Why José Daniel?
I knew they would go after him. When I spoke with José Daniel Ferrer for the first time, by phone, I immediately noticed his exceptionality. Shortly after, we talked around the table in our house and this impression was further confirmed. While outside night was coming on, the man from Palmarito de Cauto told us of the years he spent in prison, from the Black Spring of 2003 to mid-2011. The beatings, the denouncing, the inmates who respectfully called him “the politician” and the guards who tried to crush him by force. We spent hours listening to those stories, at times of horror and at others of true miracles. Like when he managed to hide a small radio, his most precious possession, from the searches until he himself smashed it against the floor, seconds before a guard confiscated it.
José Daniel, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), is today State Security’s main headache in the East of the country. He occupies that place — admirable but dangerous — in part because his every word projects honesty and determination. Good-natured, young, conciliatory, he has managed to revive a dissident movement languishing between repression and the exile of some of its members. His drawing power, and the respect many have for him, comes also from his perseverance and, in particular, from the fact that he is quicker to embrace than to distrust. He has become a human-bridge between several citizen projects and, right now, that makes him a sharp stone in the Cuban government’s shoe.
For 23 days this tireless Santiaguan has been detained. He can no longer traverse the steep roads connecting the towns of his region, nor respond to interviews, nor send messages via Twitter from his cell phone. Last Monday he declared a hunger strike in the police station where they are keeping him incommunicado. His wife, Belkis Cantillo, still has no information about how much longer he will be under arrest, or even if they plan to file legal charges. Some of us, his friends, have a bad feeling. José Daniel Ferrer has come to have an ability to call people together that frightens the Cuban authorities and they will punish him harshly for that. They fear him because he could give Santiago de Cuba’s slogan, “Heroic City,” a new meaning in these times.
Abril 30th, 2012 at 22:46
YOUTUBE: ANDRES CARRION REAFFIRMS HIS AFFILIATION WITH UNPACU - Andres Carrion Alvarez is officially welcomed as a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), meeting was held at the headquarters of the organization in the municipality Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba, under extraordinary circumstances because of the repression against UNPACU and arrest of its leader, former prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer. ANDRES CARRION REAFIRMA FILIACION A UNPACU - Entrada oficial de Andres Carrion Alvarez a la Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), realizada en la sede de la organización del municipio Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba, en circunstancias extraordinarias debido a la represión contra la UNPACU y la detención de su líder, el ex prisionero de conciencia Jose Daniel Ferrer. (SPANISH ONLY)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=share
Abril 30th, 2012 at 21:31
Its 2012…Time to arrest every nations government,religious leaders,teachers,big business who destroy other businesses,army,police,intelligence working for them against their own people…victims of the human beasts…and parasites.
In Cuba may be 4 million of these parasites…so arrest them all now.Cuba libre should be in charge of the punishment of these criminals and put back inquisition…for them
Abril 30th, 2012 at 21:24
Cuban Revolution can be called Cuban Holocaust…which is similar to the World Holocaust that did go on in the last centuries by human animals,beasts,zombies etc.
Being proud killing and torturing,enslaving and terrorizing them…is not called revolution but a crime against the humanity. So arrest all the criminals of the world who run the holocausts in every country. Who be with criminals will be arrested too. You are with us or against us…the victims…of the holocausts in every nation=prison or concentration camp
Abril 30th, 2012 at 21:02
Cuba Liar, don’t you think it odd this alleged pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize winner praised the man who wanted to nuke New York? Fidel Castro, the man who sent thousands to the firing squad, who ordered a ferryboat full of women & children to be rammed and sunk? The man who sent an army to Africa to fight a series of wars that slaughtered millions, wars which still continue to this day? The same man who sends his goons to beat up women peacefully walking to church?
Abril 30th, 2012 at 20:47
88Cuba Libre
Abril 30th, 2012 at 20:15
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have to understand that same people that gives out Nobel prizes are the ones that bought the gold Nazis took out the mouth of millions of Jews killed in gas chambers, are the same people that implemented extermination policies on all Swedish mental, or physical handicapped, same people that left Hitler troops marsh through Swedish territory to attack Norway, same people that actually discriminate Sami and Gypsy people, same people that today produces more “white power” music in the world……. it is not rare those people awards a castrofascist apologizer like Adolfo Perez Esquivel…… they was and are stinky fascist too.
Abril 30th, 2012 at 20:21
C.L. ON COMMENT #90 !! RADIO ANGULO I SEE!! GOOD TRY!! JE JE JE!
Copyright © 2001-2012. CMKO Angulo Radio Station, Holguin, Cuba.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CUBA- Amnesty International Publications 2010
STATE MONOPOLY OF THE MEDIA: The media is a key arena in which the right to freedom of expression is exercised. It plays a critical role in any society, for example raising awareness of human rights and exposing human rights violations. The media has the potential to help shape public opinion and to monitor and assess the performance of those holding public office at all levels; it is an important tool for scrutinizing government practices in all societies no matter their political ideology. The absence of an independent media is a serious obstacle to the enjoyment of freedom of expression and the adequate review of corrupt and abusive official practices. Restrictions on the Cuban media are stringent and pervasive and clearly stop those in the country from enjoying their right to freedom of opinion and expression, including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.8 The state maintains a total monopoly on television, radio, the press, internet service providers, and other electronic means of communication.9 According to official figures, there are currently 723 publications (406 print and 317 digital), 88 radio stations, four national TV channels (two devoted to educational programming), 16 regional TV stations and an international TV channel. All are financed and controlled by the government.10 Three newspapers provide national coverage: Granma, which is the organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Juventud Rebelde and Trabajadores.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/libr.....2010en.pdf
Abril 30th, 2012 at 20:17
VOICE OF AMERICA HIGHLIGHTS YOANI SANCHEZ: Press Freedom Matters - Press freedom matters because without a free press, few other human rights are attainable.
Press freedom matters because without a free press, few other human rights are attainable. A strong press freedom environment encourages the growth of civil society, which leads to stable democracies and political and economic development. That’s why the United States is highlighting journalists around the world who are suffering intimidation, imprisonment, and sometimes death for exercising their right to free expression.
Yoani Sanchez is a Cuban blogger who is not permitted to leave the country. She has attracted an international following for her blog, Generación Y, which gives readers unprecedented insight into the harsh realities of life in Cuba. Her work has won numerous awards, including Columbia University’s Maria Cabot prize for journalism, and the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award in 2011. But Cuba’s Communist government has refused to allow her to leave the country to accept these honors. Requests by Ms. Sanchez to travel have been denied 19 times.
Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States urges the Cuban government to allow Ms. Sanchez to travel abroad freely and for all governments to stop the use of travel bans against journalists or dissidents for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Elsewhere, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen has been silenced by the Chinese government. Wangchen was detained by Chinese authorities in March 2008 on charges related to his 25-minute documentary titled “Leaving Fear Behind.” The film is based on 40 hours of footage and over 100 interviews conducted over five months. Filmed in China’s Amdo region (located principally in Qinghai Province), the footage includes interviews with Tibetans who expressed views on a range of issues from the Dalai Lama to the human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.
Wangchen was reportedly beaten, deprived of food and sleep during interrogations, and held incommunicado for a full year. He was tried in secret in 2009 and is serving a six year sentence in Xichuan Prison, Qinghai Province.
The United States urges the Chinese government to respect the universal human rights of all Chinese citizens.
Press freedom is a fundamental human right that must be respected by all governments. The United States will continue to shine the spotlight of international attention on all those who abuse this basic human right.
http://www.voanews.com/policy/.....75695.html
Abril 30th, 2012 at 20:15
Yet another Nobel Peace prize winner who speaks out about the outstanding things that Fidel Castro has achieved.
Quote; “Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina) praised the wisdom and coherence of Fidel Castro, and the stance shown by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, when he said that “Fidel is a wise man,” and this does not mean having read more books, but understanding the deep sense of life and sharing that knowledge with his people and the entire humankind.”
http://www.radioangulo.cu/en/n.....astro.html
Abril 30th, 2012 at 17:10
Small-scale communism is needed in all the wilderness of the west…which looks like a jungle where the human animals hunt and eat each other…same as the eastern world cannibals…Now the western world look like the east…a world cannibalism united…
Abril 30th, 2012 at 17:06
Small-scale communism in America better than Cuba’s hell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....playnext=4
Abril 30th, 2012 at 13:51
Cuban workers have lots of rights:
They have the right to earn 10 to 20 dollars a month.
