The Color of Prosperity
The balustrades are shaped like naked women and the wrought iron gate is topped with stone slabs. The garden barely has room for a couple of feet of grass from which a diminutive Pekinese barks all day. From the front door you can see the line of the bar that divides the living room from the kitchen, with bottles filled with colored liquids. A plastic tank overlooks the roof, storing enough water for days of scarcity. The iron and glass windows reveal the figures moving within the house and at night also reflect the brightness of the TV. The entire lowercase “mansion” has been painted the vermillion color that today is a sign of prosperity. With this tone preferred by those who make their way economically despite privations and bureaucratic absurdities.
Even on unpaved streets, these homes stand out, retouched by their own efforts and convertible pesos. Minuscule palaces with pretensions of grandeur suddenly popping into view. They leave us caught between surprise and optimism, on encountering them amid the twists and turns of La Platanito, La Timbre, Zamora, el Romerillo, and other rundown neighborhoods. Hard up against overflowing dumpsters or sewer ditches the ooze down the road, but within themselves these “doll houses” are like bubbles of well-being. They have these pretensions expressed in fanciful details such as columns shaped like tree branches, or plaster dwarfs guarding the gates. Extravagantly decorated tons of times, architecturally ridiculous many others, these imitation castles speak of a strong desire to live in a beautiful, personalized space. They are like the baroque walls of some mausoleum in a Havana cemetery, but this time for the enjoyment of life.
I love to stumble across these facades and see their occupants looking out from the small balconies. There is something in them, in the paint chosen to cover the walls and in the bell hanging over the door that gives me hope. I am comforted to know that the desire to progress materially was not erased by so many years of false egalitarianism and faked modesty. Some eagerness for prosperity remains within us and now this greed has a color, vermillion, that is impossible to hide.
Mayo 9th, 2012 at 22:21
I am an American pastor and was in Cuba about three weeks ago with a team asissting the house churches there. God is at work on the island in great ways. I’ll be praying for you as you go. We pray daily for the Cuban people and our brothers and sisters in Christ who are there. I would love to connect with you personally about your work there when you return. God bless.
Mayo 9th, 2012 at 21:04
It’s beautiful. It’s hot. You’ll love it.The best thing is to reuqest a room overlooking the ocean. Oceanview is always the nicest and best. You can sit out at night on your balcony and listen to the waves.Choose a room on the highest floor. You will find the ground floor rooms to be more damp and mustier.However, at Playa Pesquero, I believe it’s just two floor villa rooms. Either way, go for a beachfront.It doesn’t usually take that long to get to the pools and restaurants from wherever you are at most resorts.Have fun!
Mayo 7th, 2012 at 23:03
CUBA: A Good Old Age in Old Havana - IPS ipsnews.net. Mar 5, 2010 . The ptoiriry is to care for elderly residents with programmes that could become a model for the rest of Cuba, whose population is ageing ..Jorge Perez-Lopez. inter-census annual increase of the first period, 1907 to 1919. The Cuban population under age 15 usual- ly amounted to about 36% of the total population ..
Abril 20th, 2012 at 13:44
Good luck, Un Soricel. We all see different things depending where we’ve been. I’m sure you will continue to change, as we all do.
Abril 20th, 2012 at 11:28
Pamela, and as a leftover yeah I fully agree that the USA is more complex and more varied…. The only question is why aren’t you guys? …. That was very unpleasant surpise .. On the same par with Orwell writing that Britain has good people in it but the country is in the hand of b’stards (roughly quoted)…. Imagine the surpise I got coming to the UK the cradle of Europeandemocracy and finding 1984 abook of my youuth could have happened and in part it did happen here… Not much of a surprise that the USA is going that way too… I suppose it has to do with the burden of having a history in a more methphysical way… Bye… Sorry to offend if I did it wasnt meant as such more than explaining how I feel and what I have seen.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 18:40
I CAN SEE THAT “THE FUACATATOR” (alias Griffin) IS IN FINE FORM TODAY! BE CAREFUL C.L. OF MULTIPLE “FUACATAAAASSSSSS!!!!!!!!!” JE JE JE!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 17:06
The Cuban Connection: Drug Trafficking and the Castro Regime
This one is a long report in pdf. Posting the link doesn’t work, so please copy the title and use google to search for it.
http://www.google.ca/search?cl.....0QHr86WRBQ
Abril 19th, 2012 at 17:01
Drug trafficking through Cuba on the rise
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/drugs/rise.htm
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:59
Vesco Linked to Cuban Drug Smuggling (1985)
Fugitive financier Robert L. Vesco is collaborating with Cuban and Nicaraguan officials to smuggle narcotics into the United States and Europe, the head of the U.S. Customs Service told a Senate subcommittee Friday.
Customs Commissioner William von Raab said Vesco has worked closely with Frederico Vaughn, a top aide to the Nicaraguan interior minister, and that funds from the drug trade have often been used to purchase automatic weapons for the leftist Sandinista government’s war with the Nicaraguan rebels, or contras. Cuba’s role in the operation has been to provide protection for drug smugglers moving narcotics by ship or plane to the United States in hopes of causing social turmoil, Von Raab testified Friday.
http://www.articles.latimes.co.....-smuggling
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:56
Cuba Releases 2010 ‘Drug War’ Statistics
http://www.insightcrime.org/in.....statistics
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:54
WikiLeaks: Cables reveal U.S.-Cuban cooperation over drug smuggling
http://www.articles.cnn.com/20.....d?_s=PM:US
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:41
Cuba and Cocaine
PBS documentary on the high level Cuban military involvement in the drug trade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:32
CL,
I posted the piece about Chavez for it’s own sake. While I realize it was not about Cuba (pace Humberto), as Chavez is a good amigo of Fidel & Raul, it was worth posting. The other piece I linked further down was about Cuba possibly becoming a narco-state. It’s an interesting issue. If you wish to inform yourself, go ahead and read it. As mentioned in that article, the driving force in the trend towards the growing power and influence of violent narcotics gangs is the huge markets in the US & Europe. The author argues therefore it’s in the US interest to work with Cuban police and courts to deal with the problem rather than refusing to have anything to do with Cuba. Canadian & Spanish police already have working relationships with Cuban police on drug issues.
The fact is drugs have been in Cuba since before the revolution, when it was a major base for US gangsters smuggling heroin into the US. Castro broke up that operation. But… drugs are still around. I was offered marijuana by a waiter at a resort in Cuba ( I declined). Pot is grown in the mountains by Cuban’s desperate to make a few bucks. Gutierrez’s novels discuss quite a lot of drug use during the hard times of the 90’s, mostly marijuana again, but also cocaine. Leon Padura’s Cuban detective fiction mentions dealers selling grass & cocaine. Some pills are used by youth sub-culture groups in Havana. So there is drug use & trafficking in Cuba. Not on the scale of some US cities, but it’s there for sure. I have not heard of the widespread use of “heavy” drugs like heroin, crack or meth in Cuba. The drugs of choice for most Cubans remain rum & cigars.
