I Am Going to Jequié
After a denial, the majority of those seeking permission to travel give up going back to ask again. A few, very few, continue to insist when they’ve heard the phrase, “You are not authorized to travel,†more than three times. Only a handful of stubborn ones, among whom I include myself, return to the Department of Immigration (DIE) to demand the so-called white card that has been denied on four occasions. Although with each new request it would seem the possibilities become more remote, I’m driven to make it clear that my imprisonment on this Island has been for my not having exhausted all legal avenues.
Under this philosophy of the impossible I’ve launched another application in the direction of the Plaza municipality’s DIE, this time to go to the city of Jequié-Bahia in Brazil. In July there will be a documentary film festival where a young filmmaker will present a short film about Cuban bloggers; if I miss it it will be because I’ve received the sixth “No†in just two years. As with all previous applications, the letter of invitation has arrived on time, my passport is up-to-date and my criminal record is spotless. In theory, I meet all the existing requirements to cross the national frontier, but I am still emitting critical opinions and this turns me into a special kind of criminal.
For this trip I have decided to knock on as many doors as possible, and have even sent a letter to the Brazilian president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. Who knows if, failing to listen to the demands of its own citizens, my country’s government has receptive ears when a foreign dignitary speaks. My friends are hinting that I have become, at the DIE office, just another piece of “office furniture†with the little metal inventory tag nailed to my shoulder blades, like on all the other furniture in state institutions. I can only smile at such jokes and shake off the despair with a nice play on words: “I am going, yes… I am going to become accustomed to staying.â€
Julio 3rd, 2010 at 09:39
Post 66, perpetaul repeater complaining about others “repeating” themselves…!!!
Hillarious!!!
What’s next?
Hey, I know!!!
But, not telling… Don’t want to repeat myself…
Junio 28th, 2010 at 02:38
65Barbara Curbelo
Junio 27th, 2010 at 10:56
#63 - yo creo en libertad con todo mi corazon, that’s why I want a foreign nation to rule Cuba…
No concept of national identity; of history; of self!
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This is the new repetitive propaganda aimed on cuban people…… yes, on cuban people because in spite this silly agent writtes this here in reality the propaganda is designed for cubans inside the island…… the agent writes it here just because castrofascism is misoriented about how to drive the propaganda aimed on non cubans, the agents has no other thing to write……. a child can see that propaganda designed for isolated cubans can’t work with non cubans…… but they don’t have any other strategy……. Yoani and the new wave of freedom fighters got castrofascism by surprise moving the fight scenario from the traditional in-Cuba fight to the international cyber giving to the world the oportunity to observe this fight directly…… it cought castrofascism unaware and without a proper strategy……. their weak response are such ridiculous things as agent culero repeats on and on ultimately!!!!!
Junio 27th, 2010 at 10:56
#63 - yo creo en libertad con todo mi corazon, that’s why I want a foreign nation to rule Cuba…
No concept of national identity; of history; of self!
Junio 26th, 2010 at 07:07
Post 63, what is with that fixation that a foreign government can or should solve cuban problems?
Do you understand that
1. Even if he wanted, usanian president could not do any such thing. He’d end up like Kennedy. Killed by his own people.
2. He doesn’t want to do any such thing because usa is not a democratic country, nor is interested in helping anyone achieve any such thing. Have you heard of Afghanistan, Iraq, Jugoslavia, Chile, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, San Salvador, Nicaragua…?
Even Australia. usa had deposed socialist (labourist) government in 1974 when they introduced free health and education, and wanted to introduce the pensions for all.
Yes, Australians only have pensions since 1990, and even today their pension funds are only 9%.
All thanks to the usanian nazists.
You need to wake up and open your eyes.
Only Cubans have the right to solve their problems. No one else. And only they will decide how and when will they solve their problems.
The only thing usa can give to Cuba is horrors of prostitution, poverty and enslavement to their (usanian) rich capitalists who couldn’t care less about Cuban people.
And it seems that is what you want. I hope I am wrong…
Junio 25th, 2010 at 09:51
Dear readers y Yoani,
If only…
President Obama requests that the Cuban government allow him to broadcast a 5 minute TV and radio broadcast to be aired on Cuban TV. In return, someone from Cuba could do the same on US TV.
It would be so easy to break down this Cuban wall:
[President Obama]: speaking to a Cuban government high official: “Do you love the Cuban people?”
[Cuban official]: +/- “Of course”
[President Obama]: +/- “The Cuban people, they are committed to the Revolution?”
[Cuban official]: “100%”
[President Obama]: “Do you trust the Cuban people you love?”
[Cuban official]: “Without any hesitation whatsoever.”
[President Obama]: “Very well. From this moment any and all Cubans are free to travel to and from the United States of America without any Visa requirements whatsoever. They are free to come and go as they please in America.
Mr/Mrs Cuban official, what do you have to say to that new policy I just announced?”
[Cuban official]: “ah….am…ah…ah…ah…”
You get the idea.
Now, if only…
Junio 23rd, 2010 at 07:14
Post 61, talking to your imaginary friends again, eh? Since I do not exist, who are you arguing with?
Your mirror, evidently.
Everyone knows how crappy those “child prostitution” movies are. SO do propaganda aparatchiks like below poster. UN have investigated thoroughly nad have found NOT a SINGLE SHREAD of evidence to support these hollow ideological nazist claims. Including those spanish”documentaries” which were made by some rather sick people who were filming under the childrens skirts, luring young girls into hotels and houses with the promise of money for sex.
Yet, not UN, not Amnesty International, not Human Rights Watch could find one single case of children being forced into prostitution.
Juvenile prostitution is something else, but teenagers are free from 16 years of age to engage in sexual relations, so that is not a CHILD prostitution in legal terms. They do it on their own.
Just as thousands of teenage Italians of both sexes are engaging into prostitution every day. Or usanian teenagers. Or german and british teenagers.
Of their own will. In fact, in these capitalist countries they are often forced to do it, and some like Belgium, Australia and Netherlands are notoriously known for their pedofile rings and traffic of children as young as 6 months for sex.
Now these are some seriously deranged and dangerous cretens I would love to see in jail for ever.
Not a single of them is in Cuba trafficking with children.
There’s just no stopping in promoting lies and false ideological propaganda by the wrong whinners, is there?
Nothing will stop them in trying to make their point based on lies, deception, criminal activities, violence, hypocrisy…
A bunch of disoriented cheap and primitive immigrants. Good for nothing in their own country, good for nothing in their new country.
Just wasting the oxigen.
Junio 22nd, 2010 at 18:53
60Damir
Junio 22nd, 2010 at 08:36
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Read any brochre or tourist publication about tourism from any major tourism oriented publication and you will find articles about the theme…. in the internet there are several films made by tourists about child prostitution in Cuba, there is even one of them that shows how teachers in schools participates in this commerce, there is other that shows a spanish tourist teaching new landed tourists how and where to get girls of any age…….. you can find it by you self if you want…… links to those films has been posted here several times…….. I don’t will find nothing to you ….. I am not interested in proving nothing to you….. you are nothing…. you don’t exist…… do you understand?????…..
Junio 22nd, 2010 at 08:36
Retards, prove your “child prostitution” bullshit. Between your nazist rants and UN report, I choose to trust the UN report and consider you a bunch of primitive nazist retards.
Which is clearly obvious from your stupid posts.
Junio 20th, 2010 at 19:52
The explosion of infantile prostitution and the passion it has awaken among world’s pedophiles to move in to Cuba and make of the island theirs permanent residence place is a fact that you can find in all tourism information bureaus around the world.
Another fact, not publicly findable because the tyranny hides this information, is that the only measurement the tyranny has taken about this situation is to dictate laws forbidding the free reallocation of people from provinces to the capital city, in such way they pretend to cut the arrival to Havana of infantile prostitutes from other cities. Another “measurement†the tyranny implemented was to dictate that all landlords renting rooms or apartments or houses to tourist are in the obligation of watching closely and carefully the movements of the tourist and to inform all activities to the police…… but……. In reality, when landlords goes and denounce theirs inquilines for performing pedophile activities the only answer they receive from police is: Go there and tell the tourist he/she can not introduce people minor than 16 year old in your property…… that’s it!!!!!!!
The tyranny has also dictated an order to the police: Live alone our “tourist”!!!!!
Pedophiles from every country in the world are moving to Cuba and arranged all needed so theirs retirement checks will be send there……. and the tyranny is happy because it represents millions of dollars.
Junio 19th, 2010 at 03:34
YOUTUBE: Prostitution in Cuba (1/2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3lLpRnLSHE
YOUTUBE: Prostitution in Cuba (2/2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Junio 18th, 2010 at 18:40
Post 17, first get the wording straight. “child trafficking” is when adults SELL children to each other for sex. “child prostitution is when MINORS are engaged in sexual activities with adults for money.
And now the last error you make: when 16 years old girls have sex with adults, if the law recognises them as adults (in Cuba 16 years old can marry, with parents permission, and have the right to vote, which means they are legally adults), they are adults, not children.
There is no children trafficking or prostitution in Cuba.
There are many young girls offering sex to old, fat, sweaty foreigners. I have seen a few and not one was forced by anyone to do that.
As everywhere, many young women are attracted to the money and the fastest way to get some is to sell their bodies. If anything, I can say that I saw many of those girls enjoying what they do.
That is not a reflection on the “evil regime”. It is more a reflection of poor morals of those girls.
The OUN has confirmed and debunked many times these “claims” about “child trafficking and prostitution” in Cuba. To claim that it exists is to side with terrorists who are looking for any excuse to bash the country in order to garner support for their violence.
Anyone supporting team Yoani is supporting violent change in Cuba, terrorism and violence.
For that is the only thing that can come out from team Yoani’s work.
Death, destruction and more violence upon tired Cuban people.
Junio 18th, 2010 at 18:25
A lot of pointless and senseless posting, as always. Terrorism is unfortunately alive, and although vanishing as the criminals are getting older, they still make noise as if they can make a difference.
How pathetic to be a stupid derechista and promote a violence in this day and age.
Junio 18th, 2010 at 10:42
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas en el 8vo. Aniversario de la Presentación del Proyecto Varela
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (La Habana, Cuba, 29 de febrero de 1952) es un activista polÃtico cubano, opositor al gobierno cubano. Fue el fundador y el organizador del Proyecto Varela, mediante el cual, amparado por la constitución, recolectó las firmas necesarias para presentar al gobierno una solicitud de cambios en la legislación.
El propósito del Proyecto Varela era fomentar un proyecto de ley que abogaba por reformas polÃticas en la isla a favor de mayores libertades individuales.
El proyecto Varela se basa en el artÃculo 88 (g) de la constitución cubana del 1976, que permite que los ciudadanos propongan leyes si 10.000 electores registrados presentan sus firmas a favor de la propuesta. La organización reportó haber conseguido 11.200 firmas, más del número requerido para ser considerado por la Asamblea Nacional Cubana.
HCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded
Junio 18th, 2010 at 09:53
Transparency for Cuba by Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
“In this way each person, enjoying freedom of expression, … and enjoying appropriate freedom of association, will be able to cooperate effectively in the pursuit of the common good.” -Pope John Paul II
The Cuban government has continued the dialogue with the European Union in which the speaker-designate, is the Spanish government. They have accepted the rules of the Cuban government and the most significant of these rules is: That the highest Spanish functionaries not dialogue with nonviolent Cuban dissidents.
This exclusion is representative of the contradiction between that dialogue and the most legitimate aspirations of the Cubans. That is why this dialogue is not a facilitator of dialogue among Cubans, or of peaceful change, because it denies a voice to those who expressly and directly go to the root of the problem by demanding rights for Cubans. If there are political prisoners in Cuba, it is because the government denies many rights to the Cubans. You can not disconnect those Cubans for the cause of which they were unjustly imprisoned. They, our brothers and comrades in struggle, are in prison for peacefully defending the rights of all Cubans, for that reason they must be released quickly and without conditions.
The government does not respect the people’s right to know, it submerges them into anxiety, misinformation and uncertainty about their lives and their own future and do not even commit to its citizens to make changes and respect their rights. It is not the church that has imprisoned the prisoners, but the government. It is not the church that denies rights to Cubans, but the government. But it is also not fair to the people of Cuba, nor the faithful and suffering Church in Cuba, which is part of people, that some pastors accept the unique role of being sole partners of the government here in Cuba, accepting and practicing the condition of exclusion imposed by the government itself. At the moment that Cubans want change with transparency, rights and that what belongs to the people be respected: Freedom. That which God gives and no one can take away.
From the time of the other dictatorships that scourged Cuba and throughout the tortured history of political imprisonment in this dictatorship, many relatives of political and also common prisoners, as Cubans persecuted and excluded have found in the Church support, comfort and humane support in the midst of poverty, the enormous difficulties and the pain. It has been also and especially after the imprisonment of those we call the Prisoners of the Cuba Spring that are a sign of hope of liberation. The church can be persecuted and criticized by anyone, but when they have no where to go to even those who criticize and persecuted as any other, can go to it and touch its doors and find the loving acceptance of nuns, priests, lay people and also their bishops. Much more a church in Cuba that has grown up in poverty and has been affirmed and suffering persecution united in their allegiance to Jesus Christ. We have also learned from the Church, that no one should pretend to be a political actor from the Church because it converts the church into being a political part, when it should be a facilitator of dialogue between all parties. We believe that Cubans should not be spectators of this or any negotiation or dialogue, and should also prepare to be agents of their liberation, the protagonists of their own history as prophesized by Pope John Paul II.
The government neither recognizes us dissidents, nor engages in dialogue with us, because it would have to recognize and respect the rights and freedom of Cubans. In dissent or opposition the movement inside and outside the country peacefully struggles for freedom, reconciliation and human rights in Cuba. The Dissidents, then, is much more than a theme that can be treated by the Government and representatives of the Church without listening to or considering us. We are a group of Cubans who for decades, most of the time as a lone voice in the wilderness of terror and lies, have proclaimed the right of Cubans to their rights and sought peace working for justice. We do not ask for a space or privileges or recognition for us, or place in dialogues that are not with all Cubans. We only announce and proclaim that, with or without this dialogue, we will continue to fight nonviolently for freedom, rights, justice and peace in Cuba until we achieve those goals. This place is not given to us by anyone in this world and in that mission, we entrust ourselves to God our Father, Lord of History.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas-Coordinator,Christian Liberation Movement -June 17, 2010
http://cubanexilequarter.blogs.....-jose.html
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (born February 29, 1952 in Havana, Cuba) is a political activist in Cuba and is considered that country’s most prominent political dissident. He received the Sakharov Prize in 2002 and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, 2008 & 2010 and in 2004 for the “Principe de Asturias†Prize for harmony.
http://www.oswaldopaya.org/es/.....t-oswaldo/
Junio 18th, 2010 at 09:09
48Barbara Curbelo
Junio 17th, 2010 at 22:19
#47 - Y en que lista se encuentra Yoani…
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You are so unmoral that right after critize others commenter for writting in spanish you do the same……….
Yoani can be in the list she wants and that doesn’t means nothing but cuban freedom fighters are practicing democracy and all them has diferent opinions and strategies ….. they are showing a sample of what will be the future Cuba under their rule…. a open and plural Cuba where everyone will have the right to persue the country welfare and happiness in the way eachone believe is better…… that is exactly what the 74 group and the 490 gorup are fighting for: to bring down an assasin regime that repress the diferent thinking people in order to make its opinion and ruling way the only one.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 23:53
By-the-way BC, instead of ruuning to the moderator and crying about how your feelings were hurt why don’t you get a morality transplant. Your comments/arguments are inane,
pathetically sophomoric, evasive and nonsensical. Your defense of the abortion of a regime in cuba is a disgrace.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 23:40
Barbara la jinetera if we were to use “being offensive” as a criteria for determining who gets to comment you would have clearly been ruled offensive. Your phoney sensibilities don’t hide your offensive comments when you lie, misrepresent, apologize and defend the crimes perpetrated by your bosses in Habana. You offend when you mischaracterize all those opposed to the thugs in Cuba. You offend when you ignore the atrocities committed by the walking colostomy bag fidel and his cronies. You offend when you justify repression. For every naive and easily taken blog contributor that suggests your comments deserve respect there are many others who see you for the offensive fool that you are. People like you who defend the indefensible don’t deserve respect. The words you regurgitate in this forum like the parrot that you are only deserve scorn and derision.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 22:47
MODERATOR - Yubano is offensive, obviously because he cannot sustain his arguments with counter ideas.
His post #43 should be erased for its offensive content; for the poor choices of words, asterisk or not, when addressing others in this blog who do not agree with his ideas.
His choice of words for lack of arguments is a disgrace.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 22:23
#47 - Which Lincoln-Diaz Balart? This one:
JEAN-GUY ALLARD
“THEY wanted to silence” Jorge de Castro Font, the Puerto Rican politician convicted of corruption, to avoid the involvement of Republican Party figures such as Cuban-Americans Lincoln DÃaz-Balart and MelquÃades “Mel” Martinez, according to the Primera Hora newspaper, which reported how the former senator received an offer of no prosecution in exchange for his collaboration.
Shortly after his arrest by the FBI on corruption charges, on August 28, 2008, Jorge de Castro Font revealed that he had made a special trip to Florida in 2004 to give the Mafioso congress member Lincoln DÃaz-Balart “a few checks” for illegal contributions.
The Puerto Rican newspaper article, published on Thursday, Feb. 26 with the byline of journalist Rosita Marrero, noted that “during the period when the former senator’s home was being raided and charges were brought against him, messengers were sent to him from individuals in the top leadership of the New Progressive Party (PNP),” along with a “communicator”, who brought him the first message “sent by prominent members of the majority in the Legislative Assembly.”
The day that federal authorities raided his office and home, the then-senator “received a visit,” in which it was “proposed that he remain silent, and in exchange, he would not be charged locally and his family would be taken care of,” Primera Hora quoted a source as confirming.
After the charges, on December 4, 2008, “another source told Primera Hora that De Castro received the visit of not one but three messengers, asking him not to talk about presumed allegations of very specific crimes, by very specific people, related to donations made to the Cuban-born Republican congressman from Florida, Mel MartÃnez”.
The U.S. senator MelquÃades “Mel” MartÃnez unexpectedly resigned in August 2009.
Primera Hora reported that the messengers waited for De Castro Font’s answer until December 30, when the Senate Ethics Commission sent the report on the Puerto Rican politician to the U.S. Justice Department.
The newspaper article hints at the real possibility that the FBI might have information regarding both Mel Martinez and now Lincoln DÃaz-Balart (who just resigned from his seat), having received illegal donations from De Castro Font and his friends in Puerto Rico.
It is now up to the Justice Department in Washington D.C. to take the investigation further and settle on the due charges, which depends on the influence struggles within the labyrinth of a system not known for its transparency.
A FEW CHECKS FOR LINCOLN
In a statement previously reported by the Puerto Rican media, De Castro Font asserted in 2008 that he made the trip on a private American Airlines plane to hand over money from the Fonalledas family, which owns Plaza Las Americas, to the Mafioso congressman.
De Castro Font explained that he went to Florida in the company of Luis Fortuño, the then-candidate for resident commissioner of the island.
Agents from the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raided De Castro Font’s home and office on August 24, 2008 and seized documents and weapons.
De Castro Font faced 32 counts in federal court for soliciting money in exchange for passing laws.
During this same period, it was revealed in the United States that the elder of the DÃaz-Balart brothers in Congress had obtained millions in federal funds for defense contractors from his district in Miami-Dade County, Florida, who had contributed to his political campaign, and that of his brother, Mario DÃaz-Balart.
Locust USA and Mark Two Engineering gave $67,000 to the Diaz-Balart campaigns and political action committees in 2001.
Locust won a $20.8 million Pentagon contract for research and development between 2001 and 2007, which was never appropriately investigated, because this politician had his network of protection.
MelquÃades MartÃnez and Lincoln DÃaz-Balart have just resigned from their political careers. The departure of both from the U.S. Congress was attributed to family reasons and their desire to “fight for Cuba.” A few days after his announcement, “Mel” MartÃnez reappeared in a lobbying firm connected with the Bacardà Corporation, which had benefited from his time in office. It is not yet known what plans DÃaz-Balart has for taking advantage of his privileged contacts in the federal corruption apparatus. Time will tell.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 22:19
#47 - Y en que lista se encuentra Yoani…
Junio 17th, 2010 at 21:21
BARBY: lOS CUBANOS TAMBIEN FIRMAN CARTAS…….
tomado de Penultimos Dias/Babalu Blog
The 494 — A letter from Cuba’s pro-democracy activists
By Alberto de la Cruz, on June 17, 2010, at 2:15 pm
We knew it was coming, and now it has arrived.
In an answer to the letter by “The 74″ prominent dissidents asking the US Congress to lift the embargo against the regime that oppresses them, we now have “The 494.”
494 pro-democracy activists in Cuba who have signed their names to a letter asking the US Congress not to reward the Castro dictatorship with billions of dollars of new revenue.
Below is the press release from Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s office with the text of the letter:
C o n g r e s s m a n
Lincoln Diaz-Balart
21st District of Florida
June 17, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
494 pro-democracy activists inside Cuba call on the U.S. Congress to retain travel and trade restrictions on the regime
Washington, DC- 494 Cuban pro-democracy activists have sent a letter addressed to all members of Congress asking them to maintain current U.S. travel and trade restrictions and to avoid any benevolent gesture toward the Cuban dictatorship so as to avoid complicity with the regime.