They have the right to follow orders.
They have the right to be fired.
Sounds like a worker’s paradise to me.
Abril 30th, 2012 at 13:00
HAPPY MAY DAY TO ALL!! JE JE JE!
INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU) CUBA REPORT:
There still is no freedom of association, no genuine collective bargaining and the right to strike is still not recognised in law. Six of the seven independent trade union leaders sentenced to lengthy terms in 2003 remained in prison. An independent trade union leader was arrested at the beginning of the year.
TRADE UNION RIGHTS IN LAW
A single union
The Cuban authorities only recognise a single national trade union centre, the Central de Trabajadores Cubanos (CTC). The Labour Code, which was published in 1985, does not provide for any genuine freedom of association. The government explicitly prohibits independent trade unions, though it claims there is no legal requirement for workers to join the CTC.
The government has told the ILO that it is undergoing a comprehensive revision of its Labour Code. A new code is unlikely to guarantee genuine freedom of association, as the government maintains that existing laws already do so. According to the Cuban authorities “Freedom of association, protected in Convention 87, does not translate into the false concept of ‘trade union pluralism’ imposed by the main centres of capitalist and imperial power.”
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE REPORT!
http://www.icftu.org/displaydo.....anguage=EN
Abril 30th, 2012 at 12:24
GUESS THE CASTROFASCIST AGENTS ARE OUT DOING THEIR MARCHING ROUTINE & MEMORIZING THEIR NEW SCRIPT SO THEY CAN BE THEIR BEST AFTER THE MAY 1 “FESTIVITIES”! FUNNY THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE RECOGNIZED POLITICAL PARTY & “UNION” IN THE “ISLAND PARADISE”!BUT NO MATTER, JOSE DANIEL IS FREE AND WE WILL KEEP A TIGHTER EYE OUT FOR HIS WELFARE FROM NOW ON!
“Under Cuba’s “dangerousness” law, authorities can imprison people who have not committed a crime on the suspicion that they might commit one in the future. “Dangerous” activities include handing out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing articles critical of the government and trying to start an independent union.”
AFP NEWS SERVICE: Cuba frees dissident detained after Pope visit
HAVANA — Police in Cuba released Jose Daniel Ferrer, a political dissident arrested shortly after the visit to the island by Pope Benedict XVI, the activist told AFP.
“They released me around 1:00 pm,” Ferrer said by telephone from his home in the town of Palmarito de Cauto, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, 900 kilometers (550 miles) southeast of Havana.
“Physically I don’t feel well, but my spirits are high,” said Ferrer, 41.
Ferrer, leader of the banned Patriotic Union of Cuba (UPC), was arrested on April 2 along with 42 activists in a crackdown on protesters in Santiago de Cuba after the pope visited the island.
The group was arrested after protesting the detention of a dissident who chanted anti-government slogans during the pope’s visit in late March. Most were released after a few days.
Ferrer said that police told him he could wait at home for a trial on disorderly conduct charges, although no date has been set. The police also warned that they would be monitoring him.
“They told me that the activities that I instigate, organize and finance are actions against the revolution that cause public disorder, and that if I continued they would … take me back to prison,” Ferrer said.
However if he limited his opposition to writing behind closed doors, then the authorities told him that they could dismiss the case.
Ferrer vowed to continue with his outside activities.
While in detention, Ferrer went on a three-day hunger strike complaining about prison food. He ended his protest when prison officials let his wife bring food.
Ferrer was one of dozens of dissidents sentenced to prison in 2003 but was released in 2011 through the mediation of the Catholic Church.
About 130 political prisoners were freed as a result of that dialogue. Most left for Spain, but Ferrer and 11 others refused to leave their homeland.
Havana considers dissidents “mercenaries” in Washington’s pay.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....fda4af5.01
Abril 30th, 2012 at 11:20
THE MAN WHO’S “DOWN WITH COMMUNISM” HEARD & SEEN AROUND THE WORLD! INSTANTLY! THANK YOU FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INTERNET, BLOGS! BUT MOST, THE PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT LIBERTY! AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH! “EL CAMION CARRION”! MY PET NAME FOR ANDRES!
MIAMI HERALD: Andrés Carrión describes his anti-Castro shouts during papal visit in Cuba - In an exclusive interview, the man who shouted anti-Castro-slogans recalls the globally broadcast incident that occurred during the pope’s visit. - BY JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ
Andrés Carrión, the man who shouted “Freedom!” “Down with communism!” and other anti-Castro slogans on March 26, shortly before the papal Mass on Antonio Maceo Square in Santiago de Cuba, remembers that moment as if it had been the end of his life. His throat was dry. He panted. He thought about his family.
“I was worried because I thought that, at the moment of truth, my voice would fail and my shouts wouldn’t come out,” Carrión recalled in a telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald. “But they did, and I know that they caused the dictatorship much harm.”
The incident occurred in an area near the platform where TV cameramen and photographers stood. It was broadcast widely, throughout the world. As he was removed violently from the square, Carrión was struck by several government sympathizers. One member of the Cuban Red Cross beat him savagely on the face and struck him on the head with a folded stretcher.
“If I had an opportunity to find the stretcher bearer, I’d try to explain to him that his intransigence only benefits the government,” Carrión said. “The same government that keeps him working hard and selling bleach on the streets.”
Carrión thought that he wouldn’t leave the square alive.
For days, Cuban authorities kept his identity secret, until it was disclosed by Alfonso Chaviano Peláez and José Daniel Ferrer García, members of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU). Chaviano said in a phone interview with El Nuevo Herald that he had recognized Carrión but that he was unable to report it immediately because he lacked a means of communication and his home was under close surveillance.
“Not long ago, I was able to see some videos of the protest and the great pounding they were giving me,” Carrión said. “But in the midst of that situation, your adrenaline and state of mind are altered and you don’t realize it. The only thing I felt was that my soul was separated from my body.”
Carrión said that the idea to stage a protest began when he heard that Pope Benedict XVI would visit Santiago de Cuba. One week after the papal Mass, he toured the square repeatedly. He even selected the best location for his protest.
That day, Carrión was among the first to arrive. He took 10 candies and a bottle of cold water. The wait was long and exhausting. He arrived at 11 a.m. The Mass was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. One hour before evading the police cordon and shouting his slogans, a Colombian journalist approached him and asked him what he thought about the Cuban government.
Carrión did not reply.
“I looked at him and said to myself, ‘stick around and you’ll find out what Cubans think,’ ” he recalled.
On the evening of March 26, the authorities took him to the Versailles Operation Center of State Security, in Santiago de Cuba. For at least two weeks, he remained in a cell, alone, without knowing if his protest had reached the outside world.
“The only satisfaction I felt was that I had done something in the name of all the Cubans who remain silent out of fear,” Carrión said. “Now I’m fully aware that the regime will never forgive me for what I did. That’s why I think they’re waiting for the right moment to give me a final blow.”
Carrión’s situation provoked innumerable expressions of concern. Human rights activists and peaceful oppositionists in Cuba and abroad demanded his immediate release from prison. Carrión was freed one week ago, although he’s under obligation to meet a series of conditions. The authorities have ordered him to appear every Wednesday at the Versailles center. They’ve told him not to have contact with foreign media.
The government also has taken additional steps in his neighborhood, Carrión says. An Interior Minister officer, a captain by the name of Figueroa, told the residents of the Sorribes housing complex where he lives that they may lynch or stone anyone who demonstrates against the revolution.
“State Security checks on me constantly and I’m the target of provocations,” Carrión said. “The people are afraid but express their support to me covertly. On the street, they tell me, ’thanks from those of us who didn’t have the guts to do what you did.’ That comforts me.”
Currently unemployed, Carrión has a diploma in social and occupational rehabilitation. His wife is a physician. They have no children.
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....-anti.html
Abril 30th, 2012 at 09:39
Cuba’s military puts business on front lines
Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces rent rooms to tourists through Gaviota SA, the island’s fastest-growing hotel conglomerate. They sell premium cigars, peddle consumer goods through an island-wide retail chain and serve lobster dinners at the Divina Pastora restaurant in Havana’s landmark Morro Castle. The military also has a say in allotting nickel mines and leasing offshore lots for oil exploration. The University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies estimates that soldiers control more than 60 percent of the island’s economy.