There are reports that various Cuban gov’t officials and high ranking FAR military officers have been involved in transporting & dealing in drugs. Norberto Fuentes, a former close associate of Castro who defected to the US has detailed Castor’s involvement in the international drug trade. Castro uses Cuba to transship drugs to Europe & the US, relying on networks of Cuban ex-pat criminals in the US & Spain. Every once in a while, Castor has arrested an officer or official on drug charges as a way to insulate himself and mislead the media into thinking he’s “totally against drugs”.
An interesting example is the case of General Arnaldo Ochoa, who had fought with Castro in the Sierra Maestra, fought at the Bay of Pigs, and led the Cuban forces in Angola & Somalia. He returned from Angola something of a hero, always a dangerous thing to be around Castro. While in Angola, Ochoa got involved in the trade of drugs, ivory & diamonds to supplement the wages and other costs of his soldiers. Or so the legend goes. Once back in Cuba, Ochoa was eventually arrested, tried, found guilt and executed for treason. Yet there are those who say he was a fall guy for the Castro’s who resented the General’s popularity. Maybe it was a bit of both?
Cuban & Venezuelan military are known to be working with FARC, the Marxist guerrillas-turned-narco-terrorists in Colombia. Interpol investigated the crash of an airline in Africa that had flown from Caracas and was loaded with several tonnes of cocaine. The former President of Colombia accused Chavez drug & gun running with FARC and of providing safe shelter to FARC on Venezuelan territory.
By the way, the country with the highest per-capita rate of drug addiction is Iran. Heroin, morphine & hashish addiction is rampant in the Islamic Republic, where the IIRG controls the drug trade. Interesting to note, Cuba and IRan have been developing close ties and trading relationships lately. Do you suppose Iranians have a taste for Cuban pork or rum?
So yes, drugs is a relevant topic for discussion on a blog about Cuban issues, even if it’s not about housing.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:09
C.L. AS LONG AS IT HAS A LEGITIMATE TIE TO THE CUBA TOPIC I HAVE NO PROBLEM! BUT LETS FACE IT C.L. YOU HAVE USED THAT TACTIC OF SHIFTING SUBJECT IN THE PAST FOR SO LONG THAT MAYBE IS JUST SECOND NATURE TO YOU! PLEASE POINT OUT THE COMMENTS THAT DO THE SAME AND I WILL POINT IT OUT TO THEM AS WELL!!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 16:04
#619 Humberto,
No my friend, just commenting on the other folks who have strayed from the subject at hand. Everyone else in here seems to be debating everything else except Cuban issues, like Russia, Noriega, Chavez, Brazil and Transylvania, so I didn`t want to miss out on the fun, lol.
By the way Humberto, why do you always diss me when I talk other topics than Cuba, and not the others who do the same?? Give me a break bro, pick on someone else for a change will you.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 15:53
Havana: The New Art of Making Ruins
Part 2 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Notice the deteriorated facade with the large wooden doors nailed with sloping pieces of wood. In front of the building, two large dumps of was one of the most important and beautiful theater building of the city, in which great artist used to performed on the 1950’s.
In one of the best scenes of the documentary, which supports Ponte’s theory, the camera travels slowly through the streets, filming the buildings facades while playing the Adagio of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, attempting to draw parallels with Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti film, who chose this music, and the Cuban capital. In reality it looks more like a scene of Germany Year Zero, Rossellini’s movie, you feel the desire of screaming.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 15:52
NARCOCON INTERNATIONAL: Cuba Drug Addiction Problem
The most significant characteristic of drug trafficking, substance abuse and addiction in Cuba is the remarkable absence of reports by the Cuban government. During Fidel Castro’s reign, drug trafficking has been a phenomenon that simply doesn’t exist. It was banned. But many signs refute this claim.
The Miami Herald reported that in the late 1990s, a number of major drug trafficking figures from Colombia, Mexico and Peru were reported to be holding meetings or living in Cuba. Given the repressive nature of the society, it is unlikely that these visits went unnoticed or were unapproved by the Cuban government.
About this time, the Drug Enforcement Agency estimated that two tons of cocaine per year was flowing through Cuba to other destinations. But then in 1998, a shipment of more than seven tons of cocaine was seized in Cartagena, Colombia, just days before it left for Cuba. From Cuba, the cargo was supposed to be re-shipped to Spain. As one Drug Enforcement Agent pointed out, large shipments like this are never made without the “pipeline” already having been tested. The company shipping this cocaine had previously made four other container shipments to Cuba that went on to Spain.
Several years earlier, a Cuban intelligence agent who defected to the U.S. in the early 1990s testified about Colombian drug smugglers who were allowed to use Cuba to transship drugs to the U.S. market in the 1970s. In 2004, one of the most notorious Colombian drug traffickers was arrested as he entered Cuba. And these are far from the only stories about traffickers using Cuba as a headquarters for their operations.
In 2004, the Cuban government did release some information about drug seizures. They reported that in the first half of 2003, they had interdicted nearly four tons of drugs, largely marijuana, plus nearly half a ton of cocaine.
CLICK LINK FOR MORE!
http://www.narconon.org/drug-i.....ction.html
The Narconon program is a non-profit public benefit organization dedicated to eliminating drug abuse through drug prevention, drug education and drug rehabilitation.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 15:46
Cuba Libre said: “However if you want to debate the drug issue, take for granted that the US is the highest percentage of drug addicts and drug users in the whole wide world probably. An interesting market for any drug smuggler or cartel, let alone Venezuela and Colombia.”
C.L.! A FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT YOU ARE USING THAT SAME OLD TRICK OF DEVEATING FROM THE CUBA & CUBAN ISSUES SUBJECT! JUST SAYING! JE JE JE!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 15:41
# 606 Griffin,
I don`t understand what drug trafficking has to do with the Cuban housing issue that Yoani complains about on this post of hers. However if you want to debate the drug issue, take for granted that the US is the highest percentage of drug addicts and drug users in the whole wide world probably. An interesting market for any drug smuggler or cartel, let alone Venezuela and Colombia. Ever hear of the “French Connection” which used to supply Canada and the US with the purest heroin available. If there would be no drug users, there wouldn`t be a market for drug smugglers and dealers. Wherever there is a quick buck to be made, rest assured someone will find the means of providing the products that are demanded. That is the great capitalist way. Easy money no matter how many lives it ruins. How many drug users or addicts do you know of in Cuba? Me personally I have never seen any drug users or dealers there.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 15:26
Humberto,
As I’m sure you know, these so-called reforms are too little and far too limited to really be called “free enterprise” . The gov’t still controls hiring, salaries and prices. The businesses can’t set their own. This is a major reason why the reforms wont accomplish anything.