Below please read the text of the letter sent to members of Congress and signed by 494 Cuban pro-democracy activists within the island, including Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunezâ€, Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, Reina Luisa Tamayo (mother of Cuban martyr, Orlando Zapata Tamayo), as well as Ariel and Guido Sigler Amaya, among many others:
Statement of Principle From a Sector of the Democratic Opposition in Cuba to the Honorable Members of the Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives and all the Members of both Chambers of the U.S. Congress
Honorable Congressmen and Congresswomen of the United States of America:
We write to you - in this exercise of free speech and thought - based on complete respect for diverging points of view and within the spirit of democracy and utmost respect for differing opinions. We believe it is not reasonable, nor fair, to speak in a representative manner on behalf of Cuban civil society, much less, on behalf of the Cuban people, when it concerns H.R. 4645 - title given to the bill concerning the restrictions on travel to Cuba and the promotion of commerce with the island.
It is important to highlight that the total number of views expressed to date on both sides of this issue is not reflective of the views of the Cuban nation in its totality because only through — hypothetically speaking of course — the possibility of a referendum or plebiscite could the Cuban people have an opportunity to truly decide such a controversial issue. First and foremost, it should be noted that the main issue at the core of this polemic is the criminal and inappropriate conduct of the Cuban regime in the area of human rights, which remains under the supervision of the United Nations.
For those of us signing this letter, and other significant sectors of the Cuban people, we are interested — above all — on the lifting of the inhumane structural and institutional blockade of the Havana regime against the civil and political rights of our people, inherent in natural law.
The tragedy of Cuba does not reside in the right to travel of a people who are already free, such as the American people. The main problem resides in the absence of liberty for Cubans, the only citizens of the world who are denied the right to exit or enter their own country and where many find themselves in the condition of hostages.
At a moment such as this, to be benevolent with the dictatorship would mean solidarity with the oppressors of the Cuban nation. The below signatories believe that the freedom of Cuba will not arrive by means of the pocket-book nor the lips of libidinous tourists, who are aseptic to the pain of the Cuban family. Rather, it will come through the efforts of those, who from within and abroad, fight for democratic change in Cuba.
Congressmen/Congresswomen, the cause of liberty, and firm opposition to the oppressive totalitarian dictatorship in Havana, is so sacred that it is above all economic and mercantilist interests.
We understand that we are living important moments for the present and future of our nation. The internal civil society movement has reached a peak moment regarding the current assertive policy by the international democratic community that has wisely taken the side of the oppressed and not of the oppressors.
We believe that initiatives such as the one this letter is responding to, even with the best of intentions, tend to deviate focus and attention from what is happening on the island. For that reason we suggest that you maintain a firm and coherent policy of pressure and condemnation toward the tyranny in Havana. That will represent solidarity with the victims of repression in the homeland of Marti, Boitel and Zapata.
We respect other opinions and expect reciprocity regarding what we are conveying herein. Honorable Members of Congress, since rights are defended by exercising rights, we are defending the right of all Cubans to be free through their own efforts, because we must not forget that the tragedy of Cuba is in the daily confrontation of the people with the dictatorship that oppresses them and not in scenarios outside of our current challenge or with initiatives that represent the granting of oxygen to the sinister totalitarian state that misgoverns our country.
Signed on June 14th, 2010
Jorge LuÃs GarcÃa Pérez “Antúnezâ€
Néstor RodrÃguez Lobaina
##########
Here is the list of all 494 signatures.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 20:06
Craig Quirolo
Junio 17th, 2010 at 18:57
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Craig, thanks for letting us know what you feel when you read agent baby comments…. I thanks also Varadero for same reason…….. and I encourage all readers to let us know what you feels when you read a comment of the agent barbara……. I suspected your feelings are as these 2 readers describes, I mind you feels barbara believe you all are stupid but I would like to read it directly form all you…… thanks in advance.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 19:43
44
There’s a BIG difference between having an different opinion and taking ppl for morons like Agent Barbie.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 18:57
I would have to say that the vast majority of American citizens find it oppressive to be denied the right to travel to another country, with an invitation, a valid passport and the means. I guess Barbara thinks I’m a stupid reader for ‘holding the bar’ high for Freedom. But alas, as an American Citizen I cannot travel to Cuba without a great deal of difficulty. So does it boil down to who has the most freedoms? Yes, it seems it does. In a free society it’s ok to debate, agree or disagree. Freedom has nothing to hide. Most of the hate and vindictiveness toward Cuba in the United States is possessed by Cuban exiles not by the American Born. In a free society people are allowed what we call ‘freedom of speech’ even if it makes them look like an ass or they offend someone. My experience is that governments can’t control their citizens without having foreign enemies to protect them from. After spending several months monitoring the coral reefs in Cuba interacting with researchers, educators and the people I have to admit I found no enemies only really good friendly people, all of them. Freedom has to come from within, you cannot be force feed freedom from abroad because then it would not be freedom. I think lifting the embargo and letting people travel freely back and forth would be a great first step in letting freedom flourish, on both sides. This blog is definitely a form of freedom. Yoani you are igniting freedom from within and you will go down in history for your brave heart, for this you should not be punished. I would never call Barbara Cubelo stupid or infer that she is, she is just another person who has a different opinion than mine and for this there is no disrespect.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 17:43
Barabara la jinetera, what the f**k are you talking about?? You are truely clueless and an embarrassment as an apologist for your criminal bosses.
Everytime some nexus in the US/cuban regime relationship comes up as in the upcoming immigration talks, we are showered with the opinions of so-called “experts”, many of them from left-wing think tanks. They invariably bring up scenarios where each side is stonewalling the other which of course is a bunch of BS. The illigetimate regime in cuba is of course an expert at stonewalling, subverting and sabotaging attempts by the US side to seek legitimate dialogue. This “desire” on the part of the regime for dialogue is of course a farce. They have no intention of ever reaching any accomadation with the US that changes the dynamics of the current relationship. Any attempts by the Obama administration to change things fundamentally, like for example, move towards normalizing relations will be met with some atrocity by fascists running the cuban government. Just like what happened when Obama’s Democratic party bretheren, Carter and Clinton attempted the same.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 17:23
# 39 - You can’t count on the stupidity of readers all the time…
“sole purpose here on this blog is to defend the OPPRESSIVE REGIME. Twisting truth and deception are her/him best tools.â€
I think by now you should seriously change your name because you have no sense of Freedom.
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“FAILED REGIME “
You mean failed regiment of opposition financed from abroad, by those filled with hatred and vindictiveness.
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“The worlds attention TODAYâ€
There is a term for this condition, it is a noun:
Delusions of grandeur. A delusion (common in paranoia) that you are much greater and more powerful and influential than you really are …
—————–
You speak of looking forward to celebrating someone’s death and invoke the name of God all in one breath? Hatuey would not have wanted a paradise with you in it either.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 17:20
The fact is that Cuban escaping socialist poverty tends to make them appreciate the freedoms abroad and motivated to take advantage of it. Cubans escapees show the world that Castro regime made Cuba a hell hole when so many people want out. Keep in mind that the regime sells Cuba as a country of justice and equality around the world. So, all these escapees proves the regime wrong because after all, actions speak louder than words.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 16:49
REUTERS AFRICA: Expectations low ahead of US, Cuba migration talks-By Jeff Franks-Thu Jun 17, 2010
* U.S-Cuba relations stalled until U.S. contractor freed
* Talks again to look at orderly migration
HAVANA, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. and Cuban delegations will meet in Washington on Friday for new talks on migration issues amid low expectations due to the case of an American contractor jailed in Havana on suspicion of espionage.
Concerns about Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned since December, threaten to overshadow discussions on immigration, diplomatic travel and the size of consular delegations between the two nations divided by half a century of ill will.
U.S. diplomats in the Cuban capital have warned that little of significance will likely come out of the talks because U.S.-Cuban relations are basically stalled until Cuba frees Gross.
Signaling the importance of the case ahead of the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to meet with Gross’ wife, Judy, on Thursday in Washington.
As they have on two previous occasions since President Barack Obama took office, negotiators will discuss ways to maintain orderly migration based on a 16-year-old accord to prevent mass exoduses from Cuba like the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 1994 wave of boat people.
Among other things, communist-led Cuba has asked to bring more consular agents to the United States, while the U.S. government is pressing for an end to travel restrictions for diplomats in both countries.
Cuba also has called for Washington to abandon an immigration policy that gives preferential treatment to Cubans who reach U.S. shores. It says the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy encourages Cubans to abandon their homeland for the United States.
The immigration talks were renewed last July in New York after then President George W. Bush canceled them in 2004.
The first round, coming on the heels of Obama lifting restrictions on Cuban American travel to the island and publicly stating his desire to “recast” relations with Cuba, was viewed as the harbinger of a new, brighter era between the two countries.
But by the second round, held in February in Havana, the mood was darkened by the Gross arrest and months of harsh rhetoric. The U.S. delegation provoked an angry Cuban reaction by meeting with island dissidents.
MUTUAL ACCUSATIONS
Both sides now bitterly accuse each other of not doing enough to further relations. The Gross case threatens to derail what little progress has been made.
“The migration talks have the potential to serve as a medium for resolution of the long-standing issues between the two nations,” said Paul Wander at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
“But they are unlikely to do so because real diplomatic developments remain stymied by the fact that both countries feel as though the ball is in the other’s court,” he said.
Gross, 60, has been jailed since he was seized at the Havana airport on December 4, accused of distributing prohibited satellite communications equipment to Cuban dissidents.
U.S. officials said he was only providing Internet access to Jewish groups but admitted he was working for a U.S.-funded program to promote democracy on the island and entered on a tourist visa without declaring his true intent.
The United States has repeatedly demanded his release but Cuba has remained silent except for occasional statements accusing him of links to espionage activities or saying he committed serious crimes.
He is under investigation and not yet officially charged with a crime, Cuban officials say.
A source close to the case, who asked not to be identified, said Cuba’s contention that it is still investigating Gross was “an excuse. It’s time they participate in a dialogue and work toward a resolution.”
A U.S. diplomat in Havana said Friday’s talks give the United States another chance to plead Gross’ case directly to Cuban officials, which shows the value of keeping lines of communication open.
But he admitted the lack of progress between the two countries is wearying.
“I think both sides are disappointed that things haven’t moved along faster,” he said.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
http://af.reuters.com/article/.....1020100617
Junio 17th, 2010 at 15:47
BARBARA’s sole purpose here on this blog is to defend the OPPRESSIVE REGIME. Twisting truth and deception are her/him best tools. The worlds attention TODAY is towards the FAILED REGIME and its abusive powers. Everyone here and even Barbara are to take credit for this and the great numbers this blog generates. I hope to celebrate with everyone, someday soon on the MALICON. The death of Fidel can not be far away and that will trigger only positive vibs and a new begining. GOD BLESS YOU ALL and THANKS for helping CUBA and its people seek a better life. Yoani you are an important part of CUBA and always my HERO.