The military’s economic role will likely become even more critical after the death of Cuba’s ailing 80-year-old leader, Fidel Castro, who is widely believed to be dying of cancer.
…The military found foreign joint-venture partners for Cuba’s moribund citrus industry, which almost collapsed after losing its markets in the Soviet block. Today, citrus is an important export. Cuba’s most important citrus company is a joint venture with Grupo BM, an Israeli firm that operates a 115,000-acre farm that grows grapefruit using state-of-the-art drip irrigation techniques.
…the military’s own economic empire has continued to grow. Today, the military’s web of companies are run by the Grupo de Administracion Empresarial SA, or the Business Administration Group. Known by its Spanish acronym Gaesa, the group is headed by Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro. The group’s deputy head is Col. Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Raul Castro’s son-in-law. The group is run from offices on the fourth floor of Cuba’s defense ministry, according to Mr. Mora of the National Defense University.
Giving the armed forces a critical role in running the economy has helped the Castro brothers reward their supporters and gives them a stake in the preservation of the regime. But it has also introduced a corrupting influence in the military that could worsen if the military’s role expands further in a post-Fidel Cuba. A number of high-ranking “entrepreneur soldiers” have already been dismissed and sometimes jailed for corruption.
The military also faces potential dissension within its ranks: Soldiers involved with foreign joint ventures, who live far better than others in the military, are viewed by many officers with distrust and envy, analysts say.
Another problem sign is what Ricardo Pascoe, a former Mexican ambassador in Havana, calls the rise of the “juniors” — the sons of high-ranking military officers who often live abroad and enjoy privileges undreamed of by ordinary Cubans. During his time in Havana from 2001 to 2003, Mr. Pascoe says, many Mexican businessmen complained to him that the “juniors” charged commissions for contracts through their fathers.
Mr. Mora of the National Defense University believes that if unchecked the “juniors” could become the kernel of semicriminal mafias that could dominate much of the economy if Cuba liberalizes its economy. Instead of China becoming the model for Cuba, he says, Raul Castro could inadvertently turn Cuba into a Caribbean version of oligarchic, post-Communist Russia.
http://www.post-gazette.com/st.....es-459475/
This article is from 2006. Significantly, much of what the report warns of, a growing criminal network dominating the Cuban economy seems to be coming true.
Abril 30th, 2012 at 08:32
Cuba communism was created for the purpos to turn all Americas red,but first the poor nations…and than the last castle…make USA like Cuba…a hell geto….
The other purpose may have been the Americas religions,not just their governments.
Some one wanted both of them gone…and now the fact is that the west is like wilderness or the world of the dead…where you see the ghosts and zombies,vampires
Abril 30th, 2012 at 07:51
The photograph of José Daniel shown above was taken at the prison where he was held on a sentence of 25 years for the crime of calling for human rights and democracy in Cuba. He is seen in the visitors meeting room talking on a cell phone lent to him by his visitor. Anybody who looks at that photograph and imagines they see a healthy, happy, well dressed and affluent Cuban is an idiot or a Liar.
Abril 30th, 2012 at 01:07
CUBAS A BIG JAIL. PEOPLE NOW DEMAND RIGHTS
Abril 30th, 2012 at 00:15
Both José Daniel and Yoani…you are lucky not to be in Spain now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6Pg6RqcnI
Italy, Greece, Portugal, England, Irland, Belgium, France and maybe Holland will go crazy this year which may be the lastyear in the EU
Abril 30th, 2012 at 00:06
José Daniel looks well dressed and bettr than europeans and north american who are starving and are homeless now; they dont have jobs,education,health,food,cloths anymore provided as they had before because their nations are ready to collapse in 2012-2013…
José Daniel has all of what he needs;job,education,healthcare,cloths,food ration and sun and beach so he better watch the world and specially EU which is lucky to pass this summmer…
Abril 29th, 2012 at 23:52
SEATTLE TIMES: In Cuba, young people long for Web access - With home Web accounts limited to foreigners and government officials, Cuba has the lowest Internet-penetration rate in the Western Hemisphere, even below that of impoverished Haiti.- By Franco Ordonez
Like many young Cubans, Malagon is frustrated that he can’t access Facebook and Google like his peers around the world.
“We’re ready,” he said. “We have so much culture and education in Cuba. There are many Third World countries with much less culture and education than Cuba that have had the Internet for many years.”
That may not come for years. Cuba, with its authoritarian communist government in control of the Web, has the lowest Internet-penetration rate in the Western Hemisphere, with just 16 percent of its population online. Even earthquake ravaged Haiti, the hemisphere’s poorest country, has a higher percentage of its people on the Internet.
In Cuba, only government officials and foreigners can set up the Internet in their homes. Most Cubans can’t afford the fees charged at tourist hotels, where an hour of Internet equals about a quarter of the average Cuban’s monthly salary.
“Think about it,” said David Gonzalez, 20, who sometimes sneaks onto the Internet at the hotel where his mother works. “For $5 an hour, it’s not worth it.”
Government concern
The Cuban government is concerned about the online potential for dissent and social mobilization, according to experts such as William LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist and dean of the American University School of Public Affairs in Washington.
The government feels confident that it has control of the traditional dissident community, LeoGrande said, but it’s less familiar with the techniques of a new crop of younger dissidents who’ve been inspired by the revolutionaries who used social media to start anti-government movements across North Africa and the Middle East.
The most famous Cuban blogger using social media to foment dissent is Yoani Sanchez, who publishes Generation Y, a blog that’s translated into 16 languages. She sends out regular tweets about activism and her life on the island, using text messaging from her cellphone. She has nearly 250,000 Twitter followers. She posts regularly each day.
“It’s possible that I don’t get there, that I don’t have enough health or life, please tell the youth of the future that their irreverence is welcome,” she recently wrote on Twitter.
Opponents call her a fraud and an agent in the United States’ political and economic war against Cuba.
Getting access
The greatest challenge that bloggers like Sanchez face isn’t censorship, but getting online. Despite the restrictions, she and others bloggers are finding new ways to broadcast their reporting, saving posts onto flash drives and sharing them with friends with access to the Internet.
In 2007, Ramiro Valdes, then the interior minister, called the Internet “one of the mechanisms of global extermination,” but he added that it was necessary for continued economic development.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018103525_btcubaweb30.html
Abril 29th, 2012 at 21:18
CL
Do you really think that a couple of asinine quotes by some obviously starry-eyed and deluded individuals could possibly make Fidel Castro look good?
Daaaaang, you’re dumb.
Abril 29th, 2012 at 20:36
In fact, fewer and fewer people are speaking out in support or praise of Fidel Castro. There was a time when he commanded the facination of the Western chattering classes. Over time Castro has betrayed, dissapointed, appalled or disgusted so many people inside Cuba and around the world that by now only the most pathetically gullible still have any regard for him.
Abril 29th, 2012 at 18:31
A good thing William Morgan is being remembered. Funny how all the heroes of the revolution ended up dead or in prison. Only the Soviet agents and tools survived.
Abril 29th, 2012 at 15:37
ANOTHER INTERESTING ARTICLE ON THIS UNKNOWN STORY ABOUT AN AMERICAN WHO HELPED THE CASTROFASCISTS WIN THE REVOLUTION & THEN WAS EXECUTED WHEN HE REBELLED AS HE SAW THAT THE CUBAN PEOPLE WERE BEING LIED TO AND THE REVOLUTION WAS BEING SEQUESTERED BY CASTRO BROTHERS!
MIAMI HERALD: An American rebel’s final defiant words before execution by Castro - A newly uncovered letter by an American rebel to his elderly mother on the eve of his execution by Castro shows he had no regrets. - By Michael Sallah And Alfonso Chardy
Just one day before his own brutal execution, William Morgan sat in a dingy Cuban prison cell and scrawled his final letter to his elderly mother in Ohio.
Charged with trying to overthrow the Castro government, the man known as el Yanqui Comandante wrote he had no regrets for fighting in a revolution that changed Cuba, defended his role in battling the leaders who seized control, and said he was ready to die.
“And if my life will help the people of Cuba, then I am glad to give it,’’ he wrote before he was hauled before a firing squad.
For 51 years, the original letter written by one of the most intriguing figures of the revolucion remained buried — and never delivered to his family.
Until now.
