The Caracas Nine

In an effort to better communicate the pressing issues of human rights in Venezuela, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) released a 4-minute video today on the YouTube website. The clip effectively conveys the troubling situation faced by every citizen of Venezuela who values individual rights and pluralism.

The Caracas Nine program humanizes the current struggle against political persecution while providing an opportunity to assist survivors of human rights abuses. The nine cases are by no means an exhaustive number—there are millions of cases of political discrimination in Venezuela, thousands of cases of human rights violations, and hundreds of cases involving arbitrary arrest, detention, and persecution by the government—but these nine cases serve to convey the current political and social climate of Venezuela.

From YouTube:

How will we know real change when it comes?

When the opposition in Cuba is permitted to point the finger at the dictator of 49 years on Cuban television and tell him he is a liar as happened in Chile.

Until then, you can rest assured that castro inc. will be selling the idea of change without really introducing any. Just window dressing.

H/T Penútimos Días

Police Arrest Student Dissidents in Central Havana

Cuban university students from across the island present 5,000 signatures in support of the "University Students Without Borders" project.

From the Directorio Democrático Cubano comes word that four youths, among them three members of the Cuban Movement of Youths for Democracy (MCJD) were arrested by state political police last night, November 29th. The activists were taken to the National Revolutionary Police Station "Sanja y Dragones" after having joined a sit-in demonstration that had been going on for more than a week outside the "Aguilera" National Revolutionary Police Station in central Havana. Protesters had gathered there to press for the release of jailed dissident Juan Bermudez Toranzo.

Those arrested had earlier taken part in a press conference where 5,000 signatures supporting the "University Students Without Borders" project had been submitted before the public. The project advocates university autonomy through free expression and freedom of association at Cuban universities.

Folks, we need to get the word out regarding these arrests. The more press these arrests get, the better - as international attention may prevent these young dissidents from being subjected to harsh beatings at the hands of the Cuban state security apparatus. Please forward this information to as many contacts as possible.

H/T El Mizzoubanazo

From My Files

For your Friday post-work viewing pleasure, Kodachrome pulled from my files depicting Cuba as it once was. Cuban children enjoy a carnival ride in Havana - 1953.

All to often, we think of Cuba as the third-world disaster it has become, thus forgetting the developed nation it once was. I would hope that these snippets of daily life from decades long-gone serve as a reminder to everyone of the joyous days before night fell on the Pearl of the Antilles.

Another mamey falls from the tree…

U.S. tracking growing intelligence ties between Cuba, Venezuela

Wow, who could have seen that coming?

On a related note, a very reliable Venezuelan source told me a while back that chavez—who lives in constant fear of being knocked-off by one of his own—goes nowhere without his Cuban bodyguards who make up the nucleus of his security detail.

Imagine that; chavez is so loved by his own people that he has to import bodyguards.

Hold the Phone!!!

Stop the presses!!! Hold your horses!!! WAITAMINUTEWAITAMINUTEWAITAMINUTE!!!!

Where, pray tell, oh where, pray tell, is fidel?

I do not know where fidel is
I do not know, Cuban I am
I havent seen him here or there
I havent seen him anywhere.

Media Matters Too Much

At least, most Americans think so.

• 64% of those polled do not trust press coverage of the presidential campaign.

• 89% say it is important to hear about candidates’ personal values and ethics, but 43% say there is not enough coverage of personal values and ethics.

These are just some of the statistics from a newly released Harvard University study. Interestingly enough, I couldn’t find reference to it on a number of media outlets. For a complete article, click here.

The Last Hoorah?

Venezuelans take to the streets yesterday in protest to this weekend's Chavez-athon.

Gateway Pundit has more.

Unfortunately, I think this will probably be one of the last times we'll see the opposition so freely opposing.

The tree is almost bare

Seems the entire conservative leaning blogosphere is up in arms over the GOP debate on CNN this week and the fact that the Castro News Network allowed democrat "plants" to pose questions.

YAWN.

"CNN BIASED? OH SAY IT ISNT SO!!!"

ARMAGEDDON!

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!

DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER!

Se estan cayendo de la mata como mameyes maduros.

Same old story, same old song and dance

Miami, Nov 28 (EFE).- Spain's top official for relations with Latin America said she met here Wednesday with representatives of Miami's powerful Cuban exile community to dispel "certain erroneous perceptions" about Madrid's policy toward the communist-ruled island. Trinidad Jimenez said she told the exiles about the efforts of the Spanish government to serve as a bridge between the Castro regime, the internal Cuban dissident movement and exile groups.

"I explained in detail how the Spanish government is working in its relations with Cuba to clarify certain erroneous perceptions that do not conform to reality," she told Efe after the meetings.

One of the misperceptions, Jimenez said, is that Madrid does not maintain a fluid relationship with Cuba's internal opposition.

"Spanish foreign policy with regard to Cuba includes the relationship with the internal dissident movement as the meetings held in Havana by (senior Spanish Foreign Ministry official) Bernardino Leon demonstrate," Jimenez said.

Spain's secretary of state for Ibero-America emphasized that Wednesday's meetings were enormously fruitful because although some organizations have different points of view, "they understood the logic of the Spanish position."

"We spoke frankly and it was understood, although some do not share (that point of view), that we're working to influence the internal process in an honest and logical manner," she added.

Those mistaken perceptions about Spanish policy toward Cuba arise partly because "there is a debate with a very strong ideological component that hampers dealing more calmly with the complexity of the Cuban matter," she said.

"But it was very good that we exchanged points of view and that we were able to explain in depth the position of the Spanish government," she said.

Some of the Cuban exile organizations in Miami have maintained a critical position toward the Spanish government's dealings with Havana, contending that such a relationship helps to keep the communist Castro regime in power.

Conspicuously absent from this group of “Miami’s powerful Cuban exile community” was any member organizations of Unidad Cubana, which according to its leader, Armando Perez-Roura, was never informed, let alone invited to this meeting. Present, however, were several groups who consider dialog with a lying, repressive, and brutal regime as a viable option in the quest for liberty in Cuba.