Junio 17th, 2010 at 13:12
Sorry for double posting… Barbara u might think i was watching a movie or a TV show but nope… I was there IN CUBA in the flesh and seen it with my 2 eyes… You shouls go see yourself what’s goin on @ Hotel Tropicoco and/or Hotel Atlantico… And tryto stick to the subject for 1nce :-)
Junio 17th, 2010 at 13:10
1596GUSANITA
Junio 17th, 2010 en 13:06
BARBY:
Leete la carta esta para que veas la cantidad de ORGULLO CUBANO QUE HAY AQUI, no la pongo completa pues ya la puse ayer y no quiero molestar al moderador……ENJOY…
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t…..REf9_vfJEg
Junio 17th, 2010 at 13:07
Barbara no22
Are we talkin about Cuba or Afganistan???? YOU came with the article talking about CUBA, I refuted it and now u are in Kaboul…. I don’t get it… Fun thing to see lol… Love how u just switched the subject on me… I see how u guyz lasted over 50 years you guyz are deflection masters HAHAHA!!!!
Junio 17th, 2010 at 12:57
CULERO! IT IS THE U.S. GOVERMENT WHO WILL MAKE THE DECISION TO LIFT ANY PART OF THE EMBARGO! IF “LA CHINA” & “THE MUMMY” RELEASE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS THEY MIGHT GET THE TRAVEL BAN LIFTED!
THE TIMES OF INDIA: US says it has responsibility to express human rights concerns-Jun 17, 2010,
WASHINGTON: US has asserted that it has the right and responsibility to express human rights concerns, after Havana questioned its statement welcoming the release of an activist in Cuba.
The US on Monday welcomed Cuba’s release of a paraplegic political prisoner, Ariel Sigler.
Cuba in response said the US does not have the moral authority to applaud its release of prisoners.
“We feel it’s a right and a responsibility to express our human rights concerns about any country of the world, including Cuba. We are encouraged by the release of Ariel Sigler Amaya,” State Department spokesman P J Crowley, told reporters during his daily press briefing.
The US is committed to a policy towards Cuba that advances our national interests and supports the desire of the Cuban people to freely determine their future, he said.
“We will continue to engage the Cuban Government on issues that are of mutual concern and that advance US national interests,” he said.
“I think it is clear that, to the extent that Cuba desires a more normal relationship with the US that will depend upon steps that Cuba takes to open up its society, to respect the human rights and freedoms of their own people.
As Cuba takes these kinds of steps, we will respond appropriately,” he said.
Crowley said it is in Cuba’s interest to advance their political process, open up their society for greater opportunity for their people.
“We will continue and not hesitate to comment about the human rights situation in Cuba and elsewhere,” he said.
Sigler, 44, who is paralysed from the waist down, was freed on medical grounds. One of 75 activists arrested in 2003 during a crackdown by Cuban authorities, he had been serving a 25-year sentence for treason.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.....057238.cms
Junio 17th, 2010 at 12:44
Barbara Curbelo,
Junio 17th, 2010 at 12:30
Tough blow to Cuban exile hard-liners
CULERO! THE REAL TOUGH BLOW IS TO “LA CHINA” & “THE MUMMY” WITH NUMBERS LIKE THIS!
RATIO OF IMPRISSONED JOURNALISTS PER POPULATION - the lower the ratio the worse the offender! Cuban has 109 times more prisoners than China and 6 times more than Iran.
China- 1,337,790,000/24 jailed journalists= 1 per 55,741,250 citizens
Iran-74,196,000/23 jailed journalists= 1 per 3,225,913 citizens
Cuba-11,236,444/22 jailed journalis…ts= 1 per 510,747 citizens
Junio 17th, 2010 at 12:39
AND OF COURSE, CODY LECOMPTE IS A CIA SPY WORKING WITH ALAN GROSS! “LA CHINA” & “THE MUMMY” ARE SHOWING THEIR TRUE COLORS AND DIAREAH MINDS!
TORONTO STAR; Cuban holiday turns to legal nightmare-2010/06/16
A two-week vacation to Cuba has left an Ontario man stuck indefinitely in legal limbo on the island.
Cody LeCompte, of Norfolk County, has been held in Cuba for seven weeks since April 29 when the rental car he was driving was involved in a serious accident that sent him, his mother, uncle and a female Cuban friend to hospital.
Even though he has not been charged for his role in the accident, the 19-year-old is prohibited from leaving the country until the case is resolved. He is now staying in a Santa Lucia resort with his uncle.
On Friday, a grand jury in Camaguey, 500 km from Havana, heard LeCompte’s case but has yet to decide if he should face a fine or trial. A trial would mean an indefinite stay in the country.
“We’ve been sitting on pins and needles. We thought we’d have heard from them by now,†said his anxious mother, Danette LeCompte, who suffered internal bruising, broken ribs and cuts in the accident, and had to return home in late May to report to work.
LeCompte said she and her son, who’s never had a traffic offence since getting his licence at 16, arrived in Cuba April 26 on a trip that was supposed to be a graduation present for him.
The four rented a Hyundai Accent sedan for a week and were on their way to Camaguey for a day trip when their car was hit broadside by a large dump truck.
“The road conditions were horrific. There were potholes everywhere,†recalled LeCompte, a provincial civil servant. “There’s no intersection, no stop sign, no traffic light. Animals were all over the place. We slowed down at all intersections, then came the big dump truck that didn‘t brake.
“We got hit on the passengers’ side and swung around at least twice. Our car just looked like a heap of metal. My son was in and out of consciousness. I thought I’d lost him.â€
Some passers-by took the victims in their own cars to the nearby Neuvitas Hospital. Police took their statements and arrested the dump truck driver.
LeCompte said they were initially told by Cuban officials that her son had to remain in Cuba until his injured Cuban passenger recovered, so doctors could “sign off†her medical file to ensure she would be okay.
Although the woman, his uncle’s fiancée, has already recuperated, Cuban officials continue to keep her son in Cuba.
LeCompte said the family has since sought help from the Canadian embassy, consulate staff and foreign affairs.
“They just take your report and say they are kept updated on the file. Other than that, they tell you Cuban law has to be obeyed,†said a frustrated LeCompte, who talks to her son daily. “None of these agencies have even had contact with me and to let me know anything. Cody tries to put up a brave face, but he is frightened.â€
Through a friend, the family got in touch with Conservative MP Dave Van Kesteren (Chatham-Kent-Essex), who is following up the case with foreign affairs officials, LeCompte said.
Foreign affairs officials would not comment on LeCompte’s case, but a travel advisory on Wednesday warned Canadians avoid driving in Cuba.
“Driving conditions can be hazardous. Signs are scare. Bicycles, pedestrians and horse-drawn carts use the middle of the road and do not readily give way to oncoming vehicles,†it said. “Traffic accidents are a frequent cause of arrest and detention of Canadians in Cuba. Accidents resulting in death or injury are treated as crimes, and the onus is on the driver to prove innocence.â€
Regardless of the nature of the accident, it can take five months to a year for a case to go to go to trial while the driver is banned from leaving the country.
“If all they want is money, we will pay them,†said LeCompte, who wasn’t aware of the travel warning. “I just want my son home.â€
http://www.thestar.com/news/wo.....-nightmare
Junio 17th, 2010 at 12:30
Tough blow to Cuban exile hard-liners
By Max J. Castro
A June 9th letter addressed to the U.S. Congress by 74 members of Cuban civil society, dissident, and human rights groups has struck one of the hardest blows against Miami Cuban hard-liners.
For years, the strategy of exile militants has been to force regime change in Cuba by strangling the island’s economy through the U.S. embargo. Now the United States House of Representatives is considering lifting the travel and facilitating agricultural sales through the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (HR4645). The dissidents’ letter amounts to a ringing endorsement of the bill.
“We share the opinion that the isolation of the people of Cuba benefits the most inflexible interests of its government while any opening serves to inform and empower the Cuban people,†says the letter. It goes on to say that “We value the experience of the Western countries, including the United States, who favored opening and trade with all the countries of the former Eastern Europe. We are sure that isolation does not foster relationships of respect and support for peoples and groups around the world who are in favor of democratic changes in Cuba.”
The letter, signed by some of the most prominent opposition personalities in Cuba, sent shock waves through hard-liners in Miami and Congress. Representative Lincoln DÃaz Balart thundered against the letter and called it a crude manipulation of the dissidents by groups in the United States, including the U.S. Chamber of Congress and the Cuba Study Group. Radio pundit Ninoska Pérez-Castellon, a member of the Board of Directors of the hard-line Cuban Liberty Council, said it was “a crass manipulation to use dissidents in Cuba to support two measures that will benefit the regime.†Pérez even engaged in a debate with Guillermo Fariñas, one of the signers of the letter, who is currently on a prolonged hunger strike in Cuba to obtain the freedom of 25 Cuban prisoners who are in poor health.
The charge of manipulation is an insult to the integrity, independence and intelligence of the signers of the controversial letter. The dissident’s letter addresses and rejects the major exile objections to lifting the travel ban and facilitating agricultural sales. It virtually demolishes the rationale for the embargo and confers the high moral ground to those in Congress and the public who for years have argued for relaxing the travel and trade bans. Among the signers of the letter are some of the most prominent dissident figures, including Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, Félix Bonne Carcassés, Yoani Sánchez, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Father José Conrado, and Dagoberto Valdés.
The letter demolishes the hard-liners’ longstanding argument that the end of travel restrictions amounts to an abandonment of Cuban civil society. It further argues that the travel ban amounts to a denial of the rights of American citizens. “Because the ability to travel freely is the right of every human being we support this bill.” The letter also states that the bill would “further facilitate the sale of agricultural products [which] would help alleviate the food shortages we now suffer.”
The dissidents’ letter undercuts the hard-line Cuban exile lobbies who had scored significant victories in restricting travel and trade during the administration of George W. Bush. It is a coup for the Cuban Study Group, an exile group which supports the new legislation. It is a defeat for the hard-line lobbyists and exile organizations whose strategy has depended on the economic strangulation of Cuba. As of this writing, the Cuban American National Foundation, which in the past successfully pushed for tough sanctions against Cuba but has softened its stance in recent years, has not commented on the legislation.
The policy of isolating and economically strangling Cuba has been a failure for the last fifty years. It is a policy that is not supported by the American people. According to surveys, the policy is not even supported by a certain sector of Cubans in the United States. It is a policy that stands only with the support of a small but powerful minority within a minority. Now the dissidents’ letter shows that there is no support for the policy either among a wide sector of Cubans who can hardly be suspected of pro-Castro sympathies, the smear hard-liners have always used to smear any Cuban American who opposed any part of the embargo.