A half-century after Morgan was shot to death at La Cabana prison, the man entrusted to pass the original letter onto Morgan’s family found it tucked away in his personal archives: five, simple folded pages.
Weeks later, he sent a copy of the note to a Miami Herald reporter, who then forwarded it to Morgan’s closest surviving heir: his widow in Ohio.
“It moved me very deeply,” said Olga Morgan Goodwin, a Cuban native who married Morgan during fighting in the Escambray Mountains. “William wrote it in the final minutes of his life.”
What’s not clear is why the original letter written in the darkness of a prison cell took so long to be delivered.
Henry Raymont, now 85, the UPI reporter who interviewed Morgan before his trial, recalled watching the prisoner pen his final goodbye to his mother from a bench in his cell, writing: “I am a very fortunate man to at least know the time of my death and prepare for it.”
After Morgan was shot against the wall by a firing squad, Raymont rushed to send it on the UPI news wires with instructions to deliver it to Loretta Morgan in Toledo.
“I know I sent it,’’ said Raymont. “They ran the full text on the wire.”
But when Loretta Morgan died in a nursing home in 1988, there was no copy of the UPI dispatch in her prized collection of her son’s possessions, which included half a dozen letters he’d sent from the mountains during the revolution, said Morgan’s widow, now 76.
Five decades later, the letter offers a rare glimpse of the charismatic street hero who led a band of guerrillas in a sweep across the mountains that helped force President Fulgencio Batista to flee in 1959.
While the letter is expected to spark debates over Morgan’s place in revolutionary history, it comes as his relatives continue to mount a rare campaign: to return his remains to the United States.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....fiant.html
Abril 29th, 2012 at 14:10
INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT BIT OF CUBAN & AMERICAN HISTORY! AN ONGOING ONE TOO! THE CASTROFASCITS ARE EVEN SCARED OF THE DEAD! THEY KNOW THE DAY OF RECKONING IS COMING AND ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO PUSH IT SO THEY CAN BE DEAD BEFORE IT COMES!
MIAMI HERALD: Widow fights to reclaim American rebel’s remains - By Michael Sallah and Alfonso Chardy
For Loretta Morgan, it was a final, desperate plea before dying 24 years ago: bring her son’s remains home from Cuba, so he can be reburied in the United States.
In the ensuing years, letters were written on her behalf to President Obama, members of Congress, and even Pope Benedict XVI. Top U.S. leaders would travel to Havana, asking for the remains of William Morgan.
But to this day, the body of the Yanqui Comandante remains in a massive cemetery in the heart of Havana — 51 years after he was shot by a firing squad at La Cabana prison.
“This has been so hard,” says Olga Morgan Goodwin, who married the celebrated rebel fighter in Cuba in 1958.
Just last year, a delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter said it was assured by top Cuban representatives that the Castro government was open to the idea.
“They said they were willing to work it out,” recalled Robert Pastor, national security advisor to the Carter White House who raised the issue with Josefina Vidal, chief of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ North American unit.
But when family representatives tried to reach out to the Cuban government to get a visa, they never got a response, they said.
“I feel frustrated for the Morgan family,” Rollison said.
One expert said a major snag could be Morgan’s own history in Cuba and his public break with Castro over the government’s growing ties with the Soviets in 1960.
“It is risky in Cuba to talk about people who have challenged the revolution,” said Aran Shetterly, author of the book, Americano: Fighting with Castro for Cuba’s Freedom. “For whatever reason, the old guard still seems to think Morgan’s memory represents a threat even though most young Cubans have never heard of him.”
But there may be a more practical reason, he said. So far, no one knows for sure if Morgan is still buried in the Colon Cemetery, where he was laid to rest after his execution in 1961. “Are we sure that the Cubans know where Morgan’s remains are?” asked Shetterly.
Burial records show the body was interred in the massive graveyard, and in 1971, was moved to a new site on the grounds. One visitor to the cemetery told The Herald she located his gravesite three years ago, displaying photos.
Goodwin, who managed to get friends in the exile community to raise $2,500 to help pay expenses for the return of the body, said her husband belongs in his native Ohio.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....rican.html
Abril 29th, 2012 at 13:31
VICTIMS OF THE CASTROFASCIST REVOLUTION VERSION TO BE CLEAR!- February 19, 2008 Update on Findings
This work documents loss of life and disappearances of a political or military nature attributed to the Cuban Revolution. Each documented case is available for review at http://www.CubaArchive.org and substantiated by bibliographic/historic data and reports from direct sources. Due to the ongoing nature of the work and the difficulty of obtaining and verifying data from Cuba, the following totals change as research progresses and are considered far from exhaustive. Cuba Archive is currently examining additional cases -most are expected to be added to this table. Experience has shown that as additional outreach efforts are undertaken, many more cases are likely to be uncovered.
Non-Combat Victims of the Castro Regime:
January 1, 1959 to December 31, 2007
Work-in-progress
Documented Cases
Firing squad executions = 4,074
Extrajudicial killings not in prison = 1,334
Missing and disappeared = 219
Other, including deaths in prison = 2,215
Estimate
“Balseros” (estimate to 2003) = 77,833
TOTAL 85,675
Cuba Archive - Free Society Project, Inc.
P.O. Box 529 / Summit, NJ 07902 - Tel. 973.701-0520
Abril 29th, 2012 at 13:29
Cuba Archive’s Truth and Memory Project is documenting deaths and disappearances resulting from the Cuban revolution and studies transitional issues related to truth, memory and justice.
This project seeks to compel people and nations to help Cubans peacefully attain their rightful freedoms, foster a culture of respect for life and the rule of law, and honor the memory of those who’ve paid the highest price.
RESEARCH REPORTS: The Database of Documented Cases contains electronic records for cases cited in any reports and the section Case Profiles has narratives on selected cases.
EACH OF THESE CATEGORIES REPRESENTS INDIVIDUAL REPORTS ON SAID TOPIC:
Update of Findings, 1/25/2012
Che Guevara’s Forgotten Victims
Deaths by hunger strike
Che Guevara’s Forgotten Victims
Deaths Reported in 2008
Deaths Reported in 2007
Foreigners killed by Cuba
U.S. citizens victims of the Cuban regime
Civilians killed for attempting to flee Cuba
Minors killed by the Cuban regime
The Tugboat Massacre of July 13, 1994
The Canimar River Massacre of July 6, 1980
Female victims of the Cuban regime
Spaniards killed in Cuba
Adult males killed by the Cuban regime
Deaths or disappearances in detention
List of Che Guevara’s victims in Cuba 1957-1959
http://cubaarchive.org/home/in.....;Itemid=95
Abril 29th, 2012 at 13:28
VICTIMS OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION - February 19, 2008 Update on Findings
This work documents loss of life and disappearances of a political or military nature attributed to the Cuban Revolution. Each documented case is available for review at http://www.CubaArchive.org and substantiated by bibliographic/historic data and reports from direct sources. Due to the ongoing nature of the work and the difficulty of obtaining and verifying data from Cuba, the following totals change as research progresses and are considered far from exhaustive. Cuba Archive is currently examining additional cases -most are expected to be added to this table. Experience has shown that as additional outreach efforts are undertaken, many more cases are likely to be uncovered.
Non-Combat Victims of the Castro Regime:
January 1, 1959 to December 31, 2007
Work-in-progress
Documented Cases
Firing squad executions = 4,074
Extrajudicial killings not in prison = 1,334
Missing and disappeared = 219
Other, including deaths in prison = 2,215
Estimate
“Balseros” (estimate to 2003) = 77,833
TOTAL 85,675
Cuba Archive - Free Society Project, Inc.
P.O. Box 529 / Summit, NJ 07902 - Tel. 973.701-0520
http://www.CubaArchive.org
Abril 29th, 2012 at 13:25
Por el levantamiento popular en Cuba- CONFIRMADO: Jose Daniel Ferrer ha sido liberado. #Cuba (según varias cuentas de disidentes en twitter)- CONFIRMED: Jose Daniel Ferrer has been released. # Cuba (according to several accounts of dissidents on twitter)
Yoani Sánchez: #Cuba Me llegan varios reportes de que liberaron a @JDanielFerrer - News gets to me in several reports that they have released Jose Daniel Ferrer
http://www.facebook.com/levantacuba (THIS IS A FACEBOOK PAGE)
Abril 29th, 2012 at 13:15
A great moment in time to remember for always. Two great leaders who both changed the world forever by bringing freedom to abused and oppressed nations. Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSx4v3EcCfI
And here are some comments by people who admire them.