Once again, Spain avoids any course of action that might jeopardize their extensive and sizable ongoing investments in communist Cuba. This ludicrous attempt at reconciliation is nothing more than empty words and obfuscation of Spain’s true goals: maximum profit regardless of the suffering of the Cuban people.

Five hundred years of exploitation does not appear to be sufficient for the Spanish government.

Easy to explain

Every day, there are so many reminders of the hell Cuba is today.

No water in a Havana neighborhood.

Police using a bulldozer to knock down a church in Santiago de Cuba.

An anti-government activist violently grabbed off a Havana street, and locked away in a jail cell for 12 hours, with no explantion.

Of course, there is an explanation for all of it, and so much more.

Cuba is a tropical hell, absent of freedom, and all the lesser qualities — like reliable running water — that make a civilized life. It's no accident, it's exactly how the dictators want it, and since they have no compassion for the people, they come down hard on anyone, like a youth activist or church pastor, who calls them on their failures.

There is an explanation for all of it.

Florida's 21st Congressional District

As promised, here's the first of three posts about congressional politics in South Florida. A lot of noise is being made about the 25th Congressional District and there is talk of a "movement to draft Raul Martinez" to run against incumbent, Lincoln Diaz-Balart. I put that in quotes because I think these movements are usually fabricated by the candidates themselves.

In any case the district has been represented by Diaz-Balart, a Republican, since 1993. In November of 1992, Diaz-Balart ran unopposed.

In the mid-term elections of 1994 when the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart received all the votes except 2 writes-ins, 1 each for "Tobias" and Laura Garza.

In 1996, Diaz-Balart again ran unopposed although a person named Seth Galinsky managed to get 4 write-in votes.

In the 1998 mid-terms, Diaz-Balart faced his first Democrat opponent in Patrick Cusack who obtained 25.2% of the vote. Diaz-Balart obtained the balance of 74.8% and the big losers were the write ins. No votes.

In 2000, Diaz-Balart had no opposition but the write-ins came back with a fury with a gentleman named George Maurer receiving 25 out of the 132,000 votes cast.

2002 was the first election after Florida's redistricting but Diaz-Balart ran unopposed.

This is the map of the 21st as it is currently configured.

As you can see from the map, the district begins in the south part of the county and also contains a big portion of Hialeah (more on that later) and extends into Broward County.

In 2004, LDB ran against Democrat Frank J. Gonzalez and won with 72.8% of the vote. Interestingly LDB obtained 63.5% of the vote in Broward county. In Dade county, Diaz-Balart won even more impressively with 74.9% of the vote.

Which brings us to 2006. In that mid-term election, Diaz-Balart once again ran against Frank J. Gonzalez. This time Gonzalez did considerably better and Diaz-Balart obtained 59.5% of the vote. The news was that LDB lost Broward County where he only garnered 43.3% of the vote while he still won Miami-Dade comfortably with 63.3%. While the margin of victory for LDB shrank dramatically it was still a relatively large 19 percentage points. It should also be noted that this was a mid-term election with an increasingly unpopular Republican president in the White House and an election in which the Democrats recaptured the house. Yet to within 19 points is the closest the Dems could get in the 21st congressional district.

Now it looks like the Democrats are banking on the former and long time mayor of Hialeah, Raul Martinez to give Lincoln Diaz-Balart a run for his money. He's got quite a challenge ahead of him to close that 19% differential. But if Martinez can win Hialeah, and carry Broward as Gonzalez did in 2006 he can probably win. Martinez was a very popular and effective mayor for Hialeah but he also has a closet full of baggage that includes corruption charges that he was convicted of but later had dismissed after two hung juries in re-trials. Not only that, political party affiliation plays a relatively small role in local politics. That is obvious because otherwise Martinez would not have been elected in one of the most Republican cities in the country. The question is whether voter loyalties in Hialeah will stay with the man or with the party and its platform. This will be put to the test next November.

My theory is that Martinez would keep it closer than Gonzalez did in 2006 but would lose anyway. I think the voters in Hialeah are sophisticated enough to distinguish between voting for a Democrat mayor where party affiliation is much less relevant and where issues tend to be much less ideologically driven and voting in a congressional election.

Besides the corruption cloud that lingers over Martinez and that is sure to be fodder during the campaign, there's also the problem that at the top of that ballot will probably be a Democratic Presidential ticket featuring Mrs. Hillary Clinton. If I am correct and Hillary is a non-starter for many Cuban voters, I find it hard to believe that many of those voters will turn around and vote for a Democrat colleague of hers and against a candidate they have voted for before and who has carried the banner for the traditional hard-line exile community for years.

Not only that, I'm hearing that to be competitive Martinez will have to raise about $4 million. That's an enormous sum of money for an congressional seat and it's unlikely that the Democratic party will sink a lot of money into the district. Usually vulnerable seats are targeted and unless they have some data that puts the election much closer than 2006, this seat doesn't qualify as vulnerable.

One other thing to consider is that Martinez has never lost an election. While that sounds like a strength, I wonder if Martinez really wants to go out a loser. If he stays out, I believe it will be for this reason.

Stay tuned for two more posts, one about the 18th district and one about the 25th district.

Clinton policy redux

I’d like to provide some clarity for the president. fidel castro is a terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles is not. Trained by fidel himself, Palestinians have been terrorizing Israel for decades, while the Israelis have practiced restrained self-defense.

Fausta has the video, here.

Cuba to EU: Up yours, Yankee puppets

Our friend Luis M. Garcia from Australia has a knack for saying in few words what should be obvious to the whole world. It's a gift I know I wish I had. That's why Child of the Revolution is probably my favorite blog.

His latest offering is about how Cuba continues to publicly castigate European Union despite the fact that the EU has been more than patient and "understanding" in its dealings with Cuba.

I guess in Europe they don't ask themselves the question "with friends like Cuba, who needs enemies?"

The Stars Come Out

‘Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
Appear in Judging or in Writing ill,
Alexander Pope from “An Essay on Criticism”

I was reminded of those lines today when I came across the latest Albor Ruiz article in the Daily News. It is difficult to tell who’s worse here: Alicia Alonso, the celebrities or the columnist. Detailing the campaign which sprang, spontaneously we are to believe, from the Alonso letter, which read in part:

"Let us work together so that Cuban artists and writers can take their talent to the United States," Alonso said in her letter, "and that you are not prevented to come to our Island to share your knowledge and values; so that a song, a book, a scientific study or a choreographic work are not considered, in an irrational way, as a crime.”