They might bring in a little bit more cash, but that’s not really clear. True free enterprise creates wealth by introducing innovative products or services. These gov’t regulations won’t allow that. Or the enterprise finds a new, more productive ay of doing things. Again, the gov’t regulations won’t allow that.
The two of major structural problems in Cuba’s economy are the inefficient allocation of resources and low productivity of state run enterprises. The limitations and controls in the reforms ensure those problems will remain.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 15:18
DONT MISS THIS AUDIO INTERVIEW ON MY COMMENT #554!
NPR: Columnist Andres Oppenhemier Says Invite Cuba To Future Summits - April 18, 2012
Abril 19th, 2012 at 14:50
THE “TIMBIRICHE ECONOMIC” CHANGES TAKING PLACE IN CUBA! THEY WILL SURELY BRING THE ECONOMY OUT OF THE HOLE IT’S IN AND MOVE IT TO THE 21st CENTURY! JUST LIKE “DUCK DOGER” (cartoon reference)!!
MIAMI HERALD: In Cuba, private economy is growing — slowly - By Kevin G. Hall
Most of the 181 newly allowed self-employment categories involve menial labor and services that are most relevant in urban areas — beauty salons, barber shops, plumbers and the like. By the government’s count, it’s already granted 371,000 licenses.
The reforms, however, remain far from anything resembling free-market capitalism. Tellingly, not included among the openings are medicine, scientific research and a range of technical jobs that the government has kept under its control. There are no wholesale businesses to provide goods and services to the expanding class of entrepreneurs.
Programs to learn how to run a business also are rare, though the Roman Catholic Church now offers business-training programs in Havana. There are no trade or vocational schools to speak of. Capital for farming is all but non-existent.
Nevertheless, a week of interviews across the island, conducted by McClatchy during the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI, indicates that Cubans welcome the change. However, many remain wary, mindful that a similar opening 20 years ago snapped shut when the economic crisis engendered by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union was overcome.
Among the complaints is the cut the government takes from their now-legal earnings — something that might feel familiar to an American at tax time.
Hidalgo pays taxes every month to the government and is unhappy that at the end of the year a government auditor pores over her receipts and then gives her an additional tax bill.
“You pay all year. Why do they do it to us [again] at the end of the year?” she complained.
But her biggest challenge is the lack of any wholesale market that caters to restaurants. To ensure she has food to serve, she must stand in line with ordinary Cubans doing their shopping, often crossing her city in search of items that invariably have run out.
Yaime, a farmer from near Bayamo in eastern Cuba, complained that the state had required him to raise pigs as part of an effort to boost food production, but after their slaughter had not paid him for months so that he could raise new swine. Things are not getting better, he said.
Some U.S. officials believe what’s taking place is being carefully managed to lessen an inherent contradiction: the more the government opens the economy, the more it embraces what it stood against for five decades.
Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that the driver of the reforms is Raul Castro, 80, who ran the Cuban armed forces for decades before his ascent to the presidency. As army chief he turned to free-market concepts to make the military self-sufficient in crops and parts production. He’s also placed military cronies in high places, suggesting that the openings are calculated with an eye toward just how much liberalization can be tolerated.
“The military is really the economic engine of the country, so it’s done within what the military feels it can manage,” said Vicki Huddleston, a retired U.S. ambassador who ran the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999 to 2002. “You have no civil society [in Cuba] is what it amounts to.”
Another U.S. official currently involved in American policy toward the island called the reforms “nibbling at the margins.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....owing.html
Abril 19th, 2012 at 14:31
Red color maybe will work for prosperity of Cuba…so it is good idea that not just USA but also Canada sleeps in the Cuba’s warm bed…replacing Russia the lost lover.
If Canada will stay longer and closer with Cuba…maybe it will change it…to a better looking prostitute and who now is religious also…or nice,not wild as before
Abril 19th, 2012 at 14:24
Freud, #609,
“If you love something, let it go…”
Abril 19th, 2012 at 14:18
Brazil and Venezuela want to sleep with Cuba too…so they are mad with USA why she has make Cuba her sex slave and dont let it share…Maybe they are right but Cuba cant sleep with all,be a street prostitute as the leftist South American countries want
Abril 19th, 2012 at 13:59
606Griffin
Abril 19th, 2012 at 12:17
The judge who can convict Chávez
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I am afraid some heads will soon fall in Venezuela…… it is a very dangerous thing to be a proven narco state……. Noriega can talk about that best…….. Castro was more “clever’ in a Mafiosi way when knowing his involvement in narcotrafic was on the way to be proven in a irrefutable way took quick measurements to put the responsibility of the crime on some of his thugs and killed them in a mediatic show know as “cause #1″…….. Chavez surely will do the same…. so, in the next days we will see people killed in Venezuela or more people escaping Venezuela and coming voluntarily to US justice because in USA they will have the benefice of keeping the life.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 13:53
ANDRES CARRION ALVAREZ was arrested in Cuba for not supporting the REGIME. CUBA IS ONE BIG JAIL.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 13:49
603Un Soricel
Abril 19th, 2012 at 12:02
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Dummy don’t go…… I know it is a hard job to make international ridiculous every day and suffer a chronic lack of argument that only you can intent to cover diverting the themes, avoiding to give answers and replacing inexistent arguments with personal and stupid attacks…… but this is no reason to run away like a cowardice…….. be a true “Transylvanian”, hang some garlic on your monitor and suffer our facts, arguments, and graphical proves on your feet…… don’t fly best asset, don’t escape!!!!!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 13:17
The Americas Communist parties Congress is not going well…because of the treatment of the Cuba,the USA’s prostitute….Every one want a piece of the Castro’s cake…and Obama is blamed why Hillary did party in Havana club.That is a big problem between the party animal of America’s gay girlfriends…countries.Some of them are to wild…
http://www.canada.com/news/Cub.....story.html
Abril 19th, 2012 at 13:09
Why Havana Had to Die
“I suspect that the neglectful ruination of Havana has served a profoundly ideological purpose. After all, the neglect has been continuous for nearly half a century, while massive subsidies from the Soviet Union were pouring in. A dictator as absolute as Castro could have preserved Havana if he had so wished, and could easily have found an economic pretext for doing so.
Havana, however, was a material refutation of his entire historiography—of the historiography that has underpinned his policies and justified his dictatorship for 43 years. According to this account, Cuba was a poor agrarian society, impoverished by its dependent relationship with the United States, incapable without socialist revolution of solving its problems. A small exploitative class of intermediaries benefited enormously from the neocolonial relationship, but the masses were sunk in abject poverty and misery.