“This is what the people that hate Fidel don’t want to see..this man is a great leader..they don’t make them like this anymore, now we have the talk and no show leaders..I love this man..
fran21ish 1 year ago 25″
“Easily one of the greatest men to have ever graced this Earth, I’d give my life for him in a second.
xtremelygoodlookin 1 year ago 18 “
Abril 29th, 2012 at 13:04
More and more people are strarting to speak out in favor of Fidel Castro. First it was the Brazilian envoys who disappointed the dissidents on this blog. Then the Pope let them down by not intervening in Cuban politics. Next it was Camila Vallejo, the Chilean revoutionary, to scold and contradict the anti-castro sources at work. And now to top it all off, Nelson Mandella, a well know supporter of Human rights speaks out publicly praising Fidel Castro.
“MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - City officials shunned Nelson Mandela on his arrival last night in Miami, where the South African activist’s embrace of Cuba’s Fidel Castro has driven a wedge between blacks and Cuban-Americans.”
http://community.seattletimes......ug=1079499
Abril 29th, 2012 at 12:48
I was thinking what about if many of the so called Cuba’s dissidents are planted by the intelligence to mix them with others,the real dissidents…maybe is non..and all.
Not all the apples are green and yellow…maybe there are red apples also…who knows
Abril 29th, 2012 at 12:32
DAILY MOTION VIDEO: A MANO LIMPIA TV SHOW: The guests are the two Cuban actors of the film “Una Noche” (One Night) who fled Cuba - Two Cuban actors of the Film “Una Noche” (One Night), about rafters who flee to America, disappeared last week just after stepping into the Miami International Airport on a layover on to their trip to New York. There they would represent this Cuban film in the Tribeca Film Festival.
AML: Invitados los dos actores cubanos de la cinta Una Noche, que escaparon de Cuba - Dos actores cubanos de la cinta Una Noche, sobre balseros que se fugan a Estados Unidos, desaparecieron la semana pasada apenas pisaron el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami en una escala en su viaje a Nueva York. Allí, presentarían esta película cubana en el Festival de Cine de Tribeca.
http://www.dailymotion.com/vid.....Zp-vic#_=_
Abril 29th, 2012 at 09:41
Cuban Agramontista Union
For the lawyers from around the world and all the bodies and defense of Human Rights:
Dear colleagues, we Cuban lawyers in solidarity duty to intercede for the Cuban citizen José Daniel Ferrer, a human rights defender, who has been indicted without objectivity, without due process and who remains in jail.
The Cuban Constitution in its article number 5 states: that is the Communist Party (and only) the highest leading force of society and the State, excluding the regime under the rule of law and thus guarantees of due legal process. According to this precept a biased judge, under party leadership, with an arbitrary and unjust accusation, judge him. We recall that in Cuba there is no judiciary, no judges, is the police who imposes criminal charges and a prosecutor leading the investigation, and lawyers led by the Organization of Collective Law is subordinate to the Communist government through the Ministry of Justice. We clarified that since 1974 Cuba was banned in private practice of law. The evidence against Jose Daniel Ferrer practice will be made at the whim of the police investigation and prosecution, and may not be challenged by the defendant or his counsel, may challenge the judges, can not confront the witnesses who accused him . The helplessness if queen, as in any judgment, against a peaceful activist who defends human rights in Cuba.
All lawyers in the world, to associations of lawyers and bar associations, organizations that defend human rights, Amnesty International, Freedon House and UN bodies , OAS, EU, and all the democratic governments of the world and defenders of justice, we ask them to intercede for this just demand, and also show their support for the claim is set forth below: that independent lawyers have access to file indictment against citizen Jose Daniel Ferrer, who although does not change the situation of lack of guarantees of due process, at least have lawyers to represent their rights and interests of justice and freedom, unless you allow it to freely appoint his defender.
We lawyers of the Cuban Union propose Agramontista criminologists, lawyers: Zenén Pérez Yera and Jesus Faisel Iglesias, appearing for and defend the proceedings brought against the honorable citizen Jose Daniel Ferrer, who deserves our attention, justice and immediate release.
Sincerely,
Juan Jose Lopez
Chairman.
Cuban Agramontista Union
Abril 29th, 2012 at 09:28
World scene and act now is like this ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC5eLLEhLvs
and the uprising and big hate are growing ready for the attack against their lazy elites…This happen in 1989-90 in many communist countries in East Europe and the same is happening in 2011-12 in the west…everywhere in the planet,the human hell
Abril 29th, 2012 at 09:09
Darkness army divisions=countries are now;
EU and East Europe countries,Asian and Middle East countries,North America and Cuba and some countries in South America,Africa
Lightness army divisions are the rising youths(not those who are paid to work as the spies,mercenaries) and many generations people,intelectuals who oppose the Darkness army and its preparation for war and the attacks…A big Fight is coming and the Martial Law may start but the masks will be not there from those who fight…They will see each other as white and black,light and dark…in big contrast
Abril 29th, 2012 at 08:50
Dark Kingdom is made of old evil man made system of;
political and economical and religious institutions…now all weak,demolished,hated because it serve to few men against other men…a blind,lay minority against slaved majority…now awakening,uniting by the big suffering and ready for a big revensh.
For more infos and prediction you can watch the movie; “dr. Monroe’s island”…
End of the movie will be similar to the end of the story of the lazy men ruling the dumb…if there will not change the system…by peace. Than will be violence,crimes.
Abril 29th, 2012 at 08:23
Cuba is the future world and so is this man..Jose Daniel..the man victim of the NWO…created already in many countries. There are many men like him,hunted by evil
and there will be no freedom,food but just fear,persecution…which half of the world had already experienced in the East Europe,Asia,Middle East,Cuba,South and North America..Humans acuse now many created organizations or group of men for this;
like political,economical,religious organizations and orders,groups,hidden and open with different nets of spies,mercenaries in inteligence,army,police and secret societies and government officials.They are all as one…and servants of the old evil kingdom…the cold lon darkness,night which is going to be hated more and more…and now destroyed by the morning of the sun light rising,new day starting.Youths in the streets are the sun’s army worldwide and they are the army of the new kingdom now…the sun and day. So change the sides because the darkness’s destiny is to lose this fight,which is a natural process which cant stop
Abril 29th, 2012 at 08:12
From what I can tell from her bio, Lucy Mulloy is a British leftist, a clueless usefull idiot for the Castro regime to exploit.
Abril 29th, 2012 at 07:24
I guess CL must have cleaned up his room so his mom has turned the Internet back on. Good boy. It’s reassuring to hear fro the regime mouthpiece that the regime run youth organization says that Cuban youth love the revolution. That must be why the young are fleeing the island by the thousands: because they love it so much!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 22:50
Humberto, the reporter at the BBC printed a true quote, not the nonsense printed by Reuters:
“Desde pequeño soñé con salir de Cuba”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/not.....a_fp.shtml
Abril 28th, 2012 at 22:24
HAVANA TIMES : The (Non) Right of Cubans to Travel -Haroldo Dilla Alfonso-February 1, 2010-
The situation in Cuba concerning the freedom to travel is unfortunate. What I’m describing here is not for Cuban readers (who are all too familiar with this issue), but for those who are unaware of the matter and are forced to accept the information of those who close their eyes to this flagrant civil rights violation, a veritable wedge driven between the Cuban nation made up of both émigrés and those residing on the island.
Above all, travel for Cubans is not a right, but a legal privilege. It is a condition that can be granted or rescinded. It is a revocable concession by an unappealable power and is without a defined judicial framework.
In all cases, the departures of these people imply considerable fees that can end up in well excess of US $500, an immense sum for a population with exceedingly depressed wages that average $20 a month. In short, to leave, each person must be able to pay for a letter of invitation, a passport and an exit permit.
On top of this, once in the destination country, the traveler must make payments to the Cuban embassy in that country a sum that varies each month they remain in that country, which is a highly uncustomary practice. This sum fluctuates between $40 and $150 a month.
There are no laws or clearly written regulations covering these processes; rather, there are arbitrary and discretionary practices that mix starkly fascist reins of political control with mercurial motivations of the worst kind. In this way, the Cuban government denies a right that it alternately sells to those who can afford it.