No, the crime occurs when some idiot goes to the Havana of the elite, gets the dog and pony show, and returns to agitate for the regime against those evil exiles in Miami. It is a crime against nature to value a poem, or a painting, or a dance more than the well being of your fellow man. But that is nothing new to the eternally shriveling harridan, who one supposes must now direct her ministrations to another part of fifo’s anatomy, as the one she was wont to kiss is out of commission.

According to Ruiz, there are hundreds of signatories, among them:

Sean Penn (check)
Danny Glover(check)
Alice Walker; (check)
Harry Belafonte (check)
Ry Cooder (unfortunately check)
Cristina García* (tremendously sad)

They are asking President Bush to:

First, open a respectful dialogue with the government and people of Cuba; second, end the travel ban; third, begin a process to develop normal relations.

Respectful, they say. Martha, get the smelling salts! What planet are these people from? What is there to respect? Murderers? Thieves? Oppressors? A government that could give two farthings, if such things still exist, about the good of its people? And you cannot have a dialogue of one. The people of Cuba cannot "dialogue" because they are forbidden to speak to you.

Ruiz, predictably, uses the story as a springboard to rail yet again against the embargo:

IN WHAT has become a predictable ritual, for 16 years, the world has sent Washington the same strong message: Drop the cruel trade embargo against Cuba.

It seems to me that humanity, if not the world, would have been far better served by denouncing the oppression of the Cuban people by its own government for the past sixteen years. But no, it is the embargo that is cruel.

Well, as Pope also said, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

*I do not hold her point of view against her, although I obviously don’t agree. I am incensed that she would lend her name to a group of people whose agenda has nothing to do with the welfare of Cubans and who have been vicious in their denunciation of people like her, Cuban Americans

Hotel Apartheid

Dr. Darsi Ferrer, one of the loudest voices in Cuba against the dictatorship's apartheid treatment of the Cuban people, reports on the heavy price two teenage girls are paying, for having the nerve to visit a Havana hotel:

Officers with the "social scourge" (Lacra Social) of the Ministry of Interior, arrested Yanisleydis Borges Lara, 19, and her friend, Gretter Hernandez, 16, for the "crime" of walking along the outside of the Spanish firm Sol-Melia's "Havana Libre" hotel.

The hotel, like all facilities in the tourism sector, are reserved exclusively for the enjoyment of foreigners and members of the power elite. Both youths were detained while under investigation, and today were to be prosecuted in court on charges of "social dangerousness," which under the penal code carries a sentence of 1 to 4 years in prison.

In fidel castro's Cuba, some Cubans are less Cuban than others. Voices in the United States and elsewhere, clamor for the American government to lift what passes for an embargo of Cuba. But they are silent about the embargo the dictatorship places on its own people.

Most Cubans don't enjoy the same high-quality health care enjoyed by the decaying dictator and other elites.

They don't have access to the Internet and other unfiltered sources of news and information about Cuba and the world.

And as Ferrer's report reveals, they can't go to whatever hotel or beach they want to.

Read the rest of Ferrer's story, in Spanish, here.

And be sure to check out his new blog, "Enough of Apartheid in Cuba."

castro's Nothing

The children of the revolution. The “new men” They were taught, for free, to change the world, to violently tear down the system in the name of social justice and equality like che and fidel. Everybody else’s system, that is–not theirs. Within their system they were to be the docile, obedient masses. "Within the revolution everything, outside the revolution nothing."

So it was nothing. Many chose nothingness, non person-ness, exile, prison, even death to fight for social justice and equality. True heroes and revolutionaries trying to make something out of castro’s nothing.

To work within an illegitimate, unjust and corrupt system means that you accept it and thus give it undue legitimacy.

This is why Oswaldo Paya’s Varela Project which aims to achieve change in Cuba by using the island’s communist constitution to bring about democracy leaves a bad taste in so many of our mouths.

Just this Tuesday, another group seeking to bring the proverbial mountain to Muhammad, (do I now get flogged for using the prophet’s name in a metaphor?), is working within the system to bring intellectual autonomy to Cuba’s Universities. There’s a revolutionary idea!

The group called University Students Without Borders Project is the subject of this Miami Herald article:

The small group began seeking signatures in August 2006 and hopes to collect the 10,000 necessary to formally present its cause to Cuban lawmakers.

The brothers showed off a white cardboard box full of signatures in front of about 30 supporters who wore matching white T-shirts and were crammed into an apartment on a central Havana alley.

Along with the Varela project, Paya is also involved in another- working within the system- project which he just founded, the Citizens' Committee for Reconciliation and Dialogue, to campaign for the rights of political prisoners and pursue democratic change.

There’s also a grassroots group of Cuban women, FLAMUR, that has delivered 10,000 signatures to Cuba’s parliament calling for a unified currency and thus the elimination of the convertible peso and monetary apartheid.

Now, as I said, working within an unjust and illegitimate system gives it undue legitimacy, but these working within the revolution projects do serve a purpose. Cuba experts say that the only way to change Cuba’s totalitarian system is to work through the system because any political system, be they good or bad, is going to react aggressively and swiftly against a movement that is trying to tear it down. Thus, the only way to change the system is incrementally and from within.

This is why these projects all serve a purpose. The result of working within the revolution is nothing, just like working outside the revolution. They will show that with castro’s revolution whether you work with it or without it, the results are the same: nothing. 48 years of misery, oppression and sacrifice and nothing to show for it.

CAMBIO.

BUCL reminder

Another reminder that we are looking for bloggers, webmasters, and private individuals to sponsor our latest campaign from Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty.

The details of our plan are available to those who are considering sponsoring for $100. Just drop me an email and let me know a bit about you and I'll send you the proposal.

Below are the current sponsors. Special thanks go out to them for their continued support and trust.

