitments when it recently distributed just part of a suite of working clothes.

For four years, workers say, the administration has been promising the clothes and finally last week distributed a pair of shoes to each worker.

Many say they sold the shoes, as they were not the right size.

"For four years we have been wearing our clothes out in this factory that historically shows good returns. Now they try to keep us happy with these ugly shoes," said one worker.

And rice cookers....

PSSST! Mrs. Blanco! Yes you! From Louisiana!

From Humberto Fontova via Newsmax:

Louisiana Governor Swoons Over Castro

Humberto Fontova - Monday, March 14, 2005

It gets old. It really, REALLY gets old.

I refer to all the moralizing and humbug by U.S. political and business hucksters when they visit Cuba. Take Louisiana's own Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, on her visit to Castroland last week. If the woman had simply told us: "Look, Cuban-Americans, there ain't enough of you voting in Louisiana to make any difference to me. Worse, all you Cubans are Republicans and didn't vote for me or contribute to my campaign anyway. I owe you people nothing." How refreshing it might have been!

But no. She insists on warbling about the "strictly business" aspects of the visit and how this "builds bridges with the Cuban people," and how this "positions Louisiana for dealing with Cuba after the transition," etc., etc. The best came when she rationalized her luncheon with the mass murderer himself. She did it, said her spokesperson, "out of respect for the Cuban president."

Mrs. Blanco, I realize you're very busy with state business, but in case you haven't heard: There have been no "presidential" elections in Cuba for the past 46 years, ma'am. And, by the way, how did "President" Castro earn this respect from the governor of a state in the U.S.? Was it by:

Begging, pleading and finally trying to cajole Nikita Khrushchev into incinerating several southern cities, including New Orleans and probably Baton Rouge, with a pre-emptive nuclear attack in October 1962?

Incarcerating more people as a percentage of population than Hitler or Stalin?

Murdering 17,000 Cubans and (several dozen U.S. citizens) with firing squads and dumping their bullet-riddled bodies in mass graves?

Impoverishing and brutalizing a country to the point where 20 percent of its population risked their lives to flee? (Please note: Prior to Castro's glorious reign, Cuba took in more immigrants per capita than any country in the Western Hemisphere. More Americans lived in Cuba than Cubans in the U.S.)

Having his agents plant 500 kilos of TNT in Grand Central Station, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Gimbels, to incinerate and entomb tens of thousands of your fellow citizens on Nov. 27, 1962 (Macy's parade day)?

Sending his agents to torture to death American POWs in North Vietnam's Cu Loc POW camp outside Hanoi in 1967?

Describing Governor Blanco's nation as "a vulture preying on humanity!" and "the enemy of all the peoples of Latin America!" and shouting just three years ago while in Teheran, "Together Iran and Cuba can bring America to her knees!"?
So, PLEASE stop insulting our intelligence, Mrs Blanco. And regarding that "business positioning" for your constituents: What you've actually done is shot Louisiana in the foot – and with a .44 magnum.

As usual, to read the mainstream media, Governor Blanco and her trade delegation come across as "enlightened" and "forward-looking" and simply "facing facts." Her opponents, as usual, come across as that "crackpot" Cuban-American bunch again, those ignorant "hot-heads," oblivious to facts, hopelessly mired in their archaic bitterness and hellbent on throwing monkey wrenches into even the most reasonable approaches to Cuba.

Fine. But if you'll indulge this" ignorant crackpot" for a second, I'll present a few facts. Indeed I'll present evidence as revealed by recent historical examples.

When the Iron Curtain fell, people like Vaclav Haval and Lech Walesa (these were dissidents in Czechoslovakia and Poland, Mrs. Blanco ... those are nations in Eastern Europe, Mrs. Blanco) had a say in the post-communist governments. Came time to transact major business with the West and whaddaya know! For some odd reason, these brave men, just getting out of jail, were not favorably inclined toward the companies that had done business with their jailers, who they saw as accomplices in their oppression ... comprende, Mrs. Blanco?

Then there's the minor matter of getting paid by Castro, who has stiffed every creditor from the Soviet Union to the European Union to Japan to China to South Africa to the Philippines, hence his eagerness for U.S. business nowadays. We're the only ones left.

As you may have noticed, President Bush is not overly fond of totalitarian dictators. There's reason to believe he might start enforcing the law regarding Cuba. You see, Castro owes U.S. citizens BILLIONS of dollars: $9 billion (in current dollars) from the businesses and properties he STOLE in 1960. He owes millions more from judgments on wrongful death suits filed by U.S. citizens whose fathers, husbands, etc., were tortured by your charming luncheon host's goons and murdered by his firing squads.

By the way, I'm certain these families, one named Anderson, another Fuller (note, most aren't "crackpot" Cuban exiles), aren't thrilled over your "respect" for Castro's wishes in joining him for a jovial lunch.

By a strict enforcement of current law, these robbed businessmen and grieving families could well find themselves first in line for any Castro/Cuban funds sent to the U.S. (by which I mean those sent to your constituents' bank accounts). Perhaps your "enlightened" and "forward-looking" advisers neglected to mention this? If so, please accept it from a Cuban-exile "crackpot."

Mark my words, Governor Blanco: Should you and your business chums visit Cuba after its liberation, you will be calling on people who spent much time in jail, house arrest or exile. "Ah, yes, of course! Mrs. Blanco!" they'll greet you with rigid smiles, looking much like those Oscar nominees when they lose and the camera zeroes in on them. "So nice to finally meet the nice lady we saw toasting the tyrant who sent my dad (brother, son, cousin, uncle) to the firing squad! So nice to see the nice lady we saw smiling and lunching and lavishing business on my mother and aunt's jailer and torturer! Now, if you'll just have a seat in the reception area, perhaps we'll find time to see you – perhaps around the time hell freezes over!"

By then the charming and invaluable "business" contacts made in Cuba by Louisiana's trade delegation will find their influence greatly diminished, their staffs reduced and their offices much, much smaller. Chances are, when Louisiana's trade delegation returns to Cuba to crank up the business relationship after the "transition," their Cuban contacts will find themselves in different, and somewhat awkward, positions.

If you've seen pictures of Benito Mussolini on April 28, 1945, and Nicolae Ceausescu on December 25, 1989, you'll understand the positions I have in mind.

You can email the governor here.

Then there's this from the Bayou Bee (thanks for the link, ptg.):

Unfortunately, Governor Blanco was used by Fidel Castro for his own propaganda purposes. It was a gross miscalculation on behalf of the Governor to meet with the dictator and an insult to the Cuban Americans who are trying to overthrow his dictatorship.

Our economy might be bad here, but it isn’t bad enough to trade with the devil. We should pursue trade only with freedom-loving countries throughout the hemisphere and the world. We should only want to deal with countries that allow their citizens basic human rights. Blanco’s visit sets a bad precedent. I hope and pray that her future trade missions will not be to other state sponsors of terrorism, like Syria, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Iran. We need to divest our ties to terrorist nations, not enhance them. The biggest winner in this deal was not Governor Blanco, the Cuban people or the farmers of Louisiana it was the dictator himself, Fidel Castro.

GO TO JAIL.

Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO, do not collect your rice cooker.

More Cubans thrown in jail for expressing their views:

PINAR DEL RIO, March 9 (Abdala Press / www.cubanet.org) - State security agents in Pinar del Río arrested at least five men and, after questioning them, warned them they could be charged for collaborating with a magazine which is illegal in Cuba.

The magazine, titled Cuban Cause, is published in the United States by a Cuban exile group.

Several members of organizations advocating peaceful opposition to the government and independent journalists were among those arrested.

I have not heard of the magazine Cuban Cause. Internet searches lead to nada. If anyone out there is familiar with the magazine, please drop me a line.

Cubans vs. Al Qaeda

Following the Cuban-Exile-Banana-Republicans-control-the-world meme from last week, we humbly submit the following joke:

Osama bin Laden was sitting in his cave plotting terrorist strategies when his cellular telephone rang.

"Haaallo, Mr. Laden", a heavy Cuban accented voice said. "This is Pepe down at the new Cuban American Club in Miami, Florida. I am calling to inform you that we Cubans in exile are officially declaring war on you! Matter of fact, we WILL kick your ass! And, let me warn you, Cubans NEVER exaggerate!!!”

"Well, Pepe," Osama replied, "This is indeed important news! How big is your army?"

"Right now," said Pepe, after a moment's calculation, "there is myself, my cousin Jorge el Gordo, my next door neighbor Juan el Tuerto, my wife's brother Jose el Calvo, Chucho from Hialeah, and the entire Calle 8 domino playing club. That makes eight!"

Osama paused. "Pepe, I must tell you that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command."