But we must pay them, and pay them well, so they can continue reproducing their power with the same parasitic style they’ve displayed over the last fifty years.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=18972
Abril 28th, 2012 at 21:37
I AM SURE THERE IS A NEED OF SEVERAL YEARS WORTH OF “STUDY” ABOUT THIS ISSUE! DIOS MIO, CAN THE CASTROFASCISTS BE MORE CYNICAL??? THE CUBAN POPULATION WANTS TO TRAVEL, WITHOUT BEING EXTORTED!! COMEM**RDAS!!
AFP NEW SERVICE: Immigration reform on agenda for Cuba: minister
HAVANA — Cuba is making headway to normalize ties with its diaspora living in the United States, the country’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday, with moves on immigration reform expected in coming months.
“Much has been achieved” towards normalizing relations with US-based Cubans, Dagoberto Rodriguez said from Havana during a video teleconference with immigrants in Washington organized by the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
He called for a “respectful exchange of ideas” on “how we can continue to build… this dialogue.”
Rodriguez said the government of President Raul Castro aimed to tackle migration reform to “eliminate unnecessary prohibitions” on Cubans wishing to travel abroad.
Last year, some 400,000 people — 100,000 more than the year before — traveled to Cuba to visit relatives, work on cultural projects or for business and academic purposes, according to the senior diplomat.
Cuban migration rights were in the spotlight this week after two actors featured in an award-winning film about Cuban boat people themselves went missing in Florida on their way to New York to promote the film.
Since 1966, Cubans have been granted automatic residence if they make it to the United States from the communist-ruled island, and thousands attempt the voyage each year, while others simply refuse to return if they reach the United States on a short visit.
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said earlier this month that Havana planned to remove many of the restrictions that have prevented its citizens from traveling abroad.
To travel abroad legally, Cubans need a permit that is valid for 30 days. It can be extended 10 times, after which they must return to Cuba or lose the right to reside in their own country.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....171d59.3f1
Abril 28th, 2012 at 20:40
I AM SOOO GLAD FOR THE MAY 1 FESTIVITIES! IT MEANS, LIMITED SPAM & CASTROFASCIST AGENTS HERE! GRACIAS DIOS THEY ARE ALL MARCHING & YELLING IN THE PARADE & NOT HERE!! JE JE JE!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 19:34
Help! IM SURE Lucy Mulloy WAS VERY “GENEROUS” WITH THEM FROM THE FEBRUARY GERMANY TRIP! JE JE JE! TRUST ME, SHE USED THEM AND THEY KNEW IT! “CIAO LUCY! WE KNOW YOU ARE ONLY IN IT FOR YOURSELF AND WAS NOT ABOUT REALLY HELPING US! NOW HOW MUCH ARE YOU GOING TO PAY US FOR THE SEQUEL??” HOPE THEY GET LOTSSSSSS OF MONEY$$$$$$!!! RIGHT, C.L.! OF COURSE THEY ARE MERCENARIES!!C.L.!! JE JE JE!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 17:46
Nothing surprising with the two defectors.
Here’s the translation into English:
“We’ve been thinking of getting to the USA for as long as we can remember, just like every Cuban. It was just a matter of planning our escape and going through with it. We have to BS because our families are still in Cuba”
Good luck to them, welcome to the USA!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 16:11
Patriotic Union of Cuba…nationalists are consider the enemy of the New World Order…so the world elites will give order to Castros to destroy Patriotic Union of Cuba and every patriot and intellectual who may be a problem and opposition of the hell.Castro may soon have an order from the world elites to bombard Santiago “Heroic City,” and if Castros refuse the world elite may replace them…as it was done with Gaddafi and others…So Castros are working for the world demolition and Cuba libre too. But I dont understand the Humberto’s role…he is antiCastro,anti world elites!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 15:45
Cuba is a grave deep inside the cave where the sun light cant reach…so the people have become to pale inside the cube…but all the nations are like different tombs inside the cave so the ghosts who run the cave gather all the dead in one big tomb and say…lets called it a new tomb for all and keep all far from the caves entrance before the sun light inside it….So now there is a big mix of black and pale bodies.
If the sun light does not see them,than the dead cant rise and reborn so we must demolish the big cave or open the whole mountain to light them all.Let’s hit the mountain…so the vampires and ghosts can come out first…and than rise the dead
Abril 28th, 2012 at 15:39
Miss is an English language honorific traditionally used only for an unmarried woman.
Abril 28th, 2012 at 15:33
Cuba Libre said: “Unlike the hypocrites and liars in here who are backed and financed by anti-castro sources, most of the youth in Cuba support and praise the revolutionary government.”
C.L.! YOU SOUND LIKE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSON! WHAT HAPPENED? CHANGING OF THE CASTROFASCIST GUARD I SEE!!!! AND JUVENTUD REBELDE AS A SOURCE? JE JE JE! SORRY, HA HA HA HA! OR IN CUBAN! CUA, CUA, CUA!!
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CUBA- Amnesty International Publications 2010
STATE MONOPOLY OF THE MEDIA: The media is a key arena in which the right to freedom of expression is exercised. It plays a critical role in any society, for example raising awareness of human rights and exposing human rights violations. The media has the potential to help shape public opinion and to monitor and assess the performance of those holding public office at all levels; it is an important tool for scrutinizing government practices in all societies no matter their political ideology. The absence of an independent media is a serious obstacle to the enjoyment of freedom of expression and the adequate review of corrupt and abusive official practices. Restrictions on the Cuban media are stringent and pervasive and clearly stop those in the country from enjoying their right to freedom of opinion and expression, including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.8 The state maintains a total monopoly on television, radio, the press, internet service providers, and other electronic means of communication.9 According to official figures, there are currently 723 publications (406 print and 317 digital), 88 radio stations, four national TV channels (two devoted to educational programming), 16 regional TV stations and an international TV channel. All are financed and controlled by the government.10 Three newspapers provide national coverage: Granma, which is the organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Juventud Rebelde and Trabajadores.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/libr.....2010en.pdf
Abril 28th, 2012 at 15:26
IT’S OFFICIAL FOLKS! THE YOUNG ACTORS OF “UNA NOCHE” ARE DEFECTING OUT OF THE “ISLAND JAIL” THAT IS CUBA!
REUTERS: Prize-winning film’s Cuban actors to seek asylum in Miami - By David Adams
MIAMI- A pair of lead actors from a prize winning film about escaping Cuba have emerged from hiding to confirm they are seeking political asylum in the United States.
The young Cuban actors went missing last week while en route to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York where they were due to appear at the movie’s U.S. premiere.
Actress Anailin de la Rua and actor Javier Nunez, cast members of “Una Noche” (”One Night”), broke their silence Friday night in a TV appearance on the Miami-based Spanish language channel America TeVe.
In an interview with Reuters, de la Rua and Nunez said their life imitating art saga was not quite as dramatic in real life as the harrowing story depicted in the film.
“Una Noche” follows three Cuban teenagers who try to escape their homeland by sea on a raft to start a new life in Miami. De la Rua and Nunez, who fell in love during filming, play a brother and sister, but only one of them survives the risky journey.
The pair said their real-life decision to leave Cuba stemmed from the success of the film and invitations to travel to festival premieres - Berlin in February and then New York.
They spent six days in Germany in February, their first overseas trip, but returned to Cuba and only began to think of leaving the island permanently when they got news of the invitation to New York.
“In part it’s hard to leave your family and friends behind,” said de la Rua, who has two sisters and divorced parents in Havana. “But at the same time you do it so you can help them. There’s no future in Cuba.”
Nunez said his mother lives alone in Cuba and he plans to help her out economically along with his older brother who left Cuba for Ecuador several years ago and works as a waiter.
The actors, both aged 20, said they were surprised by the film’s success, especially as it was their first - and only - acting roles. They were 15 when they auditioned separately for the film, and then spent two years preparing for their roles after being selected by the film’s director Lucy Mulloy.
“She told us what she liked and didn’t like. She likes very natural acting,” said de la Rua.
But nearly three years passed before the film’s release, during which time the pair took regular day jobs. “Our friends in Cuba kept on asking us ‘when is the film coming out,’ and they almost didn’t believe it was for real,” said de la Rua, who worked at a Havana street stall selling home-made handicrafts and jewelry to tourists. Nunez worked in a pizza restaurant.
ATHLETES AND ARTISTS
“It never entered our minds that we would get to travel because of the film. We never imagined that it would go this far,” de la Rua added.