But Havana was a large city of astonishing grandeur and wealth, which was clearly not confined to a tiny minority, despite the coexistence with that wealth of deep poverty. Hundreds of thousands of people obviously had lived well in Havana, and it is not plausible that so many had done so merely by the exploitation of a relatively small rural population. They must themselves have been energetic, productive, and creative people. Their society must have been considerably more complex and sophisticated than Castro can admit without destroying the rationale of his own rule.
In the circumstances, therefore, it became ideologically essential that the material traces and even the very memory of that society should be destroyed. In official publications (and all publications in Cuba are official) the only positive personages from the past are rebels and revolutionaries, representing a continuing nationalist tradition of which Castro is the apotheosis: there is no god but revolution, and Castro is its prophet. The period between Cuban independence and the advent of Castro is known as “the Pseudorepublic,” and the corrupt thuggery of Batista, as well as the existence of poverty, is all that needs (or is allowed) to be known of life immediately before Castro.
But who created Havana, and where did the magnificence come from, if before Castro there were only poverty, corruption, and thuggery? Best to destroy the evidence, though not by the crude Taliban method of blowing up the statues of Buddha, which is inclined to arouse the opprobrium of the world: better to let huge numbers of people camp out permanently in stolen property and then let time and neglect do the rest. In a young population such as Cuba’s, with little access to information not filtered through official channels, life among the ruins will come to seem normal and natural. The people will soon be radically disconnected from the past of the very walls they live among. And so the present ruins of Havana are the material consequence of a monomaniacal historiography put into practice.
The terrible damage that Castro has done will long outlive him and his regime. Untold billions of capital will be needed to restore Havana; legal problems about ownership and rights of residence will be costly, bitter, and interminable; and the need to balance commercial, social, and aesthetic considerations in the reconstruction of Cuba will require the highest regulatory wisdom. In the meantime, Havana stands as a dreadful warning to the world—if one were any longer needed—against the dangers of monomaniacs who believe themselves to be in possession of a theory that explains everything, including the future.”
http://www.city-journal.org/ht.....avana.html
Abril 19th, 2012 at 12:17
The judge who can convict Chávez
“Mr. Aponte confessed that he received direct orders from President Hugo Chávez to use his legal power against individuals that opposed the regime. As president of the criminal tribunal of the Supreme Court, Aponte had supervision of all criminal courts in the country and practically on all judges, with a capacity to influence almost any judicial decision.
Moreover, in his testimony Mr. Aponte says he also received calls from Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, Venezuela’s Defense Minister and Hugo Carvajal, who until recently was the head of military intelligence, among others, ordering him to “manipulate judicial proceedings.” Both Rangel Silva and Carvajal have been designated by the U.S. Treasury as “drug kingpins” for their ties to the narco-terrorist FARC guerrilla army in Colombia. Moreover, Aponte alleges that he has “evidence” of the high officials’ ties to narcotics traffickers. An example he cites is that of a drug shipment that was safeguarded overnight in a Venezuelan military base. Aponte says he was ordered to provide legal cover for the drug shipment as it made its way from the border to “the center of the country” (on the coast, where Venezuela’s ports are located).”
http://www.babalublog.com/2012.....ct-chavez/
Abril 19th, 2012 at 12:03
griffin… don’t forget to water your stats when I’m gone …like the plant you are!!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 12:02
Russia was their lover girl too…so the trio had a very good time in the paradise island…where they slep all inthe same bed for decades…but it did serve to the world peace and to the future generations…so they all can sleep in the same bed…
Abril 19th, 2012 at 12:02
Well Freud @599, if that is true then as a Romania proved goes - you cut your own branch from the tree! Smart gardner you are!
Invountary or not, for help you should thank in some cultures… however considering your ‘limited results’ over these 6 months, I doubt that we have indeed helped you in any way.. since you are first of all NOT helping yourselves!
The only help you can count on is then that Castro is an old man and no one lives forever!
zzzzbye
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:58
Fact is the Cuba was allways a prostitute with which USA was in love and since they met…they never left each other for 200 years…but sleep in the same bed.Is USA a female or male symbol? If USA is a female and Cuba a male symbol that the prostitute is the men…or there is a story of the two gay girlfriends..USA-CUBA
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:44
Help, re #597:
I was sad for a while too, but then CL showed us some stories about bricks falling off buildings in Toronto and Montreal so now I understand Havana isn’t really crumbling and that was just a CIA plot to fool us cuz in fact Cuban people dance in the streets and eat their fill and everything is lovely down there.
I feel better now that I stopped thinking and embraced the Revolucion.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:42
John Kennedy understood in the end….that Cuba was as before a property of USA,but not from the rich Miami Cubans…who’s sons were sent as little pigs to the slaughter to meet the butcher guys paid by the same USA…so Kennedy was fooled and was mad and he understood that he was tricked,cheated,lied,used,abused…so he reacted…wanted to remove its boses…from power…like men in ARMY,CIA,US-state-Corporation.
When he tried to take over the USA…than he was taken out…and so almost all the Kennedys…So noone dare to touch the Cuban Cake…from you lazy bums here and others…The truth is going to make you freefor being dum,blind,lazy,human animals.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:41
594Un Soricel
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:25
OK dear Freud consider this my resignation!.. I am outta here for sometime… Maybe new faces will show and new topics too!! See you got part of your celebration all you had to do was wish and ask!!..
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What you babbling dummy….. we need you here….. you our best asset……. you our pretext to write miles of words explaining to the world the criminal nature of castrofascism….. you simply part of this effort……. so, you can go and come back, stay or return under other nick…….. what you and your kind never will change is your involuntary help to our cause……… as many times I did before: thanks for the help.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:36
593Pamela
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:19
Freud:
I think that “AI” was shorthand for Amnesty International, which was the subject of the article that I mentioned.
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Very possible……… and I have no problem to recognize my mistake…….. you know??…… the problem is I never read troll’s comment complete (make me free, oh Lord, of such nonsense!!!!) because it is boring…… that’s the reasons of the confussion…… thanks Pamela for you explanation.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:34
Back to buildings falling down. I’m saddened that much of Havana’s architecture is beyond saving. A beautiful city.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:34
No Lifeline for a Dying Regime
“Since they came to power in 1959, the Castro brothers’ goal has been the survival of their socialist dream. Adaptability has been the key to success, retreating at critical junctures without altering the regime’s basic structure. Such measures often looked like signs of change because we wanted to see them as such. On close inspection, they were skillful maneuvers to get through a crisis.