"Coño", said Pepe. "I'll have to call you back!"

Sure enough, the next day, Pepe called again. "Mr. Laden, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!"

"And what equipment would that be, Pepe?" Osama asked.

"Well, we have an almost new 1999 SUV, a machine gun, and supplies from Tamiami Gun Shop!"

Osama sighed. "I must tell you, Pepe, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my army to 1 1/2 million since we last spoke."

"¡Que jodienda!", said Pepe. "I'll have to get back to you."

Sure enough, Pepe rang again the next day. "Mr. Laden, the war is still on! We have managed to get left-over equipment from the Bay of Pigs invasion on loan from La Brigada 2506."

Osama was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. "Pepe, I must tell you that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"

"¡Carajo, no me digas eso, chico!" said Pepe, "I'll have to call you back."

Sure enough, Pepe called again the next day. "Mornin', Mr. Laden! I am sorry to tell you that we have had to call off the war."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Osama. "Why the sudden change of heart, amigo?"

"Well," said Pepe, "we've all had a long chat over a few cervezas and pan con lechon and have decided there's no way in hell we can feed two million prisoners!"

2 cups water for every cup of rice.

So fidel is giving each Cuban household a brand spanking new rice cooker. Now all they need is electricity:

PLACETAS, March 9 (Enrique Carrillo, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - La Vigía district of Placetas has been without power for 13 days since the electric transformer burned out.

Residents say they have asked that repairs be made, but the Electric Company alleges they have no transportation to move the needed equipment.

La Vigía residents say they collected four pesos per family to have the equipment repaired.

"This is a shame; this sort of thing didn't happen before", said an elderly woman who has had to put up with the prolonged blackout.

The problem of lack of transportation and means to repair transformers and other equipment is a recurrent one for the Electric Company.

Ok. So some have electricity. Now all they need is the rice:

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, March 9 (Jorge Ramón Castillo, ICDPRESS / www.cubanet.org) - The 25,000 residents of Campechuela, in easternmost Granma province, are facing food shortages approaching the critical point as a result of the prolonged drought affecting the region.

The one local market, operated by the government, gets one shipment per week of produce, and every Saturday, market day, long lines form before dawn of consumers who hope to buy their allotment of two kilograms of each product available.

Sometimes, fights break out. Last week, one woman punched out another who tried to buy plantains before her without having waited her turn in line. Often, more than half of those waiting come out empty-handed.

Residents despair of a ready solution to the problem. They say government authorities have sounded the alarm, but give no clue to the possible solutions.

But wait, isnt there a water shortage, too:

CAIBARIEN, March 9 (Ibrahim Dionisio Rodríguez, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - A number of Caibarién residents have been complaining to government authorities about the continuous water leaks in their neighborhood, to no avail, they say.

María Caridad Noa said residents have complained directly to the municipal waterworks. Water department workers have been digging in the streets, she said, but have not solved the problems, she said.

The leaks cause dangerous conditions in the streets, she said. Several passersby have slipped as a result of the puddles.

The problem is not unique to one area. In several places around town, the same problems occur, in spite of the continuing drought affecting the region.

Rice cookers!!! Rice cookers for the people!!! Le traquetea el merequetengue.

No Coke, Pepsi!

My good buddy Steve (of Hog On Ice) and fellow lechonero has just designed the following doozie of a che shirt:

I damn near fell off my chair I laughed so hard.

The Hypocritical Capitalist

While the average salary for a Cuban working in Cuba is about $12 US a month and with the country bearing a foreign debt exceeding 13 billion, El Lider Maximo is still listed sixth in Forbes richest royal and rulers category with the paltry sum of 550 million.

That's a shitload of rice cookers.

Cuban Mythology (Updated)

Every single time the island of Cuba and fidel castro's revolution are covered anywhere in the media one of the points always mentioned is Cuba's free healthcare. You can practically time it. If it's in print, you get the lead issue in the first and second paragraph, a mention of fidel castro or one of his cronies in the third paragraph and then the plug for the lauded free healthcare available to Cubans in the fourth. I dont think Ive ever read an article about castro or Cuba where the "healthcare" isnt mentioned.

Every single castro supporter clings to this healthcare thing like it is some kind of holy grail. In a debate, the fact that Cuba has the most political prisoners in the world is ignored. The fact that Cubans on the island lack even the most basic of necessities is ignored. Tourism apartheid is ignored. Everything is ignored save for the free healthcare and 100% literacy.

Of course, none of these Free healthcare! cheerleaders have ever been to a Cuban hospital. They've never been to a Cuban clinic. Hospitals and clinics serving the average Cuban, that is.

Take a look at this picture:

Cockroaches. Twenty-seven of them to be exact. All swept together after having been squashed by patients and patrons of "El Hospital Clinico Quirurgico de la Habana."

And imagine having to take a loved one to the hospital and when you get there, this is what the common area looks like:

You could just imagine what awaits for you once you step inside the actual treatment areas.

Here's a closeup shot of the floors where patients are actually tended to:

Quite unsanitary, no?

Well, this is just a small reality of castro's lauded healthcare in Cuba. This is a hopsital in Havana, the nation's capital and the most populated city in the country. Imagine the conditions of hospitals in smaller cities or rural areas.

castro once called this hospital "one of the most modern and best ones in the country."

This is not a hospital that caters to foreigners, mind you. This is a hospital strictly for the Cuban people. Foreigners are treated quite differently and their facilities are state of the art and, at least, sanitary. But thats the dichotomy of Cuba. fidel castro's revoution was for the people, the very same people that are now substandard in the eyes of their government.

My family is from a very small town in Oriente province. We were not rich. We were not middle class. Ours was a blue collar family in Cuba and whenever someone needed medical attention, they got it. Babies were born, broken arms were set, appendixes were removed, surgeries were performed. In other words, they had access to pretty darn good medical attention before castro fixed the healthcare system.

Yeah, fidel castro and his revolution built clinics and hospitals and all of his people have access to "medical care." Yet these photos are an example of it. The revolution's healthcare may be free, but it surely isn't proper.

The above photos were taken by two journalists, María Elena Morejón
and Carlos Wotzkow and are posted along with an accompanying article at Gentuino.

The same photos can be viewed along with an English interpretation at The Real Cuba.

I urge each and every one of you to check the remaining photographs out so that next time, when some fidel loving apologist mentions Cuba's free healthcare, you remember what they're really talking about: the myth of Cuba's vaunted healthcare system.

UPDATE: There's never an egg timer around when you need one. Paxety Pages has a link to an editorial item titled "Cuba's Remarkable Commitment to Healthcare."

Here are a couple of other Cuban healthcare related posts:

- Doctor shortage at AIDS facility.
- Doctor shortage at El Cerro.
- Shipment of Doctors to Venezuela causes doctor shortage.
- Maternity ward close because of nurse shortage.
- Pneumonia outbreak.
- Car headlights used to light polyclinic during medical procedure.
- High infant mortality rate, yes, but 6 out of 10 babies aborted.
- Doctor fired after complaining about lack of sterilized equipment.

Update II: Welcome Instapundit readers. Today is the second anniversary of the crackdown on the 75 dissidents presently still rotting away in castro's gulags. I urge you all to read this post and offer your solidarity with their cause and your support in seeing to their release. Gracias.

New York Public Library at it again.

The New York Public Library is at it again. First, it was the Che watches for sale at their "giift" shop. Now, it seems this bastion of freedom of speech and intellectual propriety is again offending the Cuban American Community.(subscription. I posted the rest of the article below the fold)

Less than three months after provoking outrage among Cuban Americans for selling a watch bearing the image of Che Guevara, the New York Public Library has offended some members of that community again by making "An Affair in Havana" the theme of this year's Young Lions Benefit gala.

The library's press release says the event will celebrate "literary Havana" and Ernest Hemingway. "Live samba music, expertly mixed mojitos and authentic
Cuban cuisine will bring a dose of la vida Cubana to Fifth Avenue at The New York Public Library Young Lions Benefit," it promises. The Young Lions is a group of under-40 donors to the library. Proceeds from the benefit - to be held April 21 - will go to the International Fiction Fund, dedicated to the maintenance and preservation of the library's collections.

Here's a message to the New York Public Library:

If you're going to use the quaintness of Cuba and her culture and her little brown people to promote one of your causes, get it fucking right assholes. The fucking "samba" isnt fucking Cuban, you pricks.

The Sun article continued:

Those collections include various Hemingway originals, and these, according to the coordinator of the Young Lions program, Katie Sanderson, were part of the inspiration for the benefit's theme. There was also the appeal of Havana itself: "Cuba is a place that does conjure up really sexy, exotic images, as a place to really get away," Ms. Sanderson said. "... For us to capture something so beautiful and exotic is very appealing."