There is a long history of Cuban athletes and artists defecting to pursue careers outside their home country, including the 1997 defection of baseball pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez who smuggled his way out of Cuba by boat and became a star with the New York Yankees.
More recently the desertions have included talented ballet dancers and soccer players.
A Miami immigration lawyer, Wilfredo Allen, who is representing the actors, said he planned to file for political asylum on their behalf in the next two weeks “based on possible persecution if they return to Cuba.”
Under U.S. law Cuban citizens enjoy special immigration rights to remain in the United States, either by applying for permanent residency or by seeking political refugee status.
The couple’s reappearance came a day after Nunez shared the best actor award at the Tribeca festival, along with Dariel Arrechada, a fellow actor in “Una Noche.” Arrechada accepted the award on his own, and apparently plans to return to Cuba.
“Una Noche” also picked up the Tribeca Festival’s best cinematography award and best new narrative director for Mulloy.
Mulloy, a London-born 32-year-old who shot the low-budget film in Havana and was inspired by a tale she heard on a trip to the island nation 10 years ago, told Reuters she wished the missing actors could have attended the award ceremony.
“I haven’t heard from them,” she said. “Honestly, it’s all happened so quickly … it’s a shock,” she added.
“I’m sad for them because they are my friends,” Arrechada told Reuters in broken English and Spanish after accepting his award on Thursday, referring to his missing fellow actors.
“I wish they were here, but … you could be happy for them, for Javier and for Anailin and for everyone. It’s weird. I miss him.”
The couple is staying with de la Rua’s uncle in Miami and plans to move into their own place as soon as they find jobs. They said they would like to act again, but are willing to do any kind of job to kick off their new lives.
They said the director of “Una Noche” is hoping to make a sequel, titled “Una Noche Mas” (One More Night).
“We’d like to do that,” said Nunez.
http://www.reuters.com/article.....CD20120428
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:55
No Cuba libre…Cuba is a slavery and the Cuba revolution is not a good thing by its bad fruits, but a hell created by the agents of the world elites using their agents there…so there is nothing to support in the Cuba’s hell of the ahents revolution to destroy the Cuba’s paradise before the many waves of the destroyers came in the last 200 years
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:54
A tweet from Miss Sanchez`s twitter account.
“Yoani Sanchez@yoanifromcubaReply
Retweet
#Cuba When insults and lies are the only weapons to face the political adversary,… ufff… it’s so ugly!”
I couldn`t agree with you in a better manner Miss Sanchez. If you remove the only 2 weapons you have (insults and lies) to defame the Revolutionary government, you would be left with none.
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:47
Castro was and is an agent of the world lazy elites with the mission to create the hell and destroy the Cuba=paradise..and now there are many new clowned castros in every country doing the same…creating hells and than gathering them as a big world hell…calling it a “new order” of the gathering dirt,garbage and misery,zombies and animals which they control together as the jungle’s beasts.So old order and disorder and the new order(NWO)= garbage…or a big hell in the paradise planet destroyed.
And who is this guy called Jose Daniel in it? Probably nobody as every men inside its cube,box,grave,cave=nation nailed,controlled,owned,run by the lazy bums agents of the NWO. I dont know what role do now Humberto and Cuba libre play in the world hell…!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:43
There seems to be an ever growing discomfort within the US itself on its politics towards Cuba. More and more people within the US are crying out the injustice done towards the Cuban people.
Quote; “Rejection of the U.S. policy toward Cuba continues to grow inside the U.S. itself. Recently the U.S. Conference of Bishops sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba and an end to travel restrictions.”
Quote; “Similar opinions were expressed in the U.S. Senate. In statements to the press, Democrat Jeff Bingaman described U.S. policy toward Cuba as out of sync, considering the relations Cuba maintains with other Latin American countries.
The Chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee said that the policy is not based on national interests and emphasized that this must change.”
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/in.....ngton.html
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:37
Unlike the hypocrites and liars in here who are backed and financed by anti-castro sources, most of the youth in Cuba support and praise the revolutionary government. The Juventud Rebelde movement is a good example.
Quote; “”This is a position which, over the years, the young have earned with their results in the educational and production fields, and it also symbolizes the confidence of the Revolution in the new generations.”
http://www.juventudrebelde.co......socialism/
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:03
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN DIARRHEA OF THE MOUTH BY A “MUMMY”? HERE IT IS, BUT IS NOT A PRETTY SIGHT, OOZING OUT OF ALL THE BANDAGES! BUT IS UNDERSTANDABLE! SE ESTAN CAG**DO!! JE JE JE!
BUSINESSWEEK: Obama Meddling, Trying to Topple Hugo Chavez, Castro Writes - By Charlie Devereux
Attempts by President Barack Obama to bring down the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would result in “a river of blood,” former Cuban President Fidel Castro wrote.
The U.S. government is trying to topple Chavez by promoting the idea of discord within Chavez’s government due to his battle with cancer, Castro wrote in a column published today in Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party.
“It’s worrying that the government of the United States has decided in such circumstances to promote the downfall of the Venezuelan government,” Castro wrote. “An error by Obama, in such circumstances, could result in a river of blood in Venezuela.”
An e-mail sent to the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.
Chavez, 57, who has undergone three operations and several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in Cuba since June, has said he can continue as his party’s candidate in October’s presidential election, where he’s seeking another six- year term. He has refused to say what kind of cancer he has, where it’s located or give his prognosis, fueling speculation that his illness is worse than he’s letting on.
The self-declared socialist was criticized by opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski for governing by Twitter as he receives treatment in Cuba.
Castro, 85, said he’s a witness to the fact Chavez has kept working even as he receives radiation therapy.
“His obligations never stray from his mind, not even for a minute and sometimes to the point of being overwhelming,” Castro wrote. “I can testify to that because I’ve been in constant contact and communication with him.”
http://www.businessweek.com/ne.....tro-writes
Abril 28th, 2012 at 14:02
order and disorder are both bad…destructive because they are old…and that may be the reason why we see the two enemies of the old order and disorder as friends or united….against the new order which is just a gathering of the old structure as mountain of rubish…
So what is coming is not the “new” order…of the human animal,but of the God’s Kingdom…if the humans will not start cannibalism and go wild in their beastiality in y.2012-13
Abril 28th, 2012 at 13:40
LIFE IMITATING ART, IMITATING REAL LIFE IN THE “CUBAN PARADISE”!
HUFFINGTON POST: Life Imitates Art: When Cuban Actors Defect - by Chuck Gomez
The latest Cuban real-life drama took me back to 1980. As a young Latin-American correspondent, I covered the Mariel Boatlift for CBS News. Between April 15th and October 31, 1980, as many as 125,000 Cubans made the journey on crowded boats from the Cuban harbor of Mariel to Florida. For many years before that, Cubans facing oppressed conditions and a worsening economy fled on inner tubes — just like the protaganists of the movie Una Noche. I remember being in Havana and witnessing angry pro-Castro mobs shouting insults outside the homes of Cubans they suspected were on their way to Mariel. “Escoria,” they shouted. “Que Se Vayan!” (”Scum! Let Them go!”) According to published reports, in the weeks leading up to the Mariel boatlift, as many as 10,000 Cubans sought to gain asylum in the Peruvian Embassy. It was then that the Cuban government announced that anyone who wanted to leave Cuba could do so. The exodus on boats — dispatched from Cuban exiles in Florida — started soon after that.
It’s not the first time Cuban artists like Javier Nunez Florian and Anailin de Rua de la Torre have defected. They join other Cubans who have taken advantage of stopovers to stage an escape. According to Larry Rohter of the New York Times in an article dated April 23: “Defections by baseball players, Olympic athletes and dancers here in the past have been so common that the Cuban government assigned security agents to keep an eye on such delegations.” Mr. Rohter goes on to report that if Florian and de la Torre indeed defected, it would be the second time that Cuban artists invited to the Tribeca Film Festival opted to remain in the United States. The first was director Laimir Fario Villaescusa, who in 2009 won a prize for his short film Ode To The Pineapple.