A toast . . . from Marta's Cuban American Kitchen

In the first few years of my family’s exile, we still had high hopes that that whole pesky revolution nonsense would quickly blow over. Every year around the holidays we would make our Cuban egg nog, which we call Crème de Vie (or Crema de Vie - “the cream of life”). Every year we would raise our glasses at our Nochebuena celebration and toast:

“El año que viene estamos en Cuba.”

My family continued hoping and toasting year after year after year.
And time marched forward.
We grew up.
We assimilated.
We married.
We had children.
My parents grew old.
My dad passed away.
Every year during the holidays we make the Crème de Vie.
So much life has happened, and so many years and hopes have come and gone and still we toast:

“Next year we’ll be in Cuba.”

The toast has taken on a life of its own even though it has lost much of its original meaning. But we continue to make the Crème de Vie, and we continue to toast. It’s one of my very favorite Cuban Christmas traditions.

I just made the first batch of Crème de Vie for this holiday season. My daughters helped make and bottle it and, of course, we had to try it. I was about to recite the usual toast, when a new and unexpected hope clutched at my heart and brought tears to my eyes.

I raise my glass to you all with this toast:

“Cambio.”

Crème de Vie (Cuban Egg Nog)

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
6 egg yolks
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup white rum

1) Mix the sugar and water together over very low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves – about 3 minutes. It has to be just low enough so that the sugar doesn’t carmelize, but makes a thick sugary water.
2) Put the egg yolks in a blender and mix with the condensed milk.

3) Slowly add the evaporated milk and mix completely.
4) Flavor with the vanilla.
5) Pour the mixture into the sugar-water and mix together.
6) Finally stir in the rum (as a preservative. =D)

Makes about 5 cups, or two and a half bottles. ;-)

Back in Miami... back to mis cafecitos

At long last, I am back in Miami where cafe cubano is on every corner, and the smell of cigar smoke wafts along the crowded sidewalks. The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina were majestic, but so was the smell of coffee coming out of my espresso machine this morning, complete with espumita.

My most sincere thanks go out to all of you that offered me locations and invitations to enjoy some Cuban coffee during my stay in North Carolina. I did not want, nor intend to take anything away from the people and the beauty of the place--I just wanted un cafecito, coño!

The joker's wild

Received via e-mail.

chavez gets his own time zone; The Twilight Zone

The writers' strike going on here in the US has had no apparent effect on chavez’s ability to come up with new material. To his credit, he is not satisfied with just regurgitating the same old lame communist and socialist rhetoric. And once in a while, he comes up with one right out of left field (pun intended).

Beginning one week after the farcical voting to be held this Sunday (which regardless of what the Venezuelan people vote, chavez will ensure his constitutional reforms receive an overwhelming victory) Venezuela will begin its own time zone. The plan does not call for the country to move ahead into the next, or behind into the previous time zone; the plan calls for Venezuela to have its very own Twilight Time Zone.

On the appointed day, everyone in Venezuela will move their clocks back one-half-hour. So, no matter what time it is in the world, Venezuela will always be off by at least a half an hour. No other country in the world will be on the same time as them.

What is the purpose of this change? Besides his whimsical musings of giving Venezuelan children more daylight in the morning, this only goes to show the world what we have been telling them for years now: This guy is not well in the head. In chavez you have a delusional psychopath who dreams of world domination and now has decided to create his own break in the time/space continuum.

In the end, the time change will be more inconvenient than anything else, but the point here is how this man, with each day that goes by, is losing more and more touch with reality. Combine that with his unbelievable wealth, and soon, his unbelievable power and perhaps all of you may understand my concerns.

I am just waiting for him to show up on TV or in a press conference wearing a tinfoil hat and threatening the aliens from planet J74K, of the Alpha Centauri system, for flying over Venezuela at night without permission or payment of over-flight taxes.

Mental disease is a serious and dangerous disorder; just look at what the last delusional psychopath did with the power he wielded and the billions in aid he received from the former USSR in Cuba.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

Cubans are standing up against the castro dictatorship, by standing up for each other.

At the Aguilera police station in Havana, between 15 and 25 activists are conducting a sit-in, demanding the release of Juan Bermudez Toranzo. Bermudez was arrested Nov. 21 at his home, while leading a fast on behalf of Cuban political prisoners.

And on Wednesday afternoon, about eight activists started a protest outside the Guanabacoa police station, also in Havana, according to a report by independent journalist Tania Maceda Guerra, posted at Payo Libre. They are demanding the release of former political prisoner Manuel Pérez Soria, who was arrested Tuesday. At the time of his arrest, Pérez was on a hunger strike, started to force police to return to him his identity papers.

Another activist arrested with Pérez, Vladimir Alejo Miranda, was released after about six hours of interrogation, according to Maceda's story. But Pérez remained in jail — because he didn't have his identity papers.

These are small protests, unlikely to force the police to do anything it doesn't already plan to do. Nonetheless, they are vital — and in the end, key to victory in the struggle for freedom — because they demonstrate the willingness of at least some Cubans to stand as witnesses to the crimes of tyranny.

Whether they are the Damas de Blanco marching on behalf of their loved ones, activists holding fasts and vigils for political prisoners, or small groups sitting-in for their friends, they are letting the dictatorship, and the world, know that they will not go down without a fight.

Ultimately, as their faith and their determination to stand for each other demonstrates, they will prevail.

The twisted mind of Hugo Chavez.

It's hard to believe that anyone can take Hugo Chavez seriously. Lately he hasn't been able to get out of the news. First it was the confrontation with the King of Spain. Then it was the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe. And now it's CNN. The Spanish language version of CNN aired a report about the aforementioned dust-up with Uribe and erroneously put up a graphic with the words "who killed him"? under Chavez' picture. The graphic referred to the next story which was about the murder of Sean Taylor, the Washington Redskins player who was shot in his Miami home on Monday morning.

But Chavez explains that this is a call by CNN to carry out a magnicide. Didn't anyone ever tell this jackass that CNN is the Castro News Network? Besides if CNN wanted Chavez dead wouldn't they say "Someone kill Chavez!" instead? Or perhaps they could start broadcasting what's really going on in Venezuela. Someone might get mad and do the deed.

What an idiot.