The theme of last year's dinner and dance, Ms. Sanderson added, was Truman
Capote's "Black and White Ball," an event she called "a formal, serious
thing."
This year, she said, "It is important to do something a little freer, more
lighthearted in some ways."

Cuba is anything but "free" and "lighthearted," in the view of the president
of the Free Society Project, Maria Werlau, whose group is a nonprofit
human-rights organization documenting the victims of Cuba's communist
revolution.
Literary Havana is especially unsuitable as a party theme, she said, because
there
is currently no literary Havana to speak of, owing to heavy state censorship
and the lack of a free library system on the island. Those who have
attempted
to run independent libraries out of their homes have often met with
imprisonment and torture.

"It's insensitive to present Cuba like that when the reality of Cuba is so
different - it's like taking an aspect of Iraq or the Nazi government and
glamorizing it," Ms. Werlau, who was born in Cuba and moved to America as an
infant,
said.

The library's attitude toward its selected theme is probably bred of
ignorance, she said. But "since it's the library" - an intellectual and
academic

institution - "they shouldn't be ignorant of the state of culture in Cuba,
of
what's going on," she said.

A columnist for the Village Voice who has been an outspoken critic of
American librarians' indifference to the plight of their Cuban counterparts,
Nat

Hentoff, expressed similar outrage.

"If you take something out of history in what is now and has been for so
long
a dictatorship, and thereby give the illusion that this was a moment in time
that had no disastrous consequences - consequences totally against the
spirit
of what they're trying to portray - then that's being stupid," Mr. Hentoff,
who has urged the New York Public Library to support independent libraries
in
Cuba, said.

The author of "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant," Humberto Fontova, said
the library is taking part in an effort by Hollywood and other cultural
institutions to tap into the "coolness cachet" of Cuba and the regime there.
But

presenting a whitewashed image of Cuba to an American public "completely
ignorant"
of the true conditions on the island harms efforts to secure freedom there,
Mr. Fontova said.

A more political motive may also be behind the library's choice of a theme,
said the author, who was born in Cuba and fled the island for American
shores
in 1961.

Fidel Castro's top priority now, Mr. Fontova said, is "the really big push
to
end the so-called U.S. embargo." So the whole point of the library's
selecting Cuba as a theme, he added, "is to make people feel good about Cuba
and
feel
like 'Gosh, I'd sure love to visit that place - isn't it terrible that we
can
visit Red China and Vietnam and we can't visit Cuba?' "
"That's what they're trying to do here, I can almost guarantee you," Mr.
Fontova said.

The library's Ms. Sanderson, however, said the "Affair in Havana" was
intended only to provide fun and excitement. In making Cuba the benefit's
theme,
the
library and the gala's co-chairs were "savvy enough to know that it can be
quite controversial," she said. But in organizing a party, Ms. Sanderson
said,
"Inherently, you do only focus on the beautiful aspects of something, or the
fantasy aspects of something."

Ms. Werlau said she hopes the library will find a new theme for the gala. If
it doesn't, however, she said she expects the institution to portray more
than
the "beautiful" or "fantasy aspects" of Cuba.

Ms. Sanderson said, however, that the library does not currently plan to
recognize Cuban dissidents and authors at the benefit.

When asked whether the library would consider allocating some of the
benefit's proceeds to supporting independent libraries in Cuba, the deputy
manager of
public relations for the institution, Herb Scher, said he didn't think the
New
York Public Library was allowed to raise funds for other organizations.

"This party is for a very specific purpose. ... It's to get people involved
with the library," he said.
Ms. Werlau said that if the library fails to acknowledge that it is
presenting a falsely positive image of an oppressed nation, there might be
repercussions from the Cuban-American community.

"We might be forced to hold a demonstration to show the people attending the
gala what the reality of Cuba really is, or what Cuba in the '50s has
become,"
she said.

Message from Cuban Dissidents

Via the Miami Herald:

Cuban dissidents seek support for peaceful rally

Cuba today is dominated by a communist regime similar to those that once spread through Eastern Europe. For more than 46 years, power has been exercised by the same man; only one party exists; dissent over official policies is forbidden.

Amnesty International has declared Cuba the country with the largest number of prisoners of conscience in the world. When it comes to economics, the people are mired in poverty; the average monthly wage is less than $10. In sum, all human rights are violated.

Surrounded by this situation, several hundred small independent (not legalized) organizations have decided to join together, form the Assembly for the Advancement of Civil Society and gather peacefully in Havana on May 20 to debate ways to democratize Cuba.

It is easy to understand that, in these circumstances and facing the power of the totalitarian state, our project needs the support and encouragement of the greatest possible number of men and women of good will in the world.

To that end, we respectfully invite you to write and give us your valuable opinions and, if you wish, express your support for our peaceful efforts.

We hope to answer each and every one of you, with much appreciation and recognition.

You may write to us at the following electronic address: mbroque1712@yahoo.es

RENE GOMEZ MANZANO

MARTHA BEATRIZ ROQUE CABELLO,

former political prisoners, Havana, Cuba

CANF going to Cuba

Last week, three Cuban dissidents testified before congress via telephone from Cuba. They were Martha Beatriz Roque, an economist, Rene Gomez, an attorney, and Felix Antonio Bonne, an electrical engineering professor and they supported President Bush's policies towards Cuba.

These same dissidents have invited Cuban exiles to participate in a meeting of dissidents, diplomats and journalists in Havana in May. Organizations such as the Cuban American National Foundation and the Democracy Movement have expressed their willingness to attend the meeting aptly named the Assembly to Promote Civil Society and schedule for May 20.

CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION

Exile group may visit Cuba

The Cuban American National Foundation is encouraging its directors and other exiles to travel to Cuba in May to show solidarity with dissidents. A U.S. government official supports the idea.

BY OSCAR CORRAL

For the first time, the Cuban American National Foundation is encouraging its directors to travel to Cuba -- to participate in a meeting of dissidents, diplomats and journalists in Havana in May.

CANF is urging other Cuban exile organizations to do the same in a show of solidarity with Cuba's budding dissident movement. But its request was immediately rejected by CANF's archrival, the more conservative Cuban Liberty Council.

CANF's declaration came in response to an invitation from dissidents planning the Assembly to Promote Civil Society on May 20.

''There will be a presence of directors and members of the foundation there,'' CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Santos said Thursday. ``We think it's an opportune time.''

The dissidents' invitation, dated Feb. 25, is from Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses, Rene de Jesús Gomez Manzano and Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, three well-known pro-democracy activists on the island.

''This event will mark the turning point for the work that all the member entities in our coalition -- more than 350 -- are doing to help organize the development of a civil society in our country,'' the dissidents wrote.

In the past, CANF directors who wanted to travel to Cuba had to resign from the foundation on principle and for security reasons. Thursday's announcement is the latest shift at a foundation that drove an especially hard line under founder Jorge Mas Canosa, but has more recently come under fire from mostly Republican critics for softening its approach toward Castro.

The assembly is set to occur in a period of communist retrenchment in Cuba and has not been sanctioned by the Cuban government. Some skeptics believe Cuban President Fidel Castro will never allow it to take place. But already, the assembly has received broad international support and attention, and stopping it abruptly would further tarnish Cuba's human rights record.

MIGHT BE REJECTED

Even if Cuban Americans receive a license from the U.S. government to travel to the meeting, the Cuban government can deny them entry.

However, Mas Santos said CANF directors will find ways to get to the island without challenging current travel restrictions and without breaking U.S. law.

For example, current law allows U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba to visit family only once every three years. Most foundation members have not been to Cuba in the past three years, so they can probably get a license to travel there rather easily. Several CANF directors and executive committee members live in other countries, which would make it easier for them to go.

CANF has a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to send humanitarian aid to the island and may be able to use that license to send representatives to the meeting for ''humanitarian'' reasons.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, said he respects exiles who want to travel to Cuba legally to support the May 20 assembly, as well those who don't want to go out of principle.

A State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the U.S. government encouraged people to legally travel to Cuba to support the conference despite Bush administration initiatives to curtail travel to the island.

The official said that U.S. citizens who apply for a travel license under the context of ''support for the Cuban people'' have a good chance of getting a visa.

`A RIGHT'

''Cubans in Cuba and Cubans in America have a right to encourage democratic change in Cuba,'' the official said.

``Anybody who is undertaking these activities, from my perspective, is doing God's work. From a political perspective, does this make sense? Absolutely.''

At least one other exile group, Democracy Movement, said it plans to send representatives to the meeting. President Ramón Saul Sánchez declined to give details.