A number of congressmen and business groups are now saying that Raúl is sending friendly signals to Washington like crazy. Perhaps. But it would be crazy for us to believe he would admit that a life spent building a repressive police state was just a mistake. Rather, we would be better off dealing with new leaders willing to take Raúl’s retreats to the next level by guaranteeing human rights and civil liberties, respecting ordinary citizens’ right to choose their leaders, and allowing a market economy to flourish.”
http://www.shadow.foreignpolic.....ing_regime
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:28
Another anti-American fanatic killed his brother, before a room full of witnesses. Both Kennedys were killed by pro-Soviet anti-American nutcases. No mystery there.
There is a lot of agression the USA doesn’t avenge. Your comic book vision of the USA as Darth Vader is written by dictators and gangsters who more closely fit the bill.
Kennedy had a great plan called the Alliance for Progress, which was sabotaged by leftists and rightists in Latin America and at home. Mainly by the leftists who couldn’t stand the thought of the US doing anything good in the world.
Kennedy wanted to end all right-wing dictatorships in Latin America, but leftists conveniently leave that part out of their history.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:27
USA runs the Cuba’s state-capitalist (cake)corporation and Cuban natural resources are put in the stock market…including the Cuban slaves and mercenaries,because it is a big business.You dont want Miami guys to take any slice of your big state-corporation business run by the agents CIA’s Castros,US army.
But youcreate blogs so people can run the talking business about Cuba’s communism.
If ypu try to take a slice of the Cuba,Castros cake…you are attacked,stopped because the cake is for…belong to someone else
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:25
Pamela, you know what? I am going to make Freud’s dream come true…He called me Spanish, Congolese etc and he wished me out of job as if I worked for the gov and this was my job… So OK dear Freud consider this my resignation!.. I am outta here for sometime… Maybe new faces will show and new topics too!! See you got part of your celebration all you had to do was wish and ask!!..
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:19
Freud:
I think that “AI” was shorthand for Amnesty International, which was the subject of the article that I mentioned.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:18
I wonder if there is anyone around who didn’t like JFK…? I liked him even from behind the Iron Curtain… and I think he had lots of admirators on that side who knew that if America would change then the USSA would change too… no wonder the most liberal part in European communism ware the late 60s and mostly throughout the 70s… his impact reverberated.
Now tell us who killed his bro.. Castro too??
Help –> I doubt that any nation on this planet would not avenge such a thing if it suspected the hand of other nation in it, for sure… only you can think that Castro could pull such thing off!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:09
I personally liked Kennedy although I think he made a lot of mistakes, including the Bay of Pigs. The thought that Fabian Escalante Font would play a key part in his assassination and then be chosen to peddle CIA conspiracy theories to a US audience is just the type of twisted joke Fidel would enjoy.
All of Castro’s agents who handled Oswald in Mexico and according to some, in Texas as well, were immediately recalled by Castro after Kennedy’s death and never allowed out of Cuba again. Nobody can track them down, except for mouthpiece Font.
I would love to see some historical justice done but I doubt any key witnesses who would come forward will survive Castro.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:02
Help –> like everything with you guys it is about shifting responsibilty.. So not Kennedy was not killed by your other people… was killed by your intial people! OK Castro then it is!! Tell that to Oliver Stone so he can do another one!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 11:00
Yeah Freud –> you got me I am Congolese… with a bit of Nigerian on the site… could I interest you in my inheritance???
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:59
Griffin, my post was for information purposes only.
Both the KGB, who started producing the CIA conspiracy theories immediately after the assassination, and Castro, have their hands very dirty. According to defectors, the KGB even encouraged and financed US conspiracy author Mark Lane and others.
The KGB probably wanted to distance themselves from the assassination because of Oswald’s connection to Russia and his wife to the KGB. There was also evidence that they recommended Oswald to the Cubans. It’s very likely at least some in the KGB knew of Oswald’s threats to kill Kennedy, but they never informed the Americans and may have approved of it.
Anyways, that’s only one life among tens of thousands, and we can say that Kennedy died as a soldier. Most of Castro’s victims have been innocent civilians.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:58
Trailer Viva Cuba Libre Documental Los Aldeanos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?f.....E33F0891C1
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:47
Sean Penn described Raul as “warm, open, energetic and sharp of wit.” In that rare interview, Raul let loose that Cuba has been in permanent contact with the U.S. military since 1994. It suggested that he is a known quantity to the U.S. Defense Department.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....rylink=cpy
——–
Castros were CIA mercenaries….
Raul let loose that Cuba has been in permanent contact with the U.S. military since 1994. It suggested that he is a known quantity to the U.S. Defense Department.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:46
583Un Soricel
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:33
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course, if you pretend to pass for Congolese it is mandatory you to learn about Lumumba and how 200 Belgian mercenaries made che guevara, 2500 Cuban soldiers and 6000 Congolese soldier run for life due guevara difficulties to work together with dark skinned people……. otherwise your lie would be discovered quickly…… but your subconscious case is funny and give no place to doubts….. you are a Spanish speaking thug.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:36
I liked Capricorn 1 when I saw it, and if Castro was a stand-up comedian who didn’t hurt people, I’d love his act too.
But he’s not a comic playing a Marxist nut, he is a live Marxist nut who killed tens of thousands of people, including one US president. And his followers are loony tunes who believe anything he says.
He only said two true things that were ever true:
1) that Kennedy wanted to kill him, although there were less than a handful of half-addled plots to ever kill him, none which were ever carried out and which Castro’s assassin and propagandist, Fabian Escalante Font, inflated into hundreds of attempts on his life
2) that he was going to kill Kennedy, which he said before a crowd of reporters
He threatened Kennedy repeatedly and for years Cuban mobs were screaming for Kennedy’s death.
But I guess it must be some CIA plot. Like the moon landing.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:33
Freud –> Actually I am not Romanian first.. first I am Transylvanian and my love is for Transylvania.. which is in part differnet since Transylvania was/is mixed… and more importantly was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918… During 1st World War Romanians from Transylvania ended up shooting other Romanians from Romania or else the Austro-Hungarians would kill them for treason! Nice little war that was… Romania spent 300 years trying to get Transylvania from the claws of the empire… eventually it succeeded at great human cost! However the sting in the tail was that on that 1st of December 1918 when the union was supposed to be a climax… Transylvanians were not happy with the deal!! Practically we felt Romania is too corupt too backward and too oppressive from how we are… eventually we relented but never quite got over it!!..We felt that being ruled from Bucharest is bad… and it still is!… Should I tell you what came after??