Settlement in custody case

The custody case of a 5 year old Cuban girl was settled today. The biological father of the girl was awarded custody but must stay in the United States until 2010 as part of the settlement. The foster family of the little girl (which adopted the girl's half brother) will have visitation rights.

Who knows what really happened here? Were the father (Rafael Izquierdo's) attorneys afraid of what a higher court might rule, especially in light of allegations that they fabricated evidence? Did the father begin to like having 3 square meals a day and an air conditioned apartment? Did the castro regime determine that with an upcoming presidential election and a Democrat leading in the polls that would be better to not draw the ire of the Cuban-American electorate and galvinize them in their hard-line anti-castro stance? Who knows?

I'm very happy at least that the girl will be able to maintain her relationship with her brother, the one constant in her life.

Of course Izquierdo could load his daughter on one of those go-fast boats that routinely go to Cuba on smuggling runs and disappear just like that.

For God Knows What

After the Spanish King told Hugo Chavez to shut up in Chile, “old man” castro called him on a cell phone. His faithful protégé tried to put the call on speaker but was unable to figure out how to do it. He also claims he didn’t hear the King Juan Carlos shut him up and that CNN is a “right wing, fascist” news channel that's participating in a psychological warfare to instigate his magnicide.

This interesting article by Jose de la Isla who writes for Hispanic Link ties castro's telephone call to Chavez with the castro backed Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, Cuba’s “special period”, Iran-Contra, the 1991 Fourth Congress of Cuba's Communist Party, and the recent poll by the IRI showed that Cubans overwhelming support for a more democratic system (76 percent) and a market-driven economy (84 percent) in less than 650 well written words.

My Favorite 68:

… the Old Man, in his fantasy ideological heroics and scarcity economics, did not take people's simple needs into account. Instead, he created Depressionlike queues for mealtime commodities…

… Among the Old Man's last gasps over the cell phone to Chavez was not braggadocio concerning how many he helped live but about squandering lives and the country's treasury to resist, to fight, to die -- for God knows what.

48 years of sacrifice, misery and oppression for God knows what…indeed.

He’s So Delusional

Just because he’s paranoid……

Doesn’t mean that people aren’t out get him.

Mr. Congeniality, Hugo Chavez, has taken on the presidents of Chile and Columbia, the King of Spain and the Catholic Church in the span of few weeks with his inimitable street thug charm.

Some theorize that he’s just setting up diversionary smokescreens so that Venezuelans and the rest of the world don’t debate the proposed constitutional power grab this coming Sunday.

Some say he’s paranoid and delusional.

Now, he’s accusing CNN of instigating his murder:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday CNN may have been instigating his murder when the U.S. TV network showed a photograph of him with a label underneath that read "Who killed him?"

Imagine that…CNN doing something that's in The United States’ best interest…I know…you can’t.

Based on that last report, it looks like delusional is wining out.

Cuban-Americans and Presidential Elections

A look back and a look forward.

Regular readers know that I've often commented about the media's overwhelming desire to tell a story of changing voting patterns among Cuban-Americans. I've shown how the party affiliation trends have remained basically unchanged for the last 15 years with 2/3 of Cubans registering Republican and the balance split between Democrats and independents. Well in less than 49 weeks all of these theories are going to be put to the test. We'll of course be watching. That said, I thought I'd lay out the history of voting trends among Cuban-Americans over the past 20-30 years.

Since our elections are based on secret ballots we can never know the exact number people of a certain demographic characteristic that voted for a particular candidate. So we need tools to approximate those numbers. The most common tool is exit polling. You poll a representative sample of voters as they leave the polls and make projections based on that. The people that conduct the polls from year to year can vary, and in a given year there can be more than one exit poll. Another way is to look at the voting results from precincts that are overwhelmingly homogeneous. This has limitations too. Over time populations shift. For example there are far fewer Cubans living in Little Havana today than 25 years ago. So you need to find precincts that haven't changed much over time.

As I researched this post I discovered a fascinating phenomenon. Many of the articles written about Cuban-American voting trends use apples and oranges comparisons that don't hold water. For example in one article the author cites an exit poll showing the percent of Cuban-Americans that hat voted for Clinton in 1992 but when discussing the the 1996 election, the statistics were not for Cuban-Americans but for Hispanic voters in Florida. Just in case you don't know, Cuban-American voting patterns have been consistently different from those of non-Cuban Hispanics. Cubans tend to be more conservative and vote Republican while non-Cuban Hispanics tend to vote Democrat. Not only that, but non-Cuban Hispanic immigration in Florida has been on the rise over the last couple of decades. In short, you have to be really careful about which data you use and that you use it consistently.

According to this paper about Hispanic voting trends Ronald Reagan "received 80 percent of the vote in the predominantly Cuban American precincts of southern Florida. This was the beginning of a trend that would continue through all of the presidential elections into the 21st century."

The same paper continues:

The Cuban vote in Florida turned out to be an important factor in Clinton's reelection. Clinton received 35 percent of the traditionally Republican Cuban American vote, a 15-percentage-point improvement over his 1992 showing.

If Clinton had 35% of the vote in in 1996 and that 15 points higher than 1992, simple subtraction dictates that he got 20% in 1992. That's presumably not significantly higher than Carter got in 1980 (there was an independent candidate on the ballot that year so it's not a zero sum game). The 1996 election is considered the high-water mark for Democrats with regards to Cuban-American voters. I make that distinction because we're going to use that as a benchmark when we analyze the post-election reporting next November.

To put Clinton's 35% among Cuban-Americans into perspective, George McGovern managed to obtain 37.5% of the national popular vote in one of the biggest landslides in U.S. Presidential Election history in his 1972 loss to Richard Nixon. The Democrats' "big win" with Cubans in 1996 was not even McGovernesque.

Even so it was a substantial jump and we should consider the circumstances of the 1996 election. Clinton was an incumbent president, the economy was booming and the Republican nominee was particularly weak. With regards to Cuba, President Clinton had signed the Helms-Burton bill, which strengthened the embargo against Cuba, into law. Hugo Chavez had not yet been elected in Venezuela and Cuba was in the middle of the "special" period. In short, Cuba was broke and it looked like regime was finally going to fall.

Now let's look at the 2000 election. The most significant (though not the only) factor in that election with regards to Cubans was the Elian saga.