. The Cuban Liberty Council said that it rejects the idea of traveling to Cuba for any reason while Castro remains in power. CLC Executive Director Luis Zuñiga said that the council is giving ''economic support'' for the assembly but declined to provide details.

If you have read this blog for any period of time you know that I am a staunch supporter of the travel ban to Cuba. I do not agree with people vacationing on the island while the governemt practices its Tourism Apartheid. Yet I have never been against any such trips offering humanitarian aid or solidarity with Cuban dissidents.

I do not agree with CANF on everything, but this is an opportunity to show Cuban dissidents and the Cuban people who strive for some sort of democracy in their country that we Cuban exiles from Miami arent the monsters fidel castro makes us up to be.

This is also a slap on the political face of fidel castro. Having high profile groups such as CANF and the Democracy Movement travel to the island and do exactly what castro has recently tried to prohibit: meeting with those who have dissenting voices.

The question is, will fidel castro allow these groups to enter his island prison?

(Thanks to tonycj for the heads up, however sacrcastic his comment may have been. And I suggest, tonycj, that you read this post, specifically the last paragraph.)

A Tale of Two Independent Libraries

First theres this item about the opening of a new independent library named after Guillermo Cabrera Infante and dedicated to "unveiling the life and work of Cuban writers in exile, who never forgot their homeland in spite of the distance and the official censorship":

HAVANA/CUBA / March 8 /Puenteinfocubamiami.org) - An independent library was recently inaugurated in Havana by the Democratic Party November 30 "Frank País", as part of the activities in remembrance of the famous Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, who died in London at the age of 75, last February 20th, declared sources of the dissidence.

"This Library will have the purpose of unveiling the life and work of Cuban writers in exile, who never forgot their homeland in spite of the distance and the official censorship", pointed to Lux-Info-Press Alfredo Gafas Márquez, a member of the National Directive of the illegal opposition group.

According to the report, the library will open its doors to the public from 10 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon from Monday to Friday, located in Calzada de San Miguel del Padrón No. 4402-06, apartment 4, second floor, between Carolina and Garrido, neighborhood Carolina, municipality of San Miguel del Padrón.

A group of distant cousins of the deceased writer attended the opening of the independent library.

"We send our warm felt condolences to the wife, children and grandchildren of Cabrera Infante on behalf of his relatives in Cuba Yamilet Infante Nades and her brother Julio Infante Nades. He'll always be present amongst us, even though we never were able to establish contact with him", added Roby González Torres, husband of Yamilet.

Guillermo Cabrera Infante died in London, where he resided for more than for more than 40 years.

The Democratic Party November 30 "Frank País" extends its sincere condolences to the relatives of the deceased Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante.

And then there's this item about an independent library having books confiscated that I originally posted on here:

HAVANA, Cuba, February 25 (Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org) - Two officers from the Department of State Security who gave their names as Frank and Ahmed called at the home of María Elena Mir, in Guanabo, a beach community east of Havana, and confiscated several boxes of books and 25 portable radios.

Mir's home houses the Helen Martínez independent library.

The two officers later called at the home of Reinaldo Cosano, also in Guanabo and home to the Benjamin Franklin independent library, and confiscated a photocopier.

Cosano said one of the officers pointed to the TV set in the living room and told him that he "could keep the TV so he could watch the Round Tables and the National Newscast," programs that many Cubans say put a heavy political slant on the news.

The confiscated items, said Cosano, were donations from the people and government of the United States.

What's interesting here is that Cabrera Infante's works have been prohibited in Cuba as well as other works by exiled Cuban writers criticizing castro's regime. How many independent libraries closed by the regime do you think had works by Cabrera Infante or Valladares or any other exiled Cuban writers? Some, it's safe to say.

How long will this new independent library be allowed to stay open? How long before the State Security agents knock on their doors?

There's never an egg timer around when you need one.

(The first news item from NetForCuba.org via Miramar Project.)

My, my, how quaint!

Here's another useful idiot from the Hollywood elite:

The caption reads:

British actor Jeremy Irons shows a box of renown Partagas Cuban cigars autographed by Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) during a banquet during the VII Cigar Festival in Havana.(AFP/Adalberto Roque)

Pathetic.

Arroz, que carne no hay! (UPDATED)

You know those time share deals where you get a free weekend stay somewhere with the provision that you have to listen to some presentation for hours?

fidel castro does the same thing:

HAVANA (Reuters) - President Fidel Castro has given Cuban women some good news on International Women's Day: rice cookers are coming to every household.

In a five-hour 45-minute speech to cheering women on Tuesday night, the Cuban leader announced 100,000 pressure cookers and rice cookers would be available each month at subsidized prices.

"Those of you who like rice cookers, raise your hands," Castro said to applause from hundreds of women. The 78-year-old leader spent two hours talking about the merits of pressure cookers.

Castro's gesture may have carried some irony, coming on a day commemorating women's battles for equality. But many Cuban women, who do the vast majority of domestic work despite advances toward equality under Castro, were only too happy to hear the Chinese-made rice cookers were on their way.

The electric rice cooker is a treasured appliance in communist-run Cuba, where the basic diet is black beans and rice. The cookers were among appliances banned to save energy a decade ago when Cuba was plunged into economic crisis and power outages due to the loss of Soviet aid and oil.

The cookers could be distributed now, Castro said, because Cuba was emerging from the crisis and had resolved its latest energy crunch, caused by a failure of the island's largest power plant last summer.

With average salaries of $12 (6.24 pounds) a month, most Cubans cannot afford rice cookers that now sell for $60 on the black market.

"They will be received with open arms. When the gas goes, you can make beans, boil vegetables or heat up milk for the baby," said a Cuban housewife.

She said electric rice cookers are vital in rural Cuba, where households cook on wood or coal fires when gas is not available.

Update: Some of us just couldnt resist:

Thanks to CB for the image.

I've been outed!!!

If you read the last comment directed to me in this thread at the Black Blogger's forum you will learn that I have been outed. So, in the interest of being transparent and for full disclosure I must confess:

Yes. It was the Miami Cuban Exile Banana Republic community responsible for the election of GW Bush in 2000.

Yes. It was the Miami Cuban Exile Banana Republic community responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

Yes. It was the Miami Cuban Exile Banana Republic community responsible for the war in Iraq and the subsequent rise in terrorist attacks.

We are a busy bunch, we Miami Exile Banana Republicans.

And since Ive been outed, I will now post my agenda for today:

8-9 AM - Milk and Honey while being debriefed on the latest world news and events and criticizing fidel castro.

9-10 AM - Breakfast with Bush. My daily meeting with the POTUS whereby I set forth today's schedule and coordinate foreign policy maneuvers for the day and criticize fidel castro.

10-11 AM - Brunch with Congress. On today's agenda: Implementation of my new campaign finance reform and the empowering of the FCC and criticizing fidel castro.

11-12 AM - Tea with the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare corporations. A discussion on making healthcare more expensive and unattainable and making fun of fidel castro's healthcare myth.

Noon- 1 PM - Lunch with Hezbollah. Coordination of staged protests in Lebanon and criticizing fidel castro.

1-2 PM - Cheese and crackers with the Department of Agriculture. Today's topic: selling more stuff to fidel castro and pocketing my cut and sticking it to fidel castro.

2-3 PM - Hors d'euvres with the NTSB. Ensuring that all security personnel for all airlines and other forms of transportation do not "profile" suspicious characters and criticizing fidel castro.

3-4 PM - Afternoon snack with Michele Malkin and representatives of Close Our Borders. Up for discussion today will be the implementation and installation of border perimeter wall and criticizing fidel castro.

4-5 PM - Tea with the Canadian Prime Minister. Discussing the new Immigration Treaty whereby all leftists will be extradited to Canada and criticizing fidel castro.

5-6 PM - Happy Hour with the Moral Majority. Further talks on making the US a non-secular state and criticizing fidel castro.

6-7 PM - Café and phone calls from the Oval Office. My daily telephone conversations with world leaders whereby I give them their orders for the next day and trade jokes about fidel castro.

7-8 PM - Dinner with MoveOn.org, Media Matters and George Soros. My favorite part of the day where I use my powers of mind control to convince these people that they are actually doing anything worthwhile and hypnotizing same to revere fidel castro.

8-9 Pm - Cocktails with CANF. Planning the next day's Cuban Exile Banana Republic agenda and thinking up of ways to further criticize fidel castro.

I've a full day ahead of me, so blogging may be light. And be careful what you do or say, I'm watching your every move.

My problem with fidel castro?

In the previous post where I take jabs at fidel castro through some "fidel castro is my BITCH" merchandising, I received the following comment from Ric of the Black Bloggers Association:

Excuse me, but what exactly is your problem with Fidel Castro?

Do you prefer the way things were under Batista?