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:21
Oh griffin… gLee was a joke yesterday… see you took it seriously…
The link.. the can’t can’t stop us… from taking a swim (probably) from looking sexy and selling lollipops ….yeah great video…!! I am all for it!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:19
Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, assured that he would not visit Cuba if the Castro regime does not permit him to meet with the dissidence and groups such as the Ladies in White.
http://www.babalublog.com/2012.....issidents/
FUACATAA!!!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:14
574Un Soricel
Abril 19th, 2012 at 09:52
Pamela … if that slice was not missing AI would be out of a job
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“AI”?????!!!!!!!!………. Oh yes, you Rumanian!!!!!!!!!……….. hehehe…….. nothing more powerful and hard to hide than subconscious ……. it betrayed you….. you wrote the pronoun like it sounds in Spanish hehehehehehe………
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:14
Griffin… when was the last time you read the LA Times and didn’t sleep just with the stats …look some ‘leftie’ killers have infiltrated your US army - you would say!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:12
Freud… thank you I sense ‘zi lav’ you hold for me and my kind… be careful when you start celebrating for this love not to spill over!!!
And let’s have a wager… in under a month after you start celebrating, I bet, you will be back here! accusing some demonstrator for being ‘communist infiltrators’ and wanting to destroy your hard earned about to bud democracy!…
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:08
I see that cake has been served, but let’s not feed the trolls. It only encourages them and then they sh!t everywhere and make a mess of the place.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:06
TIme for a music break,
Libre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JUT0niuOQ8
Abril 19th, 2012 at 10:04
UnSor, I guess the hypocrisy of your last statement totally escaped you.
Deflecting attention to others societies is a tactic used constantly on this blog by you, Damir and Cuba Libre. LOL.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 09:52
Pamela … if that slice was not missing AI would be out of a job… they can’t let that happen! Deflecting attention to others societies and getting the credit I think is the new trademark of what a successful NGO does… They tried only once an ‘internal’ campaign against female ‘rape’ … a no brainer!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 09:20
558Un Soricel
Abril 19th, 2012 at 06:15
With the 5-yr celebration of Y’s blog I have asked your ‘Pirhanas For Democracy’ to post here a few of your achievements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Achievements????!!!!…… what do you mind???…….. for you is not enough more than 13.000 killed in fire squad, more than 4.000 killed in action of different kind from war to hunger strike, hundreds of thousands in jail for decades, street protest going on almost every day, international pressures that do not allow the international community and thugs like you to be happy married with the criminals……. if for achievements you mind that in spite all the blood spilled, in spite the prison, the exile, the heroism castrofascism still is in power I have to remember you the following……..you that pretend to pass as Rumanian at least had to study a bit about Rumania and other ex communist countries in Europe, you have to know that in those countries never existed such a huge effort and such a long fight, anyway those regimes were overthrown in a day…… one day you will wake up and you will find no one here because we will be celebrating castrofascism defeat, you will never more have news about us and you will lose your miserable job.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 09:13
The cake slice that was missing symbolized “the voice of oppression,” as was stated in the very first paragraph of the article.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 09:08
Alan Gross … maybe was not jailed by working wit Cuba inteligence,branch of CIA to create these blogs…and same can be said for 5 cuban spies…just missdirecting of the magician…playing for the dummies…cubans in island prison,concentration camp and cubans in Miami,using them both as fan and players inside the circus…
Remember the Pagan Rome circus…and what was build on top of it? A New Circus…
Abril 19th, 2012 at 09:06
“the image was part of proposal for a publicity campaign marking the anniversary of Amnesty International’s founding in London in 1961″
NICE!…see all for AI and a bit for the people that about sums up the Amnesty International I know… probably the slice that is missing was for the people of Cuba.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 08:35
Where can I get this cake pan?
CUBA
Fidel Castro’s face on a cake for human rights campaign goes viral
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s face — minus mouth — is on a cake as part of a human rights campaign. Now, many want the recipe.
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....rylink=cpy
Abril 19th, 2012 at 08:35
Maybe…Alan Gross…was arrested in Cuba by Castros men of the Cuba intelligence which is a branch of CIA,as was the KGB,STASI etc…but question is who sent Alan Gross there?
The CIA…so this jokes are playing to keep the lie playing longer…because for CIA Alan Gross is a card which was going to be used and burned…
There are not two enemies fighting there as the idiots believe…all brainwashed,and there are two groups as friends…but just one team in both sides working for 50 years…run by the same leaders and men who pay them…
Abril 19th, 2012 at 08:21
Much more than spies and assassins, Cuba’s most successful export has been propaganda.Time 100 is the “most influential,”also a lie to called Castro,Cuba enemy,evil…but infact they are friends,who play as enemy….Remember the Cold War?
What happen in the propagandas in both sides…lies,fear,paranoia,control,slavery etc. The same is the story with Cuba,about embargo,Kennedy,assasination attempts,missiles,Bay of Pigs,etc…all a script,a joke or the circus,the clowns stories and plays for the children,magicians playing tricks for the silly men…the dummies…the silly generations,human animals,zombies,who believe such stories of the Castro,big influential man…infact a jesuit and church’s boy,trained by Arrupe,paid by CIA as its agent to be playing games…not as a revolution man,but as a mercenary CIA man
Abril 19th, 2012 at 08:19
and Help - I do remember Carpricorn 1 —> even your Hollywood did a movie on the ‘fake’ landing …with well known actors and good budget.. OJ I think was in it… maybe there’s a link there to CIA ..!! Well more seriously … if Hollywood did a movie on that I think YOU can say in the US it amounts to some kind of education to many!!!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 08:13
Help stick to Charlie Mason - you info is more accurate on him!…
Or if you prefer paradoxes..if he so penetrated the CIA then obviously he was right to accuse of spying all those American businessman caught more or less red handed in Cuba - like Alan Gross… he knew who they are and were! Yeah right!!
The guy has just political flair and charisma.. it doesn’t take a big brain to know how you guys play it - it is obvious since the Red skins did business with you!!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 07:57
american businessmen
Abril 19th, 2012 at 00:19
The 2012 TIME MAGAZINE PEOPLE….. CONSIDER CASTRO THE BEST IN THE WORLD ON TOP OF 100 MEN IN ALL HUMAN HISTORY SINCE HOMER…
NOW YOU CAN TALK ABOUT IT
Silly man, the Time 100 is the “most influential,” not “the best.” Most influential could be either good or bad. Hitler could have made the most influential list too.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 07:32
Much more than spies and assassins, Cuba’s most successful export has been propaganda.
Fabian Escalante Font, a man who played a key role in organizing Kennedy’s assassination, writes books about CIA conspiracies for Castro fans and “also directed Cuba’s investigation into the assassination of JFK”
I’m sure the moon landing was a CIA plot too, directed at Fidel of course.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 07:21
This isn’t news, but it’s a new book on the matter. All this stuff should have been followed up in the early 60s, they really dropped the ball at the time in order to soothe cold-war tensions.