The anger directed toward Clinton and the Democratic Party caused many Cuban American citizens -both Democratic and Republican to cast their votes tor George W. Bush. Nationwide, 67 percent of Latinos cast their votes for Gore, but in Florida he received only 19 percent of the Cuban vote-and lost Florida by a mere 537 votes.

Two things to note here. First is that Clinton's actions vis-a-vis Elian cost Gore the election. Of that there can be no doubt. Despite Gore's attempt to separate himself from those actions Cuban voters punished the Democratic candidate. I believe that this was a moment of truth for the Democrats with regards to Cubans, one in which they reaffirmed in the minds of many Cuban voters that they can't be trusted to handle the Cuba issue. As a result Gore's numbers among Cuban-Americans were no better than Carter's.

In 2000, Andrea Mitchell's predictions came to pass

2004 is an interesting case. It's been more difficult to find data about how Cuban-Americans voted in that election. There was a lot of build up to the election with the local Democrat talking heads saying that Cubans were abandoning Bush in droves.

On election day, the liberal blog, the Daily Kos, reported that Kerry had won 32% of the Cuban-American vote.

This web site also claims that Kerry obtained about 1/3 of the Cuban-American vote while the St. Pete Times reported that "In two overwhelmingly Cuban-American precincts in Hialeah, unofficial returns showed Kerry winning about 25 percent of the vote."

Assuming the higher number is correct and Kerry got 33% of the vote, it's still lower than the McGovern-like percentage Clinton obtained in 1996 (though significantly higher than what Gore obtained in the immediate aftermath of Elian). But it's also still in line with known party affiliation percentages. It certainly was not the giant stride that people like Joe Garcia and other pundits were predicting.

Now the question remains, what will 2008 look like? There's a lot of things to factor into that calculus. First of all and most importantly is the fact that the likely Democratic nominee is Mrs. Clinton. If Gore couldn't escape the wrath of Cuban voters had for Clinton after Elian, how can Mrs. Clinton? Of course time has passed and perhaps memories fade. I'm sure that's what the Democrats are hoping for.

Then there's the idea out there that somehow a lot of Cubans are angry with Bush especially because of the strengthened travel ban. My opinion is that the ones that are angry are either part of the 20% that voted for Carter in 1980 or Gore in 2000 (in other words, people that would never vote Republican), or the more recent arrivals many of which are not yet eligible to vote. Even if there are some Cuban-American voters that would prefer more lax travel to Cuba, one has to ask oneself it it's a galvinizing issue. Again, in my opinion, the answer is no. The person that really wants to travel to Cuba does so. This is certainly not a case of Elian in reverse. I have a hard time believing that thousands of heretofore unregistered Cuban-Americans are going to run out and register so they can vote Democrat to defeat the travel restrictions.

Next time we'll look at the congressional elections and see where we've been and where we are likely to go.

The Utility of an Idiot or Two or Three

When the fulfillment of multi-cultural interest and exposure is limited by the arbitrary acts of any government; when the dialogue and interaction between artists of one country and any other is banned, we begin to humiliate our own humanity. It has been said that the poets are the unacknowledged legislators of any given era. Let’s let those poets in the United States and Cuba interact.
Sean Penn
(Sean, boyo, does that mean you’re willing to forgo the photo-ops?)

President Clinton helped us bring Buena Vista Social Club out to the world. President Bush helps his gangster buddies in Miami make more money. You be the judge!
Ry Cooder
(Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid when I was in Havana.)

As a basic democratic tenet Americans should support freedom of travel and of exchange between Cuban and American artists whose culturally diverse imaginations and creative collaborations are so necessary to dismantle the immoral blockade and censorship that impedes citizens from both countries in their projects to build respectful, just, and peaceful relationship between our two countries.
Danny Glover
(Immoral, censorship, just, where do you even start?)

In a PR release on the business wire in support of a new campaign unleashed in response to Alicia Alonso’s letter. If they only expended the merest fraction of their seemingly limitless self-righteous indignation on the treatment of Cubans by the regime….

In the immortal words of Deep Throat...

Follow the money.

For a Foreign Policy blog from a Foreign Policy publication written by Foreign Policy experts, they sure do have an elementary knowledge of the whole Cuba thing, dont they? That's surely a big Foreign Policy Tree those Foreign Policy Expert Fruits are falling out of, no?

The Magic of castro Copperfield.

Let’s face it, folks. As much as we dislike castro, we have to, at times, give him his due. The guy is a magician.

Even though tourism is down because of global warming, bad service and the embargo, sugar production is down to levels before the revolution- that’s THE revolutionary war, not castro’s 1959 fiasco-because of bad weather, world surpluses, low prices, corruption and mismanagement, (according to raul), and the embargo, manufacturing is down because of bad weather, corruption and mismanagement, (according to raul), and the embargo, we learn that the Cuban economy is expected to grow by 10% in 2007. Magic.

The Miami Herald, in this AP article, hails this magic trick as :Cuba makes an economic ascent. Wow! The ascent trick! How do they do that? Of course, like any good magic trick, they can’t tell you how it’s done because if they did, well, it wouldn’t be magic:

Cuba includes state spending on social and healthcare programs when calculating its growth rates, a methodology that makes its figures difficult to compare with those of other countries.

We just have to take the magician’s word for it, for the sake of the illusionary experience.

That’s a great magic trick, but it’s just the warm up. The real magic trick is the way it all disappears. Triple digit growth three years in a row and absolutely nothing to show for it. Not even toilet paper.

CAMBIO

S&M, anyone?

Well the pesky religious police from the Religion of Peace® are at it again. This time the offender is a -- GASP! -- teacher who named a teddy bear "Muhammad." Yes, you heard it right. Forty lashes for her.

The sound of crickets chirping....

I know it's kinda quiet here for a Wednesday morning - eerily crickets-a-chirping and owls-a-hooting quiet - but fret not readers, more content will be on the way just as soon as I find my whip and get it cracking.

In the meantime, please use this as an open thread and make all the noise you want in the comments. But please, try not to break the furrniture, ok?