Ric Landers
Black Bloggers Association
http://blacklogs.com

Please reply in the BBA forum so people can learn from this discussion.

And how does one answer that? I have been sitting here for almost two years telling the world EXACTLY what my problem is with fidel castro.Thousands upon thousands or words painstakingly written and thousands of links to news articles and books and other information posted on this blog.

I mean, for crying out loud! What the hell kind of a question is that?

I commented on the BBA's forum that I wouldnt even know where to BEGIN. But, perhaps, Ric, you can take a look at the real Cuba run by the very real fidel castro.

Go through that entire site, then come back and ask me the same question.

fidel castro: BITCH

Remember the fidel castro is my Bitch image that I posted here last month? Well, my good friend and all around nice commie hating guy Aaron - who, incidentally, created the image for me - has set up a fidel castro is my Bitch page on CafePress.

Drop by and check out all the goodies with the Bitch image of fidel in crosshairs. Everything is there. From tshirts to buttons to coffee mugs to thongs.

Imagine a fidel castro is my BITCH coffee mug prominently displayed on the conference room table at your next board meeting! Or a fidel castro is my BITCH tote bag used to carry all those books at the university! And dont forget, what better way to send your loved ones a nice note than with the fidel castro is my BITCH greeting card!

So, go ahead, piss fidel off. Help a capitalist make some cash off his image while calling the bearded bastard a bitch at the same time.

What was that saying about a jackboot?

Here's a few stories coming out of Cuba via Cubanet that show exactly who is in control in the island and how he crushes the spirit of his people.

Corruption:

HAVANA, March 2 (Amarilys C. Rey, Cuba Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - Agricultural worker Raúl Rivero Ferrer was fired from his job at the Arroyo Naranjo farm, and now administrators want him to vacate the house he has occupied with his family for the last 13 years, claiming the house is a benefit that goes with employment.

Ferrer was a supervisor at the Arroyo Naranjo farm, located in the town of the same name on the outskirts of Havana. Farm administrators said they fired Ferrer for negligence and for disrespect to his superiors.

Ferrer said it's retribution for complaining about short-weight feed sacks supplied by administrators.

Control:

SANTA CLARA, March 3 (José Moreno Cruz, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Police took a few pot shots at a man they say they found peddling bread without the appropriate license in the La Chirusa sector of Santa Clara.

The man eluded capture by riding his bicycle through a pedestrians-only area and diving into the Bélico river.

Local residents ran home for cover upon hearing the first shots; they eventually battened down taking little notice of the fleeing suspect. None of them said they could identify him, but police said they have seen the man before engaging in the same activity.

Repression:

SANTA CLARA, March 3 (Belkis Rodríguez Bravo, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Police made yet another sweep February 26 directed against the self-employed street vendors who try to eke out a living on the periphery of the San Miguel market in Santa Clara, arresting a number of them and imposing fines of up to 1,500 pesos.

Police confiscated fish, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables and other produce from the vendors who couldn't get away when the raid started.

Inhumanity:

CIENFUEGOS, March 3 (Alejandro Tur Valladares, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - About 250 strong, police and housing inspectors charged into "El Fanguito" marginal housing area in Cienfuegos February 22, evicting settlers and demolishing their jerry-built houses.

The raid was part of a crackdown by the government on a growing trend by people who simply have nowhere else to live and build shelter with found materials in outlying areas. Eventually whole communities grow out of these settlements.

Many of the structures are built of materials such as sheets of zinc, concrete blocks, palm tree planks, tires of other rubber refuse, since proper construction materials are usually only available in the black market or in the hard currency sector of the economy, at steep prices.

There is no such thing as the individual in Cuba. There is no such thing as progress in Cuba. There is no such thing as a better life in Cuba. The government sees to it.

The Honeymoon is Over

CNN's Lucia Newman and fidel castro have lover's spat.

I dont think I've ever seen a more (or any) critical report from CNN's Havana Correspondent Lucia Newman on Cuba:

03/03/05 - CNN - Cuba Lays Down the Law to Its Tourism Industry

Lucia Newman

CNN: Live at Daybreak
.
COSTELLO: Cuba's government is basically telling tourists to keep their
distance, not from the island, but from the Cuban people.
CNN Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman looks at the new non-contact policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Havana's arts and crafts fair is packed with tourists from nearby beach resorts, like Donna from Canada, who came to Cuba not just for sun and sand, but to meet the people.

DONNA: And my parents have been here nine times. And they love the people.

NEWMAN: Well, getting to know them won't be that easy anymore. A new tourismministry regulation prohibits employees from having any contact of a
personal nature with foreigners, be they tourists or ex- pats. It goes
beyond the normal rules that apply to hotel staff around the world. No
gifts, no tips. And here everyone from the waiter to tourism executives have
72 hours to inform a superior of any non-professional contact that even a
member of their family has had with a foreigner.
Most Cubans that tourists meet while at resorts are employed by the tourism
ministry.

DONNA: So we've enjoyed becoming friends with the local people. So if
they're limited, it's going to affect how they interact with the tourists.

NEWMAN: If a foreigner says anything derogatory about the Cuban government, employees of Cuba's largest industry, tourism, are now obliged to report it. This Canadian couple is stunned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's communist so I guess that's -- they want to rule
your life. And it's very unfortunate.

NEWMAN: The new resolution requires a witness being present during business
negotiations with foreigners, who manage most Cuban hotels. No one would
talk to us on camera.

(on camera): But off camera, both Cuban and foreign staff have plenty to
say, and none of it good. Some even comparing the new measures to the
Chinese Cultural Revolution. And what everyone seems to agree on is that the
attempt to regulate contact between foreigners and Cubans won't work.
(voice-over): With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba turned to tourism,
a necessary evil, said Fidel Castro, that contaminates Cuban society with
capitalist vices and stimulates corruption. Now, to reign in that corruption
that comes with two million visitors a year, authorities are trying to turn
the clock back to the old days, when Cubans didn't mix with foreigners from
capitalist countries.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana

A Canadian couple is STUNNED!!! STUNNED I tell you! STUNNED that they, as tourists, are referred to as corrupt and "evil" by fidel castro!!!! And here they were traveling to Cuba so many times over so many years under the pretext that they were actually helping the Cuban people!

Oh well. Pass the sunblock, Jacques.

Thanks to Phil P. for the heads up.

Question on the Monte Rouge Video

When I posted the Monte Rouge video, I received a few emails offering to mirror the download. Unfortunately, I deleted a bunch of emails and these may have been in along with them.

If you emailed to offer to host the video or have some major bandwidth to share and wouldnt mind getting a bunch of hits, please email me again using the link on the sidebar.

I am still getting a ton of Google searches for the video and would like to be able to post a link to download.

Thanks.

fidel castro Has Small Feet

And you know what they say about men with small feet.

On the Toe Tag:

Morgue
Military Hospital Carlos J. Finlay, Havana
Western Army

Name: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
Rank: Dictator
Cause of Death: National Liberation
Date of Birth: August 13 1926 Biran
Date of Death: Every single day, in the heart of the Cuban people.

Gracias, CB, for the image.

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday and Saturday. I have been suffering a slight relapse from the vertigo with some light dizziness since last week. It hit me pretty hard on Saturday and yesterday was pretty bad as well.

Vertigo sucks, folks. I wasnt able to look in any direction save for straight ahead. Couldnt look down, up or sideways. Standing from any sitting position takes about 5 minutes as you have to do it slowly and then wait for the spinning to stop before walking. If not you fall.

Im feeling a bit better today but unfortunately I cant follow doctor's orders and stay in bed. I have a lot of work piled up at the office so it's off to work I go.

Bear with me if there's a lack of posting today and the next couple of days, Im trying to limit my time in front of the computer. If any of you wish to fill in for me with an entry or two please email me. Id be glad to post them.

Oh, and Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, who is going to Cuba tomorrow to meet with fidel castro on possible trading oportiunities, can kiss my ass.

Message for PBS

From a Marine once stationed in Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba:

We deployed in the vicinity of the fenceline. We met the refugees as they approached, and with weapns in hand, denied them entry to the base. They had managed to traverse a kilometer deep minefield covered by towers with machine guns to get to this point. They had left everything they had ever known in order to get out of there. And we stopped them. We had orders. We had our orders, so we followed them. After enough shouting and threatening, the refugees eventualy gave up and headed back. Back into Cuba. While I was sweating my balls off under the hot sun, these refugees made a mistake. They had gotten through the minefield the first time, but they had not followed in their own footsteps going back. While I was thinking to myself how I wish these people would hurry up and go back so that I could head back to someplace with air-conditioning, one of them stepped on a landmine.

That explosion touched my world.