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....n-did.html
Abril 19th, 2012 at 07:18
I found this article very interesting, motivating and insightful. Good write-up. Thanks.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 06:59
Un Sori, you often demonstrate ignorance of your own party line and what you wrote in previous posts. Like CL, your posts are full of contradictions.
Castro is the master of the conspiracy theory, from non-existent assassination attempts on his life to non-existent invasions of Cuba and non-existent sabotage of Cuba by the CIA.
A little of what he claimed was true in the early 1960s, most the product of his delusions and propaganda machine. As the 60s wore on, so did his conspiracy theories.
In 1969, Cubans were even taught that the moon landing never happened. Some Cubans are still taught that by Cuban teachers who never heard that the official line changed. Which is OK with authorities, anything bad about the USA can be taught in Cuban schools.
But one thing Castro was absolutely honest about, his boys heavily infiltrated the CIA. That’s what all those pro-Castro conspiracy film-makers claim too. If you don’t believe Castro, take it up with him and your leaders, not us.
The CIA agrees with Castro on that point too.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 06:19
Am bus #557:
The US does not buy anything from Cuba. It’s called “The Embargo”.
Abril 19th, 2012 at 06:15
Freud darling, you got my number wrong… but then again you tend to do that a lot with more important things…
With the 5-yr celebration of Y’s blog I have asked your ‘Pirhanas For Democracy’ to post here a few of your achievements - since you ‘campaign so hard’ for the demise of Castro. Well I got no reply!!! Moreover and to be polite I could see your actions did not amount to much on a number of ‘major occasions’ - more recently Dilma’s and the Pope’s visit. So you are a bit of a timewaters and long-talkers! but not much else.
How much more of a joke are your ‘Pirhanas For Democracy’ when you try to discredit a beautiful video of Havana - when you live in a society that posts this kind of ‘biased’ adverts on a hourly basis and calls it tourism!
How much more of a joke are your ‘Pirhanas For Democracy’ when you try to call everyone a socialist and Castro a killer and Che a psychopath when the brave deeds of your American troops are slashed again accross the papes in newspapers.
How much more of a joke are your ‘Pirhanas For Democracy’ when you see that houses are falling off almost anywhere in the world yet you argue that only in Cuba this is wrong! Practically if the roof falls over a guy in my book it is the guy’s responsbility to do something about it - similarly if you choose to squat in houses that are to be demolished (for good or bad reasons).
And ultimately, how much more of a joke are your ‘Pirhanas For Democracy’ when you try to re-write history that is universal knowledge and you make everything sound like a consipracy theory. The Bay of Pigs example is striking - apparently Castro had penetrated the CIA… well if he managed to pull that the Russian made a good deal to pay him £5 billion in subsidies…
In this light I can only take the mickey of most as most of the stuff you post here is pure bias and most of the faults you see with the Castro, presently can be spotted easily in the West too. In other words I am sure Castro will fall without your help or regardless of your opinions and for different reasons!
Abril 19th, 2012 at 00:22
CASTRO IS RESPECTED BY USA,THE CIA AS ITS AGENT…FOR KEEPING CUBA A COLONY AND CREATING A STATE CORPORATION TO SELL CHEAP THE LABOR AND NATURAL RESOURCES AND RAPE AND ROB CUBA
Abril 19th, 2012 at 00:19
The 2012 TIME MAGAZINE PEOPLE….. CONSIDER CASTRO THE BEST IN THE WORLD ON TOP OF 100 MEN IN ALL HUMAN HISTORY SINCE HOMER…
NOW YOU CAN TALK ABOUT IT
Abril 19th, 2012 at 00:17
Castro is consider together with Jesus from the USA
TIME 100 magazine
Read more:leaders and icons who make up this year’s TIME 100
Abril 18th, 2012 at 23:00
NPR: Columnist Andres Oppenhemier Says Invite Cuba To Future Summits - April 18, 2012
At the sixth Summit of the Americas, tensions flared over Cuba’s absence, and continued U.S. efforts to isolate the country. Syndicated Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenhemier believes the first step to bringing Cuba back into the diplomatic community is to invite them to observe future summits.
NEAL CONAN, HOST:
Before it even began, this weekend’s summit of the Americas was largely overshadowed in this country by the Secret Service prostitution scandal, but the leaders of 33 countries did meet in Cartagena, Colombia and talked a lot about the country that wasn’t invited - Cuba. The United States argues that Cuba’s presence would violate a cardinal principle of these hemispheric gatherings that all participants be democratic and observe the rule of law. Some Cuban supporters boycotted Cartagena. Others say there will not be another summit of the Americas if Cuba is not asked.
CLICK LINK FOR AUDIO & PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT!
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/18/.....re-summits
Abril 18th, 2012 at 22:52
The assertion has been made that if only the US had not embargoed Cuba, the Communist dictatorship would now be rich & prosperous. There are two serious arguments against that claim.
Firstly, the Soviet Union had subsidized the Cuban economy to the tune of from $6 to $8 billion dollars annually. This included the commitment to purchase the entire Cuban sugar crop, all oil needed oil supplies, fertilizers, extensive military hardware, farm & industrial machinery, and automobiles. With all these external inputs, the Cuban economy appeared on surface to be a growing modern nation.
Yet, as soon as the Soviet subsidies were withdrawn in 1989, the Cuban economy collapsed. The GDP dropped by 35% and incomes dropped by a whopping 90%. It turned out, Cuba didn’t have an economy of its own. It was a depressed third world country living on propaganda, subsidies and Marxist delusions of historic grandeur.
Three decades of Soviet subsidies and Marxist central planning had failed to build an actual working economy in Cuba.
And what’s the second argument? Did you miss it? The Soviet Union collapsed too. The Communist superpower was bankrupted by their policy of subsidizing their satellite Communist satraps. Comintern was a failure as an economic organization, as every member country suffered economic collapse.
Socialism really does kill economies.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 22:16
SO SAD! SO SAD! FOR THE DEATH OF THIS MAN Ricardo Riquene Anaya, 47 R.I.P.! THE BUILDING & CULTURE & HISTORY OF THE CUBAN PEOPLE! THIS IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!
YOUTUBE: Teatro Campoamor La Habana-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cricDUBmLGU
Abril 18th, 2012 at 22:02
PICTURES OF THE CAMPOARMOR THEATER IN HAVANA!
search.aol.com/aol/image?q=the+Campoamor+Theater+CUBA&v_t=client_searchbox&s_it=searchtabs
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:59
MIAMI HERALD: A Havana theater built in 1921 collapsed, killing one man and highlighting Cuba’s desperate housing shortage. -A theater opened in 1921 was the second fatal building collapse in 10 days- By Juan O. Tamayo - 01.28.12
A 90-year-old Havana theater collapsed and killed one man in the fifth such wreck in 10 days, underscoring the precarious state of many dwellings and commercial structures in a city known for its rich architecture.