Once a Librarian, Always a Librarian

First Lady Laura Bush met yesterday with Cuban independent librarians Noelia Pedraza Jimenez, Roberto de Miranda, Iraida Rivas, and Nereida Rodriguez and her daughter Yurisel. Mrs. Bush spoke of her admiration for the work of the independent librarians in Cuba who provide a source of uncensored information to their countrymen at great personal risk, and expressed solidarity with them and their cause.

Of course, you will find nary a mention of this particular meeting in any MSM report.

More good work from Dr. Darsi Ferrer

On November 9, Dr. Ferrer, tirelessly working to better life for the Cuban people, took part in a humanitarian event, and helped distribute donated goods to tens of people, mostly women and children. Food, medicine, clothes, toys, and children’s literature, items normally unobtainable for these poor people due to government imposed poverty.

Here are a few photos sent by Dr. Ferrer: (click to enlarge)



Montaje de fotos: Manuel Benito de Valle


Please support Dr. Ferrer's campaign for change in Cuba, CAMBIO, and Claudia still has some bracelets for sale, with all proceeds going to Dr. Biscet's Lawton Foundationfor Human Rights.

Read Dr. Ferrer's Iniciativa: "No a la Exclusión Social," en español, below the fold.

INICIATIVA: "NO a la Exclusión Social".

Por el Dr. Darsi Ferrer, dir. Centro de Salud y Derechos Humanos "Juan Bruno Zayas".

Otra acción humanitaria se realizó en la villa miseria propiedad del estado, albergue "Sexto Congreso", el pasado viernes 9 de noviembre, donde se beneficiaron varias decenas de seres humanos, principalmente mujeres y niños, con la entrega de recursos esenciales de los que carecen, pues sobreviven en pésimas condiciones marginados por el gobierno.

Miembros del Centro de Salud y Derechos Humanos "Juan Bruno Zayas" donaron alimentos, medicinas, ropas, juguetes y literatura infantil en dicho lugar. Además, se brindó asistencia médica a los enfermos y se dieron charlas educativas a los residentes sobre la prevención y preservación de la salud.

En el país existen miles de albergues, intencionalmente construidos en las periferias para ocultar de la vista pública la situación deplorable en la que mantienen a esos cientos de miles de cubanos.

La actividad pudo materializarse gracias a la ayuda solidaria de organizaciones y personas de buena voluntad que contribuyeron con la mayor parte de los recursos, entre ellos:

Organización People In Need, de República Checa.
Sociedad Internacional de Derechos Humanos, de Alemania.
Junta Patriótica, (Mayda Caldín y Julio Cabalga).
Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana, (Laly Samper)
Unión por Cuba Libre, (Roberto Azcuy).
Plantados, (Ángel de Fana).
Departamento de Prensa y Cultura de la Oficina de los EEUU.
Henry Aguero, cubano exiliado.
En especial, Manuel Benito de Valle (español comprometido con la suerte del pueblo cubano) y Milena Almira.

Toda persona que por sensibilidad humana desee contribuir con estas acciones humanitarias puede contactar a la señora Yusnaimy Jorge Soca.

Datos personales:
e-mail: yusnaimyjorge@yahoo.com
Dirección: Calle San Bernardino 265 entre Serrano y Durege, localidad Santos Suárez, municipio Díez de Octubre, Ciudad de la Habana, Cuba.

Nota: Consultar informe - "Albergues: ¿Comunidades de Marginales o Marginados?” -
para obtener información sobre la situación de los albergados.

En Ciudad de La Habana, a 15 de noviembre de 2007.

On Solidarity, Friendship and the Cuban Spirit

We set off for Alquizar at eight in the morning, intent on celebrating the birthday of a dear family friend as best we could, with what little we had: Rice, beans, yucca, and avocados. The starchy feast would be accompanied by so many bottles of rum that by the time the storm came, many of us were forced to wander across a muddy field towards the safety of an old canvas-covered flatbed truck, arm-in-arm. A heavy downpour ensued and although I initially thought the party was over, I was pleasantly surprised when a few of the revelers wedged into the back of the dusty vehicle began to sing. Eventually, the rum bottle made its rounds and the jokes began:

Oye ‘Tasio tengo otro chiste:

“A little boy named Carlito once asked his father how society is organized under the socialist system. The father, a government official, answered, saying it was organized much like a household – The father is the party, the mother is justice, the maid is the working class, Carlito reflected “the people,” and his younger brother, the future. The following day, the boy ran to his father with a smile across his face, remarking that he now understood what he meant: Last night, papi, the party was screwing the working class as justice slept, the people were neglected and the future was covered in shit.”

We would remain in that truck for the better part of an hour, 15 pairs of muddy feet and sodden “chorts,” eventually watching the sun dip below a horizon of lush green vegetation, perfectly content to be with each other. For all the things the “Revolution” has taken away from the Cuban people, it has never been able to vanquish the spirit that is purely cubano. Of all the things I drank to on that afternoon, solidarity was by far the sweetest one.

I miss you all.

My hat goes off

Today is my fourth day in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. The views are, to say the least, unbelievable. Everyone we have dealt with since we have arrived have gone out of their way to be nice and helpful. There is just one thing missing that would make this trip perfect: Café Cubano!

To my surprise, and dismay, most places up here do not even have espresso machines. And the few places we have been able to find that do have espresso have been disappointing. It makes you wonder which is worse; watered down espresso, or no espresso at all. Oh well, that is what I get for forgetting to pack our portable, plug-in cafetera.

Moments like these remind me of how lucky I am to live in Miami and have access to practically anything Cuban I need. It also reminds me of all of you out there that live throughout the US, and the world, far away from any Cubania.

To all of you out there that have held on to your Cuban heritage far from all things Cuban, my hat goes off to you!

An offer we should refuse

"The new (US) administration will have to decide if it wants to keep the absurd, illegal and failed policy against Cuba or whether it accepts the olive branch that we offered' on December 2, Raul Castro said, referring to statements made in a speech last year.

'If the new US authorities finally step aside from their arrogance and decide to talk in a civilized manner, they're welcome,' he said.

'If not, we are ready to keep confronting their hostility policy even for 50 years more,' the defence minister said, adding that Cuba 'substantially increased' its 'defensive capacities' in the past year."