Then, I witnessed the worst thing I ever saw in my life.

As the dust cloud wafted away from those refugees, nobody ran. Nobody screamed. Nobody said anything.

They just laid down to die in the middle of a minefield that was the sun's anvil.

Think of how badly you would not want to die like that. Think about that real hard. Think about slowly dying of exposure in a minefield. Think about what would make you risk such an outcome. Think about it real hard, and then remember that as bad as that was, it was better than going back.

Despair was once described to me by a college english professor as "the death throes of hope." That day in the minefield was despair incarnate, and it was the worst thing I have ever seen with mine own eyes.

Make a fucking documentary of that.

Amen, Marine. Amen.

The Miramar Project

I support the Miramar Project wholeheartedly. Please drop by and offer your support as well.

(This post was revised. If you want an explanation, feel free to email me.)

...and the hits keep on coming!

Here is a new article from FrontPage Magazine titled "Witless for Peace". I will regale you with a wee highlight:

The WFP curricula focus most heavily on Cuba, where the student group plans no fewer than seven trips this year alone. WFP portrays Castro’s communist gulag as a poverty-stricken victim of U.S. imperialism that that supplies universal health care, housing and nutrition for all, unlike the big, bad USA. College students learn of the economic joys of Cuban tyranny before they turn to the “beauties” of the nation's strictly censored culture and arts. Next, they attend sessions to “uncover the realities behind historic U.S. propaganda against Cuba.”

Read the whole thing, but have your barf bag handy...

The Political Testament of Miguel Angel Quevedo (Updated)

The text below was taken from several sources on the Internet and is attributed to Mr. Quevedo by many websites. I have confirmed with many exiles of that generation that the text rings true.

When I first read it over a year ago I was deeply affected by letter. So, I present it here, as idiomatically translated as I could make it, so it would not lose its power in English. It is a message that still rings true today, thirty-six years later.

(Update: For those of you who want to read the letter and opening commentary in the original Spanish, click here or here.)

Bohemia Magazine was the most popular news-weekly in Cuba and Latin America. Millions of readers followed its political journalism and editorial writings week after week. Intellectuals and politicians from all over the Latin world would send their writings to Miguel Angel Quevedo, Bohemia's publisher and editor, in the hope of seeing their words published in this prestigious journal.

From Madrid, Spain to Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bohemia became the principal voice of opposition to the administration of Carlos Prio Socarras and in support of the insurrection and revolution against the regime of Fulgencio Batista. For decades, Bohemia was enthusiastically scooped up every week from corner news-sellers and news boxes. On July 26, 1958 the magazine published the infamous Sierra Maestra Manifesto -- a document that purported to "unify" the opposition groups fighting Batista's regime. On January 11, 1959, one million copies of a special edition of the magazine were printed. That edition sold out in just a few hours.

After a few months, however, Quevedo, among others, saw that the fruit of their work -- the big lies mixed with unquestionable truths -- infected Cuban society and had destroyed it. Bohemia contributed to its own destruction and to the destruction of the free press and basic human rights that had existed until that time in Cuba.

Miguel Angel Quevedo was able to leave Cuba. But his exile and freedom only increased his feelings of guilt over the suffering of the Cuban people. His guilt overwhelmed him and in August of 1969 he committed suicide. Prior to killing himself he mailed a letter to one of his most distinguished collaborators, the journalist Ernesto Montaner that, in effect, became his political last will and testament.

Mr. Ernesto Montaner
Miami, Florida

August 12, 1969

Dear Ernesto:

By the time you read this letter you will have already heard the news of my death on the radio. I will have committed suicide -- at last! -- without intervention from you or Agustin Alles who prevented my previous attempt on January 21, 1965.

Do you remember? You entered my office that day to deliver one of your articles. We spoke for a while.

You noticed, though, that I was not in the dialog. You noticed that I was worried, sad -- very sad -- and profoundly exhausted. And you told me so. I thought of my sister, Rosita, whom I adore and my eyes filled with tears [. . .] I confessed to you that at the moment you arrived in my office I was thinking of blowing my brains out. And I even mentioned that my only worry was Rosita seeing me lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

I did not want to leave her that last image, having decided -- and I even told you I had considered shooting myself lying down so that upon seeing me she would think I was sleeping.

I remember the look of shock and pity in your face. You stood up, went to my desk, and removed the bullets from my revolver. And there, sitting in my chair, you said, "you're crazy, Miguel, crazy." You spoke to me of God, of the eternal damnation of my soul, of the brevity of life, of how much Rosita needed me and how I would be leaving her alone in this world. You spoke to me of many things. And, seeing that I did not give a crap about any of them, you threatened to call Rosita and the Bohemia employees and tell them. I begged you not to do this. I comprehended the level of responsibility I had thrust upon you with my confession. I swore to you that, on Rosita's life, I would not do it.

Convinced -- for the moment, at least -- that you had deterred my suicide, you left my office. You encountered Agustin Alles as you left and told him of our conversation. You and Agustin went to see Dr. Valdes Castillo. You both called me from Dr. Castillo�s house and had me speak with him. He is a doctor of exceptional talent. He wanted to see me urgently, but I never saw him. We did, however, speak often on the telephone. When he did not call me, I called him. We spoke every day. I never again spoke again to you, however. Forgive me, but I thought you had betrayed my trust divulging something I had told you as a friend in a moment of weakness. And you and I never had any communication, until today, where not you, Agustin Alles, Valdes Castillo, nor anybody could deter me from the road I was determined to travel. You are reading a letter from an old friend, a dead friend. Valdes Castillo was right when he affirmed that the idea of suicide passes through the mind of the patient in the form of smaller and smaller circles, each circle getting smaller until it becomes a point. I have reached that point.

I know that my grave will be littered with a mountain of reproach. They will want to characterize me as the �sole guilty party� in the tragedy of Cuba. I do not deny my errors or my guilt in any way. What I do emphatically deny is that I am the �sole guilty party.� We were all guilty to a lesser or greater degree of responsibility.

We were all guilty. The journalists who covered my desk with damning articles and expos�s about the politicians. These very journalists who were nothing more than seekers of fame and adulation and gladly satisfied the masses� insatiable and brutal desire for revenge. They wore that badge with honor. It didn�t matter who the president was; nor did it matter that these very leaders had implemented good laws and reforms in Cuba. They had to be attacked and, if necessary, destroyed. The same masses that elected them now asked for their heads in the public square.

The people were guilty. The people who wanted Guiteras, and Chibas, and who lauded Pardo Llada. The very people who bought Bohemia, �the voice of the people.� The people who followed Fidel from Oriente province all the way to the Columbia Camp.

Fidel is nothing more than the result of the clash between demagoguery and stupidity. All of us contributed to his creation. And all of us, because we were resentful, demagogues, stupid, or evil, were guilty of helping place him in power. The journalists, who knew Fidel's play book, who knew of his participation in the Communist-inspired Bogotazo, who knew of the assassination of Manolo Castro, who knew of his "gangster" activities at the University of Havana, demanded an amnesty for him and his accomplices for the assault on the Moncada Barracks when he was in prison.

The Congress was guilty in approving that very amnesty law. The radio and television commentators who regaled the congressmen with praise for passing the law and the trash applauding that same Congress from the bleachers were guilty.

Bohemia was the echo of the street -- the street that applauded Bohemia when it invented the lie of "the twenty thousand dead." A diabolical lie, invented by the alcoholic Enriquito de la Osa who knew that although Bohemia was the echo of the street, the street also echoed what was published in Bohemia.

Guilty were the millionaire businessmen who gave Fidel more and more money to topple the regime. The thousands of traitors who sold out to this bearded criminal and who cared more for profits from contraband and theft than about Fidel�s actions in the Sierra Maestra. Guilty were the priests in red robes who sent young people to serve Castro and his guerrillas in the Sierra, and the Church itself, officially backing the Communist revolution with fiery sermons, exhorting the Government to hand in the reins of power.

The United States of America, embargoing arms, destined for the Batista regime and intended for use in its war against the guerrillas, was guilty.

The U.S. State Department, supporting the international cabal, directed by Communists, which took possession of the island of Cuba, was guilty.

The Batista government, and its opposition, were guilty. Because of false pride and not wanting to give in, they failed to reach a proper, peaceful and patriotic agreement. Guilty, too, were those that Fidel secretly sent to sabotage the negotiations and ensure their failure.

The abstentionist politicians, who closed all doors to all electoral solutions, and the press, like Bohemia, who played their game and refused to publish anything related to those elections, were guilty.

All of us were guilty. All of us. By sins of omission and sins of commission. The old and young, the rich and poor, black and white, the honest and the dishonest, sinners and saints. Of course we had to learn the bitter lesson that the poor were the most �honest� and most �virtuous� of us all.