The Campoamor Theater was opened in 1921, closed in the mid 1970s and partially collapsed about five years ago, neighbors said. But four families, driven by Cuba’s critical housing shortage, were squatting there when it collapsed Thursday.
The four-story shell was featured in a 2006 documentary about the battered state of many of Havana’s old buildings, “The New Art of Making Ruins,” by German filmmakers Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler.
Ricardo Riquene Anaya, 47, plunged from the third floor and died when the building collapsed, one emergency worker told El Nuevo Herald. His son had to be pulled from the ruins but was reported in good condition, suffering from cuts and bruises.
Riquene was the custodian of a parking lot next to the Campoamor, one block from the National Capitol Building in the Centro Havana district and worked in a nearby car repair shop, according to a neighbor, Norley QuitutisCQ.
At least four youths were killed and five were injured when their three-story building, also in Centro Havana and also condemned after a partial collapse more than 10 years ago, fell in a heap just last week.
Three other Havana buildings collapsed Thursday without injuries, the emergency worker reported. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment and feared government sanctions.
Dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said she was told that some of the walls of the Campoamor Theater had been propped up with lumber, but thieves would make off with the timber under cover of night because of the shortage of construction materials.
“What we’re seeing is a sign of what is happening to the government, slowly crumbling,” she told El Nuevo Herald by phone from Havana.
Roque, spokesperson for a group of beginner journalists that calls itself the Cuban Network of Community Communicators, said the network recently published a report noting that 80 percent of the 178 theaters in Havana were in very bad shape.
Official government figures show the island of 11.2 million people has a shortage of about 600,000 housing units. Almost nine out of every 10 existing buildings need repairs, and more than 50 percent are ranked as being in “bad” state or worse.
Six persons were injured in 2009 with the collapse of a sports facility in the city of Matanzas, the Ateneo Deportivo Aurelio Janet.
Campoamor was inaugurated in 1921 and was the site of many performances by famous Cuban and foreign artists. It later was turned into a movie3 house, and in the 1970s it became a warehouse for theatrical equipment.
Writer Ramón Diaz Marzo, in a column posted Aug. 30 in the blog Cuba Verdad — Cuba Truth —complained that the government was not keeping up with the decay of many Havana buildings like the Campoamor.
He argued that while it takes workers in Hong Kong two years to build a 25-story skyscraper, the overhaul of Havana’s Hotel Capri was then on its second year.
Diaz Marzo also complained the government had abandoned the Campoamor, and recalled that as a child he took along a coat when he went to the movies there because the air conditioning was so cold.
The Campoamor, he wrote, “was a symbol of the Havana nightlife from the time when ‘Cuba smiled.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....-1921.html
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:50
By Yoani Sanchez
A sequence of roofs, avenues and narrow streets, reproduced with plastic and paint. A small scale city, locked in the Model of Havana room in the Miramar neighborhood. Yellow glasses let you travel, at a glance, along the streets, around the corners, up the little elevations and along the serpentine coast. The same magnifying lenses help us to enjoy the Capitol dome seem from above, or the dark face of El Morro. A model in miniature of a city that from any tall building seems to go on forever, but here it is, captured in a diminutive duplicate, trapped in a few square yards of cardboard.
The guide to this peculiar museum explains — once you enter — that the representation has been painted in four different colors: brown is for the constructions of the colonial period; mustard for the buildings from 1902 to 1959; bone-colored for the buildings erected in the last five decades; and white — striking and distant — for monuments and future projects. All the visitors and tourists end up saying the same thing, “Havana is mustard!” And I can see that yes, it’s true, while explaining a detail here, some twist or turn there.
Yes, my city is mustard, spicy and sour, seasoned by the old, increasingly distant from modernity. A sample at natural size, where there are days in which one would it like to be — like in the Model of Havana — made of plastic, or cardboard, but not suffering from so much ruin.
http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=2092
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:42
Homeless Reinaldo has found shelter in the rubbles of a theater in which once Caruso sang for Cuba’s high society, the Campoamor Theater. In 1953 Josephine Baker performed in this theater located near the Capitol.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:41
Freud,
“when will people understand that socialism is fatal for buildings???!!!!”
That’s the core of the issue right there. Cuba lacks clear property laws. Nobody will risk their hard earned pesos fixing up a building the state can kick them out of on any pretext. Furthermore, since the revolution there has been no mortgage market in Cuba. No banks to led capital to homeowners. No way a property owner could borrow against the equity of her home to finance repairs. Because these financial tools have been missing, and the legal safeguards absent, whatever capital value once
Existed in a building has sunk down to the bottom of the socialist swamp, never to be seen again. This is how socialism destroys wealth. Castro has run the country into the ground.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:39
This is a test
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:26
Help, #530,
Elections? Over Castro’s dead body!
Can’t come soon enough.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:17
519Cuba Libre
Abril 18th, 2012 at 19:44
And this one is close to you Umberto,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obama must rectify his socialist ideology if he wants to conserve USA’s buildings on feet!!!!!!!!
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:15
517Cuba Libre
Abril 18th, 2012 at 19:36
Well what do you no, another building collapses in Brazil,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you choose a socialist president that before was a maffiosi (like castro) you will have lot of building collapsing….. Lula da Silva can be compared to a hurricane razzing buildings…….. when will people understand that socialism is fatal for buildings???!!!!
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:14
Any idea when Castro is going to hold that election he promised in 1959?
Then we can all see how content the Cuban people are.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 21:12
Cuba Libre
Abril 18th, 2012 at 16:33
And yet another building collapse in Montreal,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Socialism is a plague indeed…… even the rich canadian socialism can’t stop building collapse!!!!!
Abril 18th, 2012 at 20:56
Pointing to Russia is not a point for you CL. If you failed to notice, Russia is not a healthy functioning democracy. Putin is ex-KGB, Communist Party member. Keep on mind they had 70 plus years of Marxist Socialism to thoroughly screw up their society and infrastructure.
Similarly, it will take decades to repair the damage Castro has inflicted on Cuba.
Again, your weak reasoning skills have let you down.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 20:21
CL is now exhibiting the primitive defensive mechanism called “displacement”. He can’t deal with the real issue, so he writes about anything else. Notice also the weak reasoning skills.
Abril 18th, 2012 at 20:17
Cuba Libre! MY IS COMMENT #514!! TIME FOR MORE 99c READING GLASSES! AND YES, GRASP AT YOUR STRAW BABY! THAT MEXICAN DOCTOR JUST GAVE YOU ANOTHER FUACATAAAA!!! JE JE JE!