It is a time for a new policy. The dissidents have spoken. Members of the U.S. Congress and President Obama: the ball is in your court
Junio 17th, 2010 at 11:48
CPJ testimony: Press freedom in the Americas-June 16, 2010COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS:
CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon testified today before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, saying that while democracies are prevalent in Latin America, the press continues to operate with few institutional protections. This statement was submitted into the record on Monday.
Citing the example of Brazilian reporters exposing a massive corruption scheme carried out by President Fernando Collor de Mello, Simon noted that many Latin American countries have a strong history of independent and critical media. Despite this, however, journalists in the region are increasingly vulnerable to both government repression and violence. Simon also highlighted CPJ’s concern about the press freedom environment in a number of countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Cuba.
Simon’s full testimony is below (CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE)
“Finally, I would like to talk about Cuba, which is far and away the most repressive environment for the press in Latin America. In fact, Cuba is one of the most repressive countries in the world in this regard. There are 22 journalists currently jailed in Cuba, which means the country ranks third behind Iran and China. There was some modest hope after Fidel Castro stepped aside in 2006 that conditions for the media would improve, but that has not happened under President Raúl Castro. Cuba has seen the emergence of an incipient blogging culture which, for now, has been tolerated. We commend President Obama for giving an e-mail interview to Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez shortly after she was detained and beaten by Cuban security agents in November. The CPJ report, titled “Chronicling Cuba, bloggers offer fresh hope,†has been entered into the record.
Efforts by the United States government to protect and promote press freedom are vital because we live in an information society. Those who are deprived of basic information are in essence marginalized. The freedom to seek and receive information is not only a human right it; is a prerequisite for full participation in the global economy.
U.S. policy should be to promote the exchange of information and ideas on a global scale, not just in Latin America. In signing into law the Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act on May 17, President Obama said, “What this act does is it sends a strong message from the United States government and from the State Department that we are paying attention to how other governments are operating when it comes to the press.†CPJ is also encouraged that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has made the promotion of a free and open Internet a central goal of U.S. foreign policy.
A consistent and principled position in defense of press freedom and freedom of expression is rooted in U.S. history and ideals and will help build good will around the world. While maintaining this commitment on a global level, the U.S. should use the particular influence it has in Latin America to ensure that journalists in the region are able to do this job freely and safety. Those whose rights are violated should know that they will have the support of the U.S. government in seeking justice.”
http://cpj.org/blog/2010/06/cp.....ericas.php
Junio 17th, 2010 at 00:21
Yoani,
I’m crossing my fingers and toes that THIS TIME you’l get your right to travel and visit my country. Please keep the faith, and be stubborn! I just posted about it on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=661062448#!/profile.php?id=661062448&v=wall&story_fbid=119400498103364&ref=mf .
Kisses from a Brazilian witchy friend.
Junio 16th, 2010 at 22:50
CATO INSTITUTE: Freedom and Exchange in Communist Cuba-by Yoani Sánchez
Fidel Castro’s socialist revolution promised to satisfy the basic needs of the Cuban people, but the price demanded was the surrender of freedoms. The unthinking enthusiasm that greeted the beginning of the revolution helped pave the way for the disappearance of civil, political, and economic rights within a short period of time. Instead of a brighter future, misery in Cuba is widespread and the individual is vilified.
With the help of Soviet subsidies, state paternalism stripped citizens of their individual and community responsibilities, and established a sort of barter system between freedom and privileges. The state gave out job promotions, electrical appliances, housing, vacations, and other material goods and perks as rewards for obedience and in recognition of support of the government’s priorities — including participation in political rallies, membership in the Communist Party, adherence to atheism, and so on. Cuban socialism has produced frustrated idealists and opportunists who support the system only out of a search for personal gain.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government has been buying time with the introduction in the 1990s of limited and short-lived reforms, whose reversals accelerated with the help of the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez. Raúl Castro, who replaced his brother Fidel as president, has only introduced cosmetic reform. An increasing number of Cubans are disillusioned with socialism and are demanding change. One of the tools that Cubans are now using to recover their freedom of expression and association is the Internet, which has quickly given rise to a community of cyber-dissidents, despite the Cuban government’s efforts to make Internet use difficult. Now that the state is out of money and there are no more rights to exchange for benefits, the demand for freedom is on the rise.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11897
Junio 16th, 2010 at 19:11
The reference in the previous post shall be to post No. 19, not 10. Sorry for the mistake.
Junio 16th, 2010 at 19:04
See post No. 10 for more information.
The regime also bars travel to punish relatives of Cubans who have left the island against government wishes. Cuba uses travel policy as a weapon to deter people from fleeing, prevent family reunification and drive a wedge between Cubans who stay and those in exile.
Junio 16th, 2010 at 14:29
I’m not a Cynic! No soy un,CÃnico! I’m an Optimist! Soy un Optimista!
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Cuba, Vatican say talks on dissidents continuing-By PAUL HAVEN
HAVANA — Cuba and a top Vatican official expressed optimism Wednesday that landmark negotiations between the church and Raul Castro’s government will continue and indicated they could produce more breakthroughs on the treatment of dissidents and political prisoners.
The comments by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s foreign minister, and his Cuban counterpart were the latest signal that a month-old dialogue that has already led to the release of an ailing prisoner of conscience and the transfer of 12 others to jails closer to their homes is gaining strength.
“The dialogue that is happening now makes us happy, and I hope that it will be strengthened through my visit,” Mamberti said at a joint news conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. “I think it is important … to see the fruits” of such talks.
Rodriguez applauded the role the Church has been playing on the island, and said all signs point to more dialogue.
“We have held fluid and profoundly productive talks,” he said. “We appreciate the constructive role of the Church in these matters and we think that all conditions exist … for these fruitful exchanges to continue.”
Neither spoke of any concrete steps that would see the release of more of Cuba’s 180 political prisoners. Mamberti said he had no plans to meet with dissidents, though he did not rule it out.
The Vatican official arrived in Havana on Tuesday, ostensibly to celebrate the 75th anniversary of relations between Cuba and the Vatican. He is also scheduled to attend discussions on the island’s economic plight and efforts to bridge the divide between Cubans and exiles in the United States and elsewhere.
The church has traditionally been cautious in dealing with Cuba’s communist government since relations improved in the 1990s.
That changed dramatically in May, when Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega intervened in a standoff between the government and the Ladies in White, a group of mothers and wives of some of the 75 activists jailed in a 2003 crackdown on dissent.
On May 19, Ortega and another church leader held a four-hour meeting with President Castro, emerging optimistic that the government was prepared to make concessions to the dissidents. Prisoner transfers began June 1, and on Saturday Cuba released Ariel Sigler, a 44-year-old inmate paralyzed from the waist down who was serving a 25-year sentence for treason.
Critics say the government’s concessions have been underwhelming so far, but church leaders have consistently urged patience, saying there is no deadline for progress.
While Cuba has welcomed the Church’s role, it made clear this week that it did not appreciate a running commentary on the talks from the outside — particularly Washington.
After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley issued a mostly upbeat statement saying the United States viewed the release of Sigler as “a positive development” and hoped it would lead to the release of others, Cuba reacted strongly.
“Cuba doesn’t recognize any authority by the State Department or its spokesman to pass judgments on internal matters,” Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs office, told The Associated Press late Tuesday. “Moreover, the United States doesn’t have moral authority to give lessons to anyone.”
Cuba and the United States have been at odds since shortly after the 1959 triumph of Fidel Castro’s revolution. Cuban authorities consider the dissidents to be a mixture of common criminals and agitators funded by Washington to destabilize the country.
At Wednesday’s news conference, Rodriguez also brought up the case of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor arrested in December on accusations of spying. Gross has been held without charge for six months, and American officials have made clear that relations cannot improve until his case is resolved.
Rodriguez said Gross had been detained for “committing grave crimes in our country at the service of the subversive policy of the United States against Cuba.”
He said Gross was still under investigation and gave no indication of when he might be charged, adding that the prisoner had been given repeated access to consular officials, offered legal representation and allowed to speak with his relatives.
“The legal situation of Mr. Gross has conformed strictly with Cuban criminal procedures,” Rodriguez said.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....wD9GCH1KG2
Junio 16th, 2010 at 14:03
I thought the CIA was smuggling condoms into Uzbequistan … or was it tooth brushes for the Mujahideen ?
Junio 16th, 2010 at 10:46
NPR: Catholic Church Widens Role In Cuban Politics-by Nick MiroffJune 16, 2010
Cuban church leaders negotiated with authorities last month to allow the Ladies in White to resume their weekly protest marches, after facing repeated harassment and abuse from government-organized mobs. A few weeks later, President Raul Castro held a rare meeting with Ortega and pledged to improve conditions for political prisoners.
In Cuba, communist authorities have released an ailing political prisoner and moved a dozen others to jails closer to their families. The modest gestures were the result of a new dialogue between the Castro government and the leaders of the island’s Roman Catholic Church.
The church is expanding its role in Cuban politics, but it’s not clear how much it can ease the government’s hard-line stance against dissent.
On a recent day, the mood in Laura Pollan’s small home in central Havana is cheerful. It’s a rarity, given that Pollan is a leader of the Ladies in White, made up of the wives and relatives of Cuba’s political prisoners.
Over the weekend, Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega called Pollan with good news: The authorities were transferring her jailed husband, Hector Maceda, closer to home.
Pollan says she is glad she won’t have to travel far to see her husband now. But she says her real goal is to get her husband and others freed.
“These prisoners shouldn’t be transferred to different jails, they should be transferred to their homes,” she says.
The prisoners are part of a group of 75 government opponents who were swept up in a March 2003 crackdown; 52 are still behind bars. One is the husband of Julia Nunez, who says she’ll no longer have to travel 300 miles from Havana to see him.
“I and other Ladies in White haven’t lost faith that the prisoners who are in poor health will be released, and that others will follow,” Nunez says.
Since the church negotiations began, the government has only freed one activist, Ariel Sigler, whose health had deteriorated so severely in prison that he is now in a wheelchair. He arrived home in a government ambulance Saturday, looking spectral and gaunt.
The Cuban government hasn’t commented on its plans for the prisoners. It considers them traitors and mercenaries of the United States. But negotiating with the church may be a way for Castro to make reforms without appearing to cave to pressure from abroad.
The moves will be closely watched by the Obama administration, which has pegged any changes in U.S. policy to human rights improvements on the island.
Church officials have been eager to avoid appearing as if they’re pressuring the government to move faster.
At a Havana press conference last week, church spokesman Orlando Marquez said there was no timetable for the prisoner releases.
“We’ve always said that this is a process, and it won’t necessarily move forward at the same speed. But the process has begun,” he said.
The Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, is expected to quietly press for the release of more prisoners during his official visit to Cuba this week. The church also has organized a conference bringing together prominent Cuban scholars, including several from U.S. universities, to discuss issues like economic reform and national reconciliation.
The purpose of the conference, said Marquez, would be to help the church develop its “social mission” on the island, not a political one.
For now, the weekly protests by a few dozen Ladies in White and their supporters remain the only public demonstrations tolerated by the Cuban government. The women say the marches will continue until all political prisoners are freed.
http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....=127857092
Junio 15th, 2010 at 22:44
post 12
Your iconic lies can’t deceive anybody here. Those times’s past. Your are stupefying only yourself.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 22:38
#17 - VARADERO (not cuban) Beach
Maybe you were watching a report on the viagra trafficking by the CIA in Afghanistan, whereby elderly tribal Chieftans are “getting down with 16 year olds” thanks to the little blue pills.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 21:54
While I’m not optimistic that this time will be any different, the letter to Lula is a good idea. Perhaps Yoani should consider writing the two leading Brazilian presidential candidates as well. They (Serra and Rousseff) are in a very tight race to succeed Lula whose term is up in October. Try to turn standing up against Cuba’s unjust travel restrictions into an election issue in Brazil.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 20:04
Culero,
Could you please explain the English readers of GY why the Cuban Regimen claims Guantanamo base as Cuban territory?If so, why they are not able to get it back?. Explain Culero please, I beg you.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 18:25
The Castro brothers’ regime systematically denies the right of Cubans to travel freely. This is only one of many rights denied to them. Cubans can’t legally leave or reenter the country without regime authorization. Cubans who apply to emigrate lose their belongings and homes. Those who fail to escape illegally are sent to prison.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 16:54
.
Em português.
Yoani Sánchez, você é bem-vinda ao Brasil, Lula o ex-metalúrgico que lutou pela democracia, que lutou contra a censura, que lutou pelas liberdades democráticas e que hoje luta para impor censura na internet, impor censura na imprensa, talvez auxiliado por dezenas de nobres juristas esquerdistas, a ajude.
No momento ela está muito ocupado cuidando dos interesses de um tal de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad que ninguém entende porque ele se meteu neste problema.
Abraços do Brasil.
====
English for Google Translate.
Sanchez Sanchez, you are welcome to Brazil, Lula the ex-factory worker who fought for democracy, who fought against censorship, who fought for democratic freedoms and which today struggles to impose censorship on the Internet, impose censorship on the press, perhaps aided by dozens of noble leftist lawyers, to help her.
At the moment he is too busy taking care of the interests of such of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that no one understands why he got this problem.
Hugs from Brazil.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 15:52
Barbara
I’m not cuban, i’m not a cuban “expert” but i’m not stupid. I can confirm to you that there is indeed child traficking/prostitution in Cuba and I seen it with my own 2 eyes…. 60-70 years old dudes getting down with 16 year olds so whatever u trying to sell me on that specific matter i’m not buyin.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 15:15
..(AP) HAVANA (AP) - Cuba reacted angrily Tuesday to its inclusion on a U.S. list of countries that could be sanctioned for failing to fight human and child trafficking, calling it a “shameful slander” and part of Washington’s efforts to justify its trade embargo.
Cuba is one of 13 countries put on notice Monday that they are not complying with the minimum international standards to eliminate the trade in human beings and sexual slavery, and could face U.S. penalties.
Compiled by President Barack Obama’s administration, the list also includes Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar. Another 58 countries were placed on a “watch list” that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.
Cuba was singled out for allegedly not doing enough to prevent the trafficking of children who work as prostitutes on the island, mostly serving foreign tourists. It also said some Cuban doctors have complained that the government leases out their services to foreign countries as a way of canceling Cuba’s debt.
“Cuba categorically rejects these allegations as false and disrespectful,” Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs office, said in a statement sent to the foreign news media Tuesday.
She said the allegations are all the more offensive because the communist government has concentrated its limited resources on protecting women and the young, providing far more for the most vulnerable members of society than most nations in the region.
While Cubans receive low wages, the island offers free education through college, free health care and heavily subsidized housing and transportation. Crime rates and drug usage are extremely low in a country where the state maintains near total control.
“These shameful slanders profoundly hurt the Cuban people. In Cuba, there is no sexual abuse against minors, but rather an exemplary effort to protect children, young people and women,” Vidal Ferreiro said. She said Cuban laws “put us among the countries in the region with the most advanced norms and mechanisms for the prevention of abuse.”
Cuba has been included as one of the worst offenders on the State Department human trafficking list since 2003. It is also on a separate list of countries that the U.S. deems to support terrorism.
The latest report notes that Cuban laws against trafficking appear stringent, but that the country has not provided enough evidence to show they are being enforced.
Interestingly, the report does not concentrate on Cubans seeking to emigrate to the United States, a diaspora which has meant vast profits for traffickers, who can charge thousands of dollars for illicit transportation to the U.S., often through Mexico.
It was not clear what sanctions, if any, Cuba could face. It is already the target of a 48-year trade embargo, which bans the sale of most American goods on the island. American tourists are not allowed to vacation in Cuba, depriving the Caribbean hotspot of what would likely be its top source of visitors.
Cuba refers to the embargo as a blockade, and rightly or wrongly blames it for most of its economic woes. While many countries criticize the country’s treatment of political prisoners and lack of democracy, the embargo is rejected each year in a lopsided U.N. vote.
Many had hoped relations between the United States and Cuba would improve under Obama, but the two sides have made little progress. The relationship has soured most recently over the December arrest of a U.S. contractor whom Cuba accuses of spying. He has been held without charge for more than six months.
Vidal Ferreiro said Cuba’s inclusion on the trafficking list is political.
“It can only be explained by the desperate need that the U.S. government has to justify, under whatever pretext, the persistence of its cruel blockade, which has been overwhelmingly rejected by the international community.”
Cuba was not the only country in the region to react strongly to the report.
Guyana, which received slightly better marks than Cuba, said the report hurts its friendship with the United States.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 15:03
HUMAN TRAFFICKING 101:
http://www.vineyardusa.org/sit.....evised.pdf
Junio 15th, 2010 at 14:49
#13 Human Trafficking:
http://www.ilo.org/sapfl/Infor...../index.htm
Junio 15th, 2010 at 14:31
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Cuba denounces US criticism on human trafficking-By PAUL HAVEN
HAVANA — Cuba reacted angrily Tuesday to its inclusion on a U.S. list of countries that could be sanctioned for failing to fight human and child trafficking, calling it a “shameful slander” and part of Washington’s efforts to justify its trade embargo.
Cuba is one of 13 countries put on notice Monday that they are not complying with the minimum international standards to eliminate the trade in human beings and sexual slavery, and could face U.S. penalties.
Compiled by President Barack Obama’s administration, the list also includes Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar. Another 58 countries were placed on a “watch list” that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.
Cuba was singled out for allegedly not doing enough to prevent the trafficking of children who work as prostitutes on the island, mostly serving foreign tourists. It also said some Cuban doctors have complained that the government leases out their services to foreign countries as a way of canceling Cuba’s debt.
“Cuba categorically rejects these allegations as false and disrespectful,” Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs office, said in a statement sent to the foreign news media Tuesday.
She said the allegations are all the more offensive because the communist government has concentrated its limited resources on protecting women and the young, providing far more for the most vulnerable members of society than most nations in the region.
While Cubans receive low wages, the island offers free education through college, free health care and heavily subsidized housing and transportation. Crime rates and drug usage are extremely low in a country where the state maintains near total control.
“These shameful slanders profoundly hurt the Cuban people. In Cuba, there is no sexual abuse against minors, but rather an exemplary effort to protect children, young people and women,” Vidal Ferreiro said. She said Cuban laws “put us among the countries in the region with the most advanced norms and mechanisms for the prevention of abuse.”
Cuba has been included as one of the worst offenders on the State Department human trafficking list since 2003. It is also on a separate list of countries that the U.S. deems to support terrorism.
The latest report notes that Cuban laws against trafficking appear stringent, but that the country has not provided enough evidence to show they are being enforced.
Interestingly, the report does not concentrate on Cubans seeking to emigrate to the United States, a diaspora which has meant vast profits for traffickers, who can charge thousands of dollars for illicit transportation to the U.S., often through Mexico.
It was not clear what sanctions, if any, Cuba could face. It is already the target of a 48-year trade embargo, which bans the sale of most American goods on the island. American tourists are not allowed to vacation in Cuba, depriving the Caribbean hotspot of what would likely be its top source of visitors.
Cuba refers to the embargo as a blockade, and rightly or wrongly blames it for most of its economic woes. While many countries criticize the country’s treatment of political prisoners and lack of democracy, the embargo is rejected each year in a lopsided U.N. vote.
Many had hoped relations between the United States and Cuba would improve under Obama, but the two sides have made little progress. The relationship has soured most recently over the December arrest of a U.S. contractor whom Cuba accuses of spying. He has been held without charge for more than six months.
Vidal Ferreiro said Cuba’s inclusion on the trafficking list is political.
“It can only be explained by the desperate need that the U.S. government has to justify, under whatever pretext, the persistence of its cruel blockade, which has been overwhelmingly rejected by the international community.”
Cuba was not the only country in the region to react strongly to the report.
Guyana, which received slightly better marks than Cuba, said the report hurts its friendship with the United States.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....AD9GBQLTO0
Junio 15th, 2010 at 13:06
chango cubano-
“Could you explain to the readers here, why the Cuban government steals 20% of the money send by Cubans living abroad to their families?â€
That is Cuba’s exchange rate when converting dollars to CUC‘s; and I believe it was in response to some measures taken by the US during the previous Administration. The problem is that we are caught in the middle. Do I agree, no, but when I travel to Europe the same thing happens, my dollar looses value, and you couldn’t care less.
————————-
“Could you explain why the Castro’s regimen consider ILLEGALS those Cubans from the country side who are living in Havana?â€
There is a terrible housing shortage in Cuba; but there are NO HOMELESS. In order to keep it that way, Cuba has established rules by which you release or acquire real estate, through legal “permutasâ€. Anything outside the law is illegal, just as if I move into any place without the proper property agreements, etc.
—————————-
“Why are they categorized as illegals?, aren’t they Cubans?, how a Cuban born in Guantanamo or Santiago de Cuba is considered ILLEGAL in the capital of his country?â€
They are not considered “illegals“, they are considered illegally having evaded Cuban law.
———————————————-
“Could you please explain also to the English readers, why Cubans were segregated and forbidden to enter tourist venues?, and also explain them why these practices of discrimination and segregation to Cubans still in place due to a double monetary policy that favors the CUC.( Cuban Dollars) over the Cuban pesos, even though Cubans are paid with Pesos.( Cuban official currency)â€
This is where hypocrisy knows no bounds in the extremist Cuban American community.