I die disgusted and alone. Condemned, without a country, and abandoned by friends to whom I generously gave financial and moral support during the most difficult days. Friends like Romulo Betancourt, Figueres, Mu�oz Marin. Those titans of the "democratic left" that we discovered had very little of the "democratic" and so much of the "left."

All of them, cold and dehumanized, abandoned me in my fall. When they became convinced I was truly anti-Communist, they demonstrated they were truly anti-Quevedo. These men are the presumed founders of The Third World: the world of Mao Tse Tung. I hope my death has some meaning and that it inspires soul-searching for those who can learn the lessons. So that the press and journalists can never again be the tools of the uneducated and uncontrolled mob. So that the press ceases to be "the voice of the street" and becomes a guiding light along that street. So that the millionaires no longer give their money to those who will, in the end, take it all. So that advertisers refuse to place ads in publications that are tendentious, that plant the seeds of hate and infamy, that are capable of destroying the moral and physical integrity of a nation (or of an exile community). So that the people wake up and repudiate those sellers of hate, whose fruits, we have seen, could not have been more bitter.

We were a people blinded by hate. And we are all now victims of that blindness.

Our sins and vices were greater than our virtues. We forgot the words of Nuñez de Arce: "When a people forsake their virtues, tyranny will rise from their vices."

Goodbye. This is my final goodbye. Tell all of my compatriots that, with arms crossed over my heart, I forgive them so that they can forgive all I have done.

Miguel Angel Quevedo
Caracas, Venezuela

(English translation Copyright 2003 George L. Moneo | All Rights Reserved)

Hey lefty apologists!

Eat this:

From Cuba, three dissidents back Bush By KEN GUGGENHEIM ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Three Cuban dissidents addressed a congressional committee by telephone from Havana on Thursday, praising President Bush's policies and denouncing Fidel Castro.

It was testimony that could land dissidents back in a prison where they all had once served time, lawmakers said. One asked if the dissidents feared that would happen.

"I am simply a soldier for freedom and democracy," said Felix Bonne, speaking over a crackling phone line from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. "I don't want to go back to prison. None of us do. But I wouldn't hesitate in returning if it were necessary to defend the rights of the Cuban people."

The hearing by two House International Relations subcommittees was the latest in a series of acts of mutual defiance and outright hostility between the Bush and Castro governments.

After the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana put up a Christmas display supporting Cuban dissidents, Cuba responded with a billboard emblazoned with photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners and a huge swastika overlaid with a "Made in the U.S.A." stamp.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Cuba as being among the world's "outposts of tyranny." Castro has called Bush "deranged."

At the hearing Thursday, the State Department's top official for Latin America, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, said Castro would be remembered as "a wretched old man who told too many lies."

Congress is sharply divided over policy to Cuba. Farm state lawmakers from both parties and liberal Democrats say more than four decades of U.S. embargoes have failed to end Castro's dictatorship and that policies of engagement are more likely to produce changes.

But Cuban-American lawmakers and Republican congressional leaders favor Bush's hard line. Bush, seeking to deny Castro U.S. dollars, has tightened the embargo, making it harder for Americans to travel to or do business with Cuba.

The dissidents at the hearing endorsed Bush's approach. They were Martha Beatriz Roque, an economist, Rene Gomez, an attorney, and Bonne, an electrical engineering professor.

Roque, Gomez and Bonne were among four well-known Castro opponents arrested in 1997 and convicted of incitement to sedition in 1999 after a closed trial that sparked international protests. They were released in May 2000.

Roque was later among 75 opponents arrested in a crackdown on the opposition in March 2003. She was released for health reasons in July 2004.

Gomez and Roque spoke in English; Bonne spoke in Spanish, with a State Department interpreter translating in the hearing room.

Roque rejected suggestions by Democratic lawmakers that the United States negotiate with Castro. "He only hears what he wants to hear," she said.

Roque also said visits by American tourists wouldn't help ordinary Cubans and would lead to more prostitution and drug trafficking.

The hearing was aimed as much at an international audience as a domestic one. U.S. officials have been disappointed that the European Union recently lifted a suspension on high-level contacts with Cuba that was imposed after the 2003 crackdown.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the Human Rights subcommittee, called the decision "shameless."

Noriega said the United States is trying to persuade the European Union "that the time for engaging a decrepit regime that's on its last legs, breathing its last breath, has passed."

Oh, yeah.

Of course, in about five minutes, we'll start hearing castro's useful idiots ranting and raving how these three dissidents are paid shills of the Bush Administration and work for the CIA and are in with the strident Miami Cuban Mafia and blahblahblah...

Blahblahblahblahblah...

Monte Rouge Video

If you didnt get a chance to see the Monte Rouge video the other day, it can be found here.

Thanks to George of The Universal Spectator for the mirror the help.

Viva Che-eh-eh-eh!

UPDATE: By popular demand, I submit to you, faithful readers, the Che-eh-eh-eh tshirt. Get'em before the lefties at CafePress take them down!

UPDATE II: Also, by popular demand, Che-eh-eh-eh for the ladies!

And now...for a Politics Break

Meet the real Babalu:

Useful Idiot - On PBS? - You're shittin' me?

I just had the following comment posted on the Monte Rouge video post and...I...I just couldnt resist:

I am not Cuban but was fortunate enough to have journeyed to the island before Bush's crackdown on the right to travel in 03... in fact I arrived the day after the so-called crackdown and the execution of the three. I found no sympathy on the island for any of these. And when I heard a chanting mass of people outside the Havana Libre hotel, I was stunned to peak outside and see Castro walking down the street among voracious clapping to a studio to give his response to the wave of hijackings that prompted th execution of the 3 ferry hijackers (who used the same razors as the 9/11 terrorists and threatened the lives of all on board).

How can you equate 3 men hijacking a plane to seek the freedom they do not have to men who hijack a plane to murder innocents? Not that I condone their actions, but certainly they deserve some mercy, if only even because they didnt actually kill anyone. I suppose you are also pro capital punishment here in the States, too, right? Right???

And silly Matthew, dont you know that whenever castro travels anywhere on the island there are lead people who go on ahead of him and gather up "supporters?" Or that they shoo away those who could be considered "subversives?"

I found Cuba the most enchanting place I have ever been. Havana is the most beautiful city in the Western Hemisphere, due to lack of capitalism and strong preservation laws.

Yes, Cuba is enchanting, and Habana was the most beautiful city in the western hemisphere. It is but a mere shadow of what it once was and what it could have been.

And these strong preservation laws you speak of, what are they? I see pictires of today's Havana and I see ruins. Buildings from which you could hear screams of "DERRUMBE!! DERRUMBE!!" Beautiful city, strong preservation laws my ass.

And you are quite mistaken about there being a lack of capitalism in Cuba. Why, the biggest capitalist of the western hemisphere lives and works there. His name is fidel castro.

Compare to Mexico City or San Juan... or Miami. I've never met a more beautiful people - talkative but never pushy - dignified but not stuck up - cultured and educated and truly interested in real things like no other. I was never asked directly for money or was ripped, unlike my time in Mexico. I walked the streets at all times of day with no fear or hassle. Now, material goods are quite low, but basic needs are surely met... unlike the rest of Latin America. And of course, forever gone are the days of racism and class injustice.

I guess we Miami Cubans are a bunch of oafs then right? Not "quaint" enough for you? Does it bother you that in this city of Miami we are equal to you in every respect? that we can eat at the same restaurants, shop at the same stores, go to the same beaches? And what exactly is your idea of the Cuban "culture", Matthew? Do I need to dress in raggedy clothes and speak Yoruba and do a palo mayumbe for me to be "cultured" enough? Like a good little brown person?

Im not surprised you were never asked for money or jacked in Cuba. Maybe it's perhaps because their government frowns upon their people mixing in with you omnipotent tourists? And I guess you have absolutely no problem with "tourism apartheid" either, huh? Were you pro Apartheid in South Africa, too? Im just askin, cause, you know, if not, then this would be a clear cut case of moral relativism.

And, um, if there's no "racial" thing in Cuba, how come its government is over 90% white? Surely that's not representative of the population, is it? And class injustice, nah. That doesnt exist in Cuba either. All those people with government jobs or members of some such party thing that have access to things such as food, superior medicine, internet, cars, homes, etc.. really hate having all that stuff that their comrades dont have, right? Every one is equal in Cuba! unless of course, you have an opinion contrary to the official one. Then you dont even deserve a job or a home or even a voice.