That's an olive branch? Sounds more like saber rattling to me. It is Cuba, and not the U.S. who has been hostile for 50 years. It was Cuba, who expropriated American property, and still refuses compensation, and not the other way around. It was Cuba, and not the U.S. who attempted a horrific terrorist attack against the innocent citizens of New York, and wanted to nuke the U.S., not the other way around.

As for Cuba's defense force, raul has always spent Cuba's resources on arms to defend the illegitimate castro regime, instead providing for the Cuban people.

When is the castro regime going to behave in a civilized manner and cease hostilities against the Cuban people?

We interrupt this program...

For a brief political advertisement

Shooting ducks in a barrel

This morning Marc posted a link to an youtube video with a question for the Democratic candidates recent debate. Thanks Marc for putting me in a crappy mood all day. In order to let off the steam that the useful idiot's logic built up in me, I decided to post a video response to his question. Enjoy

A little more to the left, Presidente Bonehead

Sometimes, photographs are perfect:

H/T Aymee.

Elections, Cuban Style

Anyone that follows Cuba even slightly has seen one of countless articles that have been written about the farcical elections that are coming up in Cuba. All of the articles come to the same conclusion, that these "elections will determine whether fidel castro continues as 'president'".

And this is why foreign news agencies maintain Cuba bureaus? To give us the same regurgitated crap from Prensa Latina and Granma?

The ruling, signed by interim leader Raul Castro and read on state television, set the date for elections to provincial and national assemblies — voting that is held every five years.

There was no explicit mention of Fidel Castro, but the 81-year-old leader of the Cuban Revolution must be re-elected to the national parliament before he could repeat as president of the Council of State to remain in full power.

Imagine that. "Elections" in January and Cubans still don't know who the "candidates" are. But then again why would they need to know since there's only one party and the candidates run unopposed? Saves a lot of money on campaign ads. Memo to self: keep this in mind when Joe Garcia and other "netroots" Dems talk about "publicly financed elections".

My prediction on what's going to happen with these so-called elections. fidel will not appear on the ballot except maybe for some new position they create for him, we'll call it dictator emeritus. raul castro will be on the ballot and will become the "president". And all of the news media will tout the transition of power though it's no transition at all. Then the drumbeat will begin in earnest. With fidel "officially out of power" they will say that the time is now to lower the embargo and embrace Cuba. Fasten your seatbelts folks, the communist propaganda machine is just getting warmed up.

Instead of just watching it happen I suggest that those of you that agree with me that the U.S. should maintain as hard a line as possible on Cuba until democracy is restored begin to denounce these sham elections and the monarchical succession they are meant to camouflage. The only change required is change ON THE ISLAND. Real change. Not castro communism with a new face. Then and only then should the U.S. consider dropping the embargo.

Jeff Jacoby speaks the truth

And doesn't allow the rhetoric of "perceptions" get in the way.

Check out what our friend José Reyes has to say about it at Cubanology.com.

Who needs a fence?

We do.

The First Generation

I'd like you all to read the following, then the letter I received from the blog's writer which I posted below the fold. It's from another addition to our Cuban-American blogging family, this baby named "La Primera Generacion", the First Generation:

Debut

After a year and a half of scouring other people's blogs (mostly regarding Cuba), I've decided it's time for me to try my hand. Who am I? I'm 21 years old, a first generation Cuban-American, born in the great city of Hialeah but grew up in the Kendall area of Miami.

Spent 18 years surrounded by my Cuban family, but it was only when I turned 20 that I realized I knew nothing about my origins. Sure, I knew "Cuba si, Castro no," but that was about it. Had anyone asked me to explain my views, I would have been grasping for words. When I was 13 and Elian was all over the news, I was just one of maybe two Cubans in the classroom. When the topic came up in Civics class, I couldn't defend myself against the rednecks from Homestead.

Then, I turned 20. What's the significance? I turned 20 on August 1, 2006, and on that day everybody on my floor at work had two reasons to congratulate me. When a 55-year old senior Managing Director came over to my cubicle came to ask me about what was going on in Cuba, and I didn't have many substantial things to say, I realized that I desperately needed information. That's when I found BabaluBlog.com, and I haven't stopped reading since.

My family never sought to educate me on Cuba, never told me their stories, just let me go about my studious ways. Let me go off to school in Boston, where I would be representing my culture without a real sense of what that culture was. Don't get me wrong, I don't hold anything against them, but I do wish they would've talked to me about it more. After a year and a half of reading blogs and books, I've been told that I'm the most knowledgeable one in the family when it comes to Cuba. Can you imagine that? Me, a 21-year old who has never set foot on the island.

I'm assuming most of the people who read this (if any) will be older than I am, and may already have children. So I leave you with this -- educate your children early about what's going on in Cuba now, what has happened in Cuba over the past 60 years, and what being Cuban is all about. They'll thank you for it in 20 years.

Here's the letter I received on Friday:

Val,

Yesterday at Thanksgiving, I gave thanks for you and the other bloggers, who seek to enlighten the world about what's really going on in Cuba. I'm writing to let you know that after reading your blog for a year and a half, I have been inspired to try my hand at my own blog called La primera generación. I feel that I bring a fairly unique perspective to the table. I'm a 21-year old Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami, but currently reside in both New York City and Boston. I've been working in NYC while I finish my undergrad at MIT in Boston. Had I gone to school at UM or FIU, I probably would have been involved in one or more of their many Cuban organizations and programs. However, I chose to head north to pursue my passion for science, technology and finance and therefore have not had the opportunity to get involved. I can count the number of Cuban-Americans at MIT on my hands.

The extent of my knowledge about Cuban affairs only dates back to a year and a half ago, when I started reading Babalu, but I have been aggressively seeking information since. I've read a bunch of books, including "Child of the Revolution" and "Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots who Idolize Him." Next on my list is "The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution." Thanks to Babalu, I went to the great talk Prof. de la Cova gave in NYC. He signed my book and we've exchanged a few e-mails regarding his research.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about what I've written so far. I'd also love to sponsor the current BUCL campaign, though my blog has approximately 0 readers to date.

I can't thank you enough for educating me over the past year and a half.

Best regards,
M.