Gloria and Emilio and the likes vacation in Dubai without bating an eyelash about the slave labor constructing the artificial, now bankrupt, paradise there.
There are all kinds of tours announced on Miami’s most extremist stations to destinations in which nationals languish in poverty, and are definitely forbidden from touristy spots. No one could care less.
If a man lands at the airport in Santo Domingo, for instance, he is immediately approached by pimps with business cards and brochures of young women to be had, regardless of whether he is traveling with his wife and kids.
Unfortunately, tourists don’t generally want to mix with nationals, and I couldn’t disagree more with any policy in support of that, because to me it is undignified anywhere in the world where it happens, whether it be Cuba or any other place on the planet, including in the US where there are plenty of restrictive zones, beaches, hotels, etc.
Unfortunately, the US Blockade forced Cuba into the tourist industry for survival, and it carries with it some undesirable trappings. However, your family in Cuba can join you at a hotel, I know that because my family has done that in the past.
Cubans go to hotels all the time, particularly those that travel here and return with dollars. I know some Pastors who have stayed at wonderful hotels with their families after returning to the island.
Couples honeymoon in hotels for certain days at the government’s expense.
Cubans are NOT forbidden from beaches to the best of my knowledge, and they are not forbidden from hotels if they can pay just like people here.
There are also many incentives for workers to earn vacation prizes to Cayo Coco, Varadero; anywhere for a free vacation, and I know of people that have won and done it.
———————
“Could you also explain why Castro promoted a policy of intolerance among his followers exhorting them to beat( and I mean literally)those who criticizes his government in public?â€
Castro has never promoted such a policy, but it has been people‘s spontaneous reaction which is something of the past now. People still react if something cruel happens to a child, for example, or even an animal; they may not wait for authority to show up before they confront the abusive person, but they have never killed anyone summarily. People still react passionately when foreign embassy and US Interest Section workers meddle in internal affairs, but they do it in a very dignified manner.
Did you not know that what you are addressing is exactly what happened to career military officers in Cuba who did not support Fulgencio Batista’s coup d’état? They and their families could not show their face in public without humiliations on the part of “lowlifes†supporting Batista.
Did you not know that’s what happened to people of any age who went to see the Van Van play in Miami the first time?
Did you not know that that is what happens to anyone in Miami wearing a
Che t-shirt, for instance?
—————–
“…infamous “Brigadas de Respuestas Rapidas†or “fast response brigades†to squash with sticks those who publicly express their discomfort and rejection to Castro’s economic and political ruling?â€
Did you know that worse, much worse happens to people who peacefully protest the WTO in the US? But does that concern you at all? Did you know that the ones to start the ruckus in Seattle and Miami were police officers dressed as civilians or ninjas? But you probably side with bankers and tansnational corporations in the matter, and not the human rights organizations taht dennounce it.
————
“Could you explain why the survivors of the March 13 Tugboat masacre are not allow to publicly demand an investigation of the incident that killed 38 Cubans, 20 children amoung them?â€
If it was a massacre, why are there survivors? Why did the people trying to prevent this illegal and irresponsible act desperately tried to save as many of them as possible once the boat collapsed?
There was a thorough investigation of a matter that was a miscalculated error on the part of those spraying water with hoses on irresponsible people who stole a vessel, and without knowing its condition or capacity climbed on board with children and all, to keep them from taking to the high seas.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 12:29
NEW YORK TIMES:Venezuela’s Military Ties With Cuba Stir Concerns-By SIMON ROMERO-June 14, 2010
CARACAS, Venezuela — The ties between President Hugo Chávez and Cuba’s Communist leaders are plain enough: Cuba has thousands of doctors here, not to mention a smaller number of advisers who help on a breadth of issues, like agricultural engineering and even training Olympic athletes.
But the quiet expansion of Cuba’s military role here has raised a particular concern among critics of Mr. Chávez, who maintain that the military is being retooled — with Cuba’s help — into an institution that can be used to quell any domestic challenge to the president.
In a rare public critique, a former aide to Mr. Chávez has lambasted the role of Cuban advisers in delicate areas that he says include military intelligence, weapons training, strategic planning and the logistics of Mr. Chávez himself, who often travels on a Cuban plane.
“We are at the mercy of meddling in areas of national security by a Cuban regime, which wants Chávez to remain in power because Chávez gives them oil,†the former aide, Antonio Rivero, a brigadier general who retired this year, said in an interview.
“The Cuban advisers are there to exert pressure,†he added, “and they often claim to speak on the president’s behalf as if they were his emissaries.â€
Mr. Chávez has made no bones about the presence of Cuban military advisers, who he says are “modestly†helping in some areas. But he has publicly offered no details on how many there are or where they are working.
Carlos A. Romero, a political scientist at the Central University of Venezuela who researches military ties with Cuba, estimates that there are 500 Cuban military advisers in the country, including an elite group of about 20 officers operating from Fuerte Tiuna, the country’s main garrison.
A spokesman at Cuba’s embassy here did not respond to requests for comment.
The critique by General Rivero, who worked as an aide to Mr. Chávez early in his presidency and later as the head of the emergency management agency, comes after years in which Cuba has served as a linchpin of support for Mr. Chávez.
The Cuban doctors have provided free medical care to poor Venezuelans; in exchange for such support, Cuba gets oil imports of about 100,000 barrels a day from Venezuela, helping it recover from an economic collapse after the end of Soviet-era energy subsidies in the 1990s. But the military exchanges have become a delicate issue here.
“Cuba doesn’t sell weapons systems, setting it apart from the military cooperation agreements Venezuela has with Russia or China,†said RocÃo San Miguel, a legal scholar here who specializes in military affairs. “What Cuba sells is intelligence and strategic planning, based on 50 years of experience in keeping a repressive regime in power.â€
General Rivero, who said he came forward with his criticism “as a matter of sovereignty,†offered no evidence that the military had adopted Cuban-inspired repressive policies. But he said that the Cubans had assumed duties beyond the normal activities of a military alliance, and that their presence in areas like military intelligence could compromise national security.
Mr. Chávez has already taken steps to politicize the armed forces, culling hundreds of officers deemed disloyal and promoting those who support him. He changed the army’s name to the Bolivarian Armed Forces, and at military functions requires soldiers to shout the slogan “Homeland, socialism or death!â€
He has grown closer to Cuba as ties to the United States, once the main provider of military advisers to Venezuela, have withered. After Mr. Chávez was briefly removed from power in 2002 by a coup, he halted military cooperation agreements with the United States, which had welcomed his ouster. Since then, Mr. Chávez has also forged defense ties with China, Iran and Russia, and sees those alliances as a counterweight to American power in Latin America.
Some changes in military strategy here already reflect the Cuban model, including an emphasis on preparing for an eventual invasion by the United States; the growth of the Bolivarian militia, an armed civilian force similar to Cuba’s Territorial Militia; and a focus on forging military policy within the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the regional political group led by Venezuela and Cuba.
Mr. Chávez’s supporters describe the ties with Cuba as a natural extension of their compatible ideologies.
“The revolutionary government of Cuba applies a concept of national defense with a prolonged and successful track record,†Pedro Carreño, a former interior minister under Mr. Chávez, wrote in a column in the newspaper El Nacional. “Not having military exchanges with Cuba could be grounds for treason of the homeland.â€
Venezuela’s alignment with Cuba differs from the defense policies of moderate leftist countries in the region. Brazil, the region’s rising power, recently signed an agreement aimed at bolstering its military ties with the United States.
For Cuba, a military advisory role abroad is nothing new, even if its activities here differ from the combat brigades sent to Angola and Ethiopia in the 1970s or the advisers in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Cuba’s assistance in Venezuela is much broader, including areas like telecommunications and national identification card systems. The emergence of Cuba as Venezuela’s top ally has led to criticism that the Cubans are helping Mr. Chávez tighten his grip on an array of institutions.
The debate over the alliance comes at a time of rising political tension here. Mr. Chávez is struggling with a sharp economic downturn and spreading public ire over a scandal involving 22,000 tons of imported food found rotting in ports while shortages of basic foods still plague the country.
But even as Mr. Chávez faces these challenges, analysts here say that he has deftly secured loyalty in the armed forces. Days after General Rivero started criticizing the Cuban military presence to private news organizations in April, Mr. Chávez announced that he was raising the pay of the 82,000-strong armed forces by 40 percent.
The state media here, citing a prominent military official, said the pay increase was unrelated to Mr. Rivero’s “lies,†and was aimed at “dignifying†the military’s standard of living.
Mr. Chávez has also made it clear that any rumbling within the military, over Cuban advisers or other issues, would have consequences. He rarely loses a chance to remind other military branches of the growing might of the militia, which has some 300,000 reservists and is designed to operate at his command. At a recent parade of reservists, Mr. Chávez called on them to “sweep away the bourgeoisie†if he were assassinated.
“No one knows better than Chávez himself that Venezuelan history is sprinkled with one military conspiracy after another,†said Fernando Ochoa Antich, who was defense minister when Mr. Chávez attempted his own coup in 1992. “His dependence on Cuba is an effort to improve intelligence controls to prevent a conspiracy from prospering.â€
MarÃa Eugenia DÃaz contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06.....venez.html
Junio 15th, 2010 at 11:51
ASSOCIATED PRESS: US applauds release of Cuban political prisoner-By PAUL HAVEN
HAVANA — Washington applauded the release of an ailing political prisoner in Cuba, saying Monday that it welcomes the role Catholic officials have played in negotiating with Raul Castro’s government and hopes other dissidents will be freed.
Meanwhile, Cuban authorities set a trial date for another prisoner, Darsi Ferrer, a step his wife viewed as a potential breakthrough that could see him freed soon.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the United States views the Saturday release of Ariel Sigler as “a positive development.”
“We hope that this will lead to the release of additional prisoners of conscience,” Crowley told reporters in Washington.
Sigler, 44, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was freed on medical grounds. One of 75 activists arrested in 2003 during a crackdown by Cuban authorities, he had been serving a 25-year sentence for treason.
Crowley’s comment was the most positive yet by a U.S. official since Cuba began making a series of concessions following landmark talks between the communist government and the Roman Catholic church.
Under an agreement ironed out with church leaders, 12 prisoners of conscience have been transferred to jails closer to their homes in recent weeks. The concessions came ahead of a visit to Cuba by the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, who arrives Tuesday.
“We certainly respect the positive role played by … those working for the improved treatment of released political prisoners, including the Catholic Church,” Crowley said.
The church has suddenly burst on the scene as a powerful political voice in Cuba.
In May, Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega negotiated an end to a ban on marches by a group known as the Ladies in White, which is made up of the wives and mothers of some of the dissidents jailed in 2003.
The cardinal and another church leader later met with Raul Castro, leading to the agreement on prisoners.
Human rights officials say Cuba holds 180 political prisoners in all. Havana says the dissidents are a mix of common criminals and agitators paid and manipulated by Washington to bring down the government.