Did anyone see the "My House in Havana" documentary on PBS? May be the best thing I've seen showing both sides of the argument. But I think the tears upon leaving Cuba and change of mind against the Embargo of the woman illuminates what this hatred you all ahve is really about - loss, memory, culture, home, family and the battle of social justice versus moneyed interests.

Im sorry I missed your documentary on PBS. It's just as well, though, you hear one useful idiot, youve heard them all.

Perhaps I can make a suggestion for your next documentary. Maybe you can take the viewer along with you on that journey of yours where to try to find a moral compass?

A Much Needed Repost

I thought I'd repost an entry from June of last year because I think there's a few folks commenting here that should read it.

YO NO VOY!

When my parents left Cuba in the late sixties, they were resigned to the fact that they would probably never set foot on the island ever again. They would never see their home again, or their town. They would never again stroll the parks where they courted in their youth. They prayed that they wouldn't be separated from their families for ever, yet knew that chances were they would never see some of them again. Their loved one's voices had to be locked in memory because exiling would take them a world away.

For years after they arrived in the US they knew little, if anything, about the lives of the families left behind. Phone calls were non-existent, letters sent either never arrived or were censored by Castro government officials. It was the sad reality of the Cuban diaspora.

Back then Castro had the economic support of the Soviets. His regime didn't need US dollars to keep its economy going. So once you exiled, once you left Cuba, that was it. You were no longer Cuban. You were a Gusano. A traitor to la Revolucion. Once you left, you were gone, and Fidel Castro did not allow you back, under any circumstances.

We were real, honest to goodness political refugees. Exiles.

Today's Cuban "exile" really isn't an exile. Exile means banishment, and today's Cubans that have come to the States are not banished from Cuba. On the contrary, they are welcome to visit the island. Encouraged even. It's not just that their families need them, the government can't survive without them. That's why Castro wants them to come back, again and again and again.

There has been quite a lot of commentary and news recently regarding the Bush administration's tightening of restrictions against the island. Critics say Bush is pandering to the Cuban-American vote in Florida. Other critics say the restrictions are dividing the Cuban community and families. Either of these critiques may be true. To which I submit a hardy SO WHAT?

Every four years, every presidential candidate comes to South Florida with a mouthful of promises and Viva Cuba Libres! Every single president since Kennedy has courted the Cuban-American vote. It's nothing new. They come down, tell us they are going to fight to take down Castro, then when elected shuffle some papers around and make little adjustments to their Cuban foreign policy. It's automatic. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

I do however, take exception to certain Cuban-Americans or Cuban "exiles" criticizing the new restrictions. Statements like: "Bush's priority should first of all be to not keep Cuban families apart" are ridiculous to me. As if now it's Bush's fault that they left the island, sought political asylum, and can't see their families agian. Guess what? That's what being a political exile is. That is the hard reality of it.

If you could not have lived without your family you should not have left in the first place.

Every Cuban that exiled to the US up until the '80's knew this and accepted it. Freedom isn't free. You need to earn it. When you left Cuba the only hope of ever seeing the island again was when Castro's regime was gone. History. The US government didn't make you leave Cuba, the US government didnt make you leave your family behind. There's only two people responsible for that, you and Fidel Castro. Castro made the decision to screw your life up, you made the decision not to accept it so you left. It's that simple.

This new generation of Cuban refugees are a product of Castro's revolutionary ideology. Most are completely apolitical. They could care less who is Governor, Senator or President. Unless, of course, the Governor or Senator or President impedes their ability to forward dollars to their family in Cuba or to visit their family in Cuba. Then, all hell breaks loose.

And I feel for these people. I know what it's like to leave family behind. I know what it's like to have aunts and uncles die before ever even meeting them as an adult. I am a Cuban exile. I came here not to make money but to be a free human being. My family left Cuba when I was four years old and there is not a day that goes by where I don't imagine what my life would have been had my family been able to stay.

My aunt, one of the first women to carry me as a baby died before I could ever meet her. She was my father's sister. She died in the late seventies. My father lived with the fact that for the last ten years or so of her life, he was not there. He was not able to be a part of her life. I remember the day she died even though I was a child because I had never seen my father cry. I had never seen his spirit broken. I had never seen him on his knees.

Yet however painful it was, he knew he had done the right thing. He knew that in order to save his family he would have to sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

That is the price of freedom.

Che and College Campuses

I just received the following email from a student at Ohio State University:

Mr. Prieto,

I am a student at The Ohio State University, and a writer for one our student papers. I recently wrote an article about the glorifaction of Che Guevara on college campuses and around the world in general. I quote you and reference your excellent blog, so I thought you may be interested in seeing the article, which is available here.

I hope you enjoy it. Your blog really helped give me insight not available elsewhere. I thank you.

Keep up your excellent work,
Matthew Gross

P.S. My original text was changed in a few spots by my overzealous editor. Hopefully I can get more of my orginal text when the print edition comes out(this story is front page!) And thanks for taking the time to check out the story.

I urge you all to read the article. It's a breath of fresh air coming from the usually Che loving educational arena.

Gracias, Mathew. For seeing the forrest and the trees.

Finally: Monte Rouge (UPDATED)

A few years ago I went to see the Cuban trovador Pedro Luis Ferrer perform at a local club here in Miami. There had been a bit of back and forth here in the Cuban community because Ferrer lived in Cuba and the lyrics to some of his songs were veiled jabs at both the castro regime and the exile community.

I remember he got up on stage, pulled up a stool and picked up his tres. He then adjusted his microphone and said "Thank you for coming out to hear me tonight. I'm not sure how you all heard about my music, they don't allow it to be played on the island and they don't play it here in exile."

In Cuba his music was subversive and in Miami he was a pawn of fidel castro. Why else would he be allowed to play outside of Cuba?

I think the same reasoning applies to the Monte Rouge video to some extent. Here we have a production - a pretty good one at that, considering - made in Cuba that criticizes castro's G2 State Security. It's a subtle criticism, really, but a criticism nonetheless.

Some Cubans here in Miami believe Monte Rouge to be yet another ploy by Cuba's dictator. Some kind of political tactic to garner brownie points on the world stage. Why else would this video be allowed to be produced? Why hasn't anything happened to those involved? Why was it so easy to get outside the island? Why is it that the BBC reported on it so quickly? "castro," I was told,"is using it to engratiate himself with the EU. Showing the world that he does in fact allow dissent in Cuba."

It's a stretch, of course. But, after forty-some-odd years of fidel's political machinations, you never know.

One thing is for sure though. Cuban G2 agents aren't as nice as they are depicted in the video. They dont politely knock on your door and sip café cubano with you. They don't ask you where you want microphones installed. And they dont treat you with kid gloves. The State Security agents in Cuba can only be likened to the KGB or the Stazi. Not nice people. Very no nonsense and very brutal.

So, by posting this video here am I actually helping fidel castro with his plot to garner kudos from the world? Am I now an accomplice? Perhaps.

But there is one minor thing in this video that strikes me. Something that tells me I am doing the right thing.

During the final credits of the film - at the very end actually - there are the Agradacimientos, the "Special Thanks To" that run in every movie. The names of those that helped with the film are displayed there. Then, right after that, there's another category. The "Desagradacimientos", a "No Special Thanks To" category. Under it there's this statement:

A los que no se atrevieron. "Those who didnt dare."

If you live constantly gagged and your voice is always forcibly muted, when allowed even the slightest peep, you take it and hope someone hears you. Even if it's only a whisper.

So, without further ado, directly from the island of Cuba, here's the short film Monte Rouge:
(The video is 15 minutes long, so please be patient as it will be a long download.)

Update: Ive removed the video post as I have exceeded my bandwidth limit and then some. I am still working on adding subtitles and will repost it once they are complete. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Ill let you know where the video will be available for download through another site.

Thanks.

UPDATE: The video is now available for download here.

Hallelujah!

I finally recieved the registration info for the media converter I needed to be able to post the Monte Rouge video without the pesky watermark appearing throughout the film. I am in the process of converting it and willpost it this morning. Sorry for the delay.

While you wait, read the folowing on what really happens to those that try to disseminate information in the island of Cuba, castro's communist paradise:

HAVANA, February 25 (Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org) - Two officers from the Department of State Security who gave their names as Frank and Ahmed called at the home of María Elena Mir, in Guanabo, a beach community east of Havana, and confiscated several boxes of books and 25 portable radios.

Mir's home houses the Helen Martínez independent library.

The two officers later called at the home of Reinaldo Cosano, also in Guanabo and home to the Benjamin Franklin independent library, and confiscated a photocopier.

Cosano said one of the officers pointed to the TV set in the living room and told him that he "could keep the TV so he could watch the Round Tables and the National Newscast," programs that many Cubans say put a heavy political slant on the news.

The confiscated items, said Cosano, were donations from the people and government of the United States.