Emblematic of the difference between the two sides is the case of Ferrer, a longtime opposition figure who has been jailed without trial since July 2009, when he was arrested on charges of illegally purchasing cement.
All construction projects in Cuba are tightly regulated and materials are controlled by the state; thus, Havana considers him a criminal.
However the purchase of supplies on the island’s black market is extremely commonplace and usually goes unpunished, leading diplomats and international observers to call his arrest a clear retaliation for political activity.
Ferrer’s wife, Yusnaimi Jorge, told The Associated Press on Monday that his trial will take place June 22 and prosecutors have recommended a 3-year sentence. Under Cuban law, those convicted of short jail terms are often allowed to remain free.
“We hope they will free him,” she said.
Elizardo Sanchez, who heads the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation and monitors dissident activity, reacted cautiously to the news.
“If they free him, it would be a positive step,” he said. “But if he is condemned (to jail time) it is a step backward.”
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....wD9GB9E2G0
Junio 15th, 2010 at 11:41
Culreo and Damir,
What do you think of Che Guevara’s grandson’s comments and essay? WOULD LOVE YOUR READ YOUR COMMENTS!
EL PERIODICO: Canek Sánchez Guevara: “A mi abuelo el Che le incomodaba el poder; a Fidel le obsesionaba”
SONIA GARCÃA GARCÃA
BARCELONA
Canek Sánchez Guevara tiene un nombre que proviene de un rey maya, un padre mexicano y un apellido muy famoso, el de su abuelo, el guerrillero Che Guevara. Nació en La Habana (1974). Have dos años, publicó Diario de Bolivia (Linkgua ediciones) y hoy interviene en el coloquio Libertades en Cuba: ¿Para quién? ¿Para qué?.
–Leà que está cansado de que le pregunten por el Che Guevara.
–De hecho, yo no le conocÃ. Lo he conocido a través de sus textos. Crecà en un ambiente de izquierda radical fuera de Cuba, pero ¿puede alguien olvidar de quién es nieto?
–Es curioso que el mito del Che haya crecido al mismo tiempo que el neoliberalismo.
–De hecho, fue a partir de los años 80 cuando se volvió un objeto. Es un sino del capitalismo, reciclar la subversión en forma de mercancÃa y luego venderla. Y un sino de la subversión: crear héroes, mártires y mitos. Fue la izquierda la que ha contribuido a crear el mito.
–¿También es su fan?
–No soy guevarista, me parecerÃa de una soberbia terrible. Me fascinó que, tras haber llegado al poder, lo abandonara todo para seguir su obsesión: la revolución.
–No le gustaba el poder.
–Se sentÃa incómodo, lo ejerció mal. El poder era una obsesión de Fidel.
–¿Qué futuro le ve a Cuba?
–Vivimos en un mundo en el que todo parece derrumbarse y Cuba no es ajena. Se ha derrumbado, de hecho.
–Fidel, Raúl Castro, ¿mejor o peor?
–Son dos caracteres diferentes, pero el proceso de democratización será pos-Castro, ni con Fidel ni con Raúl. El sistema polÃtico cubano se ha comportado como una monarquÃa y no sé por qué se le sigue llamando socialismo. Raúl es más pragmático. PodrÃa abrir esos espacios para la democracia, pero no lo ha hecho.
–Ha cambiado a los fidelistas.
–Lo que hay es una mayor presencia de las fuerzas armadas en puestos civiles. Administran hoteles y servicios turÃsticos. Son capitalistas de Estado, antiliberales.
–Y los cubanos, ¿qué piensan?
– La principal obsesión del cubano de a pie es llevar comida a la mesa.
–El presidente Raúl Castro ha prometido mejorar lo inmediato.
–Cualquier cosa que se haga es pura palabrerÃa, porque hablamos de un sistema corrupto que adolece de transparencia.
–Con lo que está pasando en Cuba, ¿qué dirÃa su abuelo si viviera?
–No puedo atreverme a poner palabras ni ideas de otras personas, sea el Che o cualquier otra persona, porque a pesar del merchandising sigue siendo un desconocido para muchos. Pero lo que sà puedo decir es que él se fue de Cuba.
http://www.elperiodico.com/def.....io_PK=1026
sábado 21 de noviembre de 2009-Habla el nieto del Che Guevara
http://bendeasis.blogspot.com/.....evara.html
Junio 15th, 2010 at 10:17
Barbara Curbelo,
Could you explain to the readers here, why the Cuban government steals 20% of the money send by Cubans living abroad to their families?
Could you explain why the Castro’s regimen consider ILLEGALS those Cubans from the country side who are living in Havana?
Why are they categorized as illegals?, aren’t they Cubans?, how a Cuban born in Guantanamo or Santiago de Cuba is considered ILLEGAL in the capital of his country?
Junio 15th, 2010 at 10:13
Barbara Curbelo,
Could you please explain also to the English readers, why Cubans were segregated and forbidden to enter tourist venues?, and also explain them why these practices of discrmination and segregation to Cubans still in place due to a double monetary policy that favors the CUC.( Cuban Dollars) over the Cuban pesos, even though Cubans are paid with Pesos.( Cuban official currency)
Could you explain this?
Curbelo,
Could you also explain why Castro promoted a policy of intolerance among his followers exhorting them to beat( and I mean literally)those who criticizes his government in public?
Could you explain the need to create the infamous “Brigadas de Respuestas Rapidas” or “fast response brigades” to squash with sticks those who publicly express their discomfort and rejection to Castro’s economic and political ruling?
Could you explain why the survivors of the March 13 Tugboat masacre are not allow to publicly demand an investigation of the incident that killed 38 Cubans, 20 children amoung them?
Junio 15th, 2010 at 09:58
#1 GUSANITA: Disculpa, pero es necesario que las personas de habla ingles no se queden fuera, por educacion.
You claim to have seen Che when you were 7 and not to have liked his eyes. Maybe you had never had the opportunity to look into eyes consumed by passion for humanity before. But that does not mean you knew Che.
Why do you think the saying “Que pasa si SOSA pasa”, what happens when Sosa passes by? Sosa terrorized people savagely.
The only questionable trials in the minds of some military experts within Cuba, were the trials of those who after the revolution took to the Escambray hills once again, to thwart the revolution by force. They were a handful of men, and their defense attorneys did not completely do their best to represent them because they were to prejudiced by their own zeal. That fact of hsitory has to be acknowledged.
But people like Sosa and the rest were given fair trials in which the enormous evidence of all their crimes against humanity was justly presented.
I know it is painful when people we love are prosecuted and executed, but that was in keeping with the law. We can love someone, yet if we truly want justice we must admit when they are wrong. That doesn’t mean we betray them or stop loving them for what they represented in our lives. Some of these people were very vile in their crimes against unarmed civilians, and anyone who did not adhere to their corrupt system.
Batista eluded justice abd fled with his millions. He lived the life of a prince abroad; the rest that were left behind which had done his dirty work had to face justice.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 09:42
Yoani -
Olga Salanueva Arango - has been denied a humanitarian visa to travel to the U.S. to see her husband René González Schewerert,
, since his incarceration over 10 years ago by the US Interest Section in Havana
http://www.freethefive.org/
Adriana Pérez O’Connor - has been denied a humanitarian visa to travel to the U.S. to see her husband Gerardo Hernández Nordelo,
since his incarceration over 10 years ago by the US Interest Section in Havana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkJgLowC7pg
Others in the Cuban Five have not seen their parents, wives, and children with regularity. Their visas are randomly and inordinately delayed.
Since THE FIVE were convicted, there has been international support for them. There are committees advocating that they be granted justice in twenty US cities and over thirty countries.
On 27 May 2005, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a report by its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stating its opinions on the facts and circumstances of the case and calling upon the US government to remedy the situation. Among the report’s criticisms of the trial and sentences, noted::
…from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused, that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party.
Amnesty International has criticized the US treatment of the Cuban Five as human rights violations, as the wives of René Gonzáles and Gerardo Hernández have not been allowed visas to visit their imprisoned husbands.
Eight international Nobel Prize winners have written and sent a document to the US Attorney General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999).
In the United Kingdom, among other actions, 110 Members of Parliament wrote an open letter to the US Attorney General in support of the Five.
In April 2009, a Brazilian human rights group, Torture Never Again, awarded the Five its Chico Mendes Medal, alleging that their rights had been violated, declaring that “their mail is censored and their visiting rights are very restricted.”
Junio 15th, 2010 at 08:59
Capitalism is an immoral and sinful system. A better alternative is needed. Another christian representative joins the ever growing number of religious people calling for “capitalist democracy” to be removed, burried and forgotten completely.
http://www.jubilee-centre.org/.....hp?catID=1
Archbishop of Canterbury had said in December 2008 that Marx was right about the capitalism. London mayor, Boris (the name is actually swedish, not russian as many believe) joined the chorus and said that capotalism has failed the modern society.
Even benedict, the german Hitler jungend member-turned pope (germans are baptists/protestants, it defies belief that one can become a pope…)commented that too much of capitalism has brought too much of materialism and that the capitalsim, not communism is the source of all evil in the world of today.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 08:54
Ramón Labañino, one of the five Cuban nationals imprisoned in the US for fighting terrorism in Miami, has been unjustly placed in solitary confinement since April 27th.
Junio 15th, 2010 at 08:47
English please. If you don’t know it, there’s spanish page too. Post there.
Or is that too much to understand?
Junio 15th, 2010 at 08:28
You claim to have known him. He would have turned 82 today. Did you know him in Argentina when he was becoming a physician, or when he volunteered at a leper colony, or in Mexico when he met Fidel and the other revolutionaries there, or did you meet him up in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra or Escambray? Did you work with him when he was the head of the National Bank, when he went to the Congo, or when he was in Bolivia? When did you know him?
Barby, aunque no lo creas SI LO CONOCÃ, era muy pequeña y mi tia una adoradora de él igual que tu me llevó a verlo, yo tenia 7 años y sus ojos NO ME GUSTARON…..y cuando estaba en el Banco nacional el Sr fue el iniciador delCAMBIO DE LA MONEDA te acuerdas tu de eso? (todos los ahorros de los cubanos los incautó) no lo creo ya vivias en este pais, no hables lo que no sabes tambien conocà a Aleida March en casa de un familiar……..desgraciadamente para mi se lo que te digo. Ademas en la escuela bastante basura que nos enseñaron de él… te acuerdas del juicio de Sosa Blanco? o del fusilamiento de Cornelio Rojas? no lo creo no tenias edad…….tanto lo pusieron en la TV que nos lo aprendimos de memoria………por muy malos que hubieran sido el Sr llegó MATANDO desde el dia 2 de Enero, eso se llama SER un SANGUINARIO……..No era una BLANCA PALOMA el Sr…….