Watching the movie I couldn’t help but wonder how the the filmakers received permission from Cuban authorities to film a movie in Cuba, which shows so many harsh realities: prostitution, an underground black market, delapidated housing, hunger and crime. This is a Cuba where tourists patronize HIV-infected “ladies of the night.” This is a Cuba where desperation and fear is etched on the faces of the young. They are ready and willing to sacrifice their lives for a chance to flee. Spoiler alert: We discover at the end of the movie that instead of washing up on U.S. shores, Raul and Lila actually have traveled in a circle. They end up on a Cuban beach. Raul is promptly arrested. Lila’s future remains uncertain. Is Mulloy trying to say that escaping Cuba on a raft is nothing more than a foolhardy adventure? In response to my question, Mulloy replied. “I wanted to leave it open to interpretation.” Could it be that Cuban authorities were more comfortable with a film that some might say serves as a cautionary tale for Cuba’s disillusioned youth?
The most compelling scenes in Una Noche are the ones at sea. We actually feel like we are in the raft with Raul, Elio and Lila.The skies darken. Thunderstorms loom. These beautiful scenes may remind many Cubans of the story of Cuba’s patron saint, La Virgin de la Caridad del Cobre (Virgin of Charity). In what many Cubans believe to be a miracle, the Virgin Mary rescued three fisherman from a terrible thunderstorm at sea. The Huffington Post, in an article dated March 26, 2012 reports: “According to church lore, two indigenous laborers and an African slave who had set sale in an old boat in search of salt were surprised to find a statue of the Virgin Mary atop a wooden table floating above the frothy waves in the Bay of Nipe in 1615. In her arms, she carried a smaller figure of the baby Jesus. The church says the board was inscribed with the words “I am the Virgin of Charity.”
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....51684.html
Abril 28th, 2012 at 12:38
Summary of State Dept-John Kerry Q&A- USAID
Excerpt: “These programs are comparable to what we and other donors do to support democracy and human rights in repressive societies all over the world. Possible counterintelligence penetration is a known risk in Cuba. Those who carry out our assistance are aware of such risks. …the Cuban government arbitrarily arrests and detains citizens who try to exercise basic freedoms…Unfortunately, given these circumstances, we are not always able to publicly convey the details and impact of our programs.”
2) Question: Democracy programs were supposed to evolve under the Obama administration. How is that happening?
Answer: This isn’t regime change anymore. We’re helping Cubans “freely determine their own future.” Also, the emphasis has shifted. We’re channeling as much aid as possible directly to Cuba rather than spending outside the island. We’re helping a wider range of people, not just legacy dissidents, but LGBT groups and the disabled.
LINK WONT WORK SO COPY & PASTE THE TITLE ABOVE ONTO YOUR BROWSER & YOU WILL FIND THE LINK EASILY!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 12:34
Help! GET READY FOR MORE SPAM DIARREAH TO COME! YUCK!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 12:33
Cuba Libre said” “The picture in this post tells it all. Here we have Mr. Ferrer dressed in brand new jeans and brand new shirt, along with the latest style of smart phones in hand. All this of course he paid with his the $20 a month that his government gives him.”
C.L.! DEFAMATION, INNUENDO & OUTRIGHT CHI$ME I$ YOUR MAINS$TAY!! BUT I MUST $AY YOU HAVE GREAT EYE$IGHT! FROM THAT PICTURE YOU CAN TELL ALL OF THAT?? AMAZING! YOU MU$T BE A MENTALI$T OR $OMETHING LIKE THAT! JE JE JE!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 12:29
25Cuba Libre
Abril 28th, 2012 at 08:50
The picture in this post tells it all. Here we have Mr. Ferrer dressed in brand new jeans and brand new shirt, along with the latest style of smart phones in hand. All this of course he paid with his the $20 a month that his government gives him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our best asset!!!!!!…….. each time he/she open the mouth toilets get clogged!!!!
There is a 40 years old campaign to collect money among Cubans in exile to help with money the isolated by regime Cuban freedom fighters inside Cuba. Regime isolate them economically and social, regime fires them out their jobs, all this to try to defeat them by hunger and extreme misery……. well, we exiles help them with money, we exile makes our elected representatives in US congress and senate to approve financial assistance to those fighter in order to broke regime criminal blockade against freedom fighters. We Cubans in exile drive since 5 years ago a campaign called “A cellular to each Cuban” by which we coordinate effort to send cellular phones not only to freedom fighters but to every Cuban so they can broke the information blockade of regime……… in spite of castrofascism effort to kill by hunger and maintain isolated the opponents inside Cuba those heroes still have better life than regime’s thugs…… that’s why Cuba-Pitbull cry so sadly, opponents have a better life than him……. well, like Rome, castrofascism depicts the traitors like you dummy!!!!!!
Abril 28th, 2012 at 12:25
last guy black…this guy pale…so how cud Cuba be thinking right when the light,..sun rays hit to much or to less the human skin,brain etc?
The world elites,separated or united must have serious conditions with their lazy brains…and they should let and can not be runing,leading,ruling the world anymore
The 2000 years conclusion is that not left,nor right…and not united left and right sides of the lazy brain…kept in a dark cube,box,scull…can think right as did happen for 2000 years from the lazy humans of east,north…and the west,south.
Sun is the secret,its rays and energies which must hit the right degree and amount the lazy brain of the human to act different from thr other animals…and not think in each of his action that “the end justify the meaning” because it is no meaning at all when the wrld wil be like Cuba,a getho…which should not be the end dominating the scene…turnin the humans to lazy parasites,animals or wild beasts…
Abril 28th, 2012 at 11:22
Jose Daniel,Yani etc should look to find out who runs the NWO now…because religions and world leaders and banks,corporations,internationalists,communists and socialists and democrats talk often about it as a gatherind elite of the blind lazy shepherds…
Abril 28th, 2012 at 11:14
Now that world sheep are still hunted,killed and destroyed non of the two old enemies or their united power…cant be anymore in the role of the shepherd to protect,care,lead the sheep…The blind can not lead the blind and Cuba is the best example to show that old fact,at least 2000 years old fact,reality…history..
Abril 28th, 2012 at 10:46
Maybe not just the Russian-Cuban mix guy…but we all are victims of the 2000 yeas old wars between religions or people,their communities…who fight for demolition of each other,their power,authorities…so fighting hard for the world sheep…they killed and eat them all…STUPID
Abril 28th, 2012 at 10:39
I see Castro got his computer working again.
Abril 28th, 2012 at 10:39
These old opinions and the future = our present show the stupid plan and mission of world elites maybe;
Internationalists “Look Magazine” in 1962, January 16th, edition wrotte:“The image of the world in 1987 as traced in my imagination: The Cold War will be a thing of the past. Internal pressure of the constantly growing intelligentsia in Russia for more freedom and the pressure of the masses for raising their living standards may lead to a gradual democratization of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, the increasing influence of the workers and farmers, and the rising political importance of men of science, may transform the United States into a welfare state with a planned economy. Western and Eastern Europe will become a federation of autonomous states having a Socialist and democratic regime. With the exception of the USSR as a federated Eurasian state, all other continents will become united in a world alliance, at whose disposal will be an international police force. All armies will be abolished, and there will be no more wars. In Jerusalem, the United Nations (a truly United Nations) will build a Shrine of the Prophets to serve the federated union of all continents; this will be the seat of the Supreme Court of Mankind, to settle all controversies among the federated continents, as prophesied by Isaiah.” ARE THE RELIGIOUS MEN BEHIND THE COMMUNISM AND ATHEISM…WHO ARE THEY?
Pope Benedict XV in 1920, offers his view about the world plan and the program of the internationalist…SO IT LOOKS LIKE POPE WAS NOT PART OF THE CIRCLE OR CLUB OF THE ELITE;
“The advent of a Universal Republic, which is longed for by all the worst elements of disorder, and confidently expected by them, is an idea which is ripe for execution. From this Republic, based on the principles of absolute equality of men and community of possessions, would be banished all national distinctions, nor in it would the authority of a father over his children, or of the public power over the citizens, or of God over human society, be any longer acknowledged. If these ideas are put into practice there will inevitably followed a reign of unheard-of terror.” From “Moto Proprio, Bonem Sanc,” July 25, 1920.
SO CUBA IS RUN BY WORLD BANKS AS A TOOL OF THEIR UNION IN SOUTH AMERICA RUN BY THE AGENTS AND THE BANKS MONEY.THE QUESTION IS THAT FOR WHOM THE WORLD BANKS WORK FOR?
Abril 28th, 2012 at 10:26
Who is Jose Daniel A Russian boy mixed with a Cuban? Cuba has a mission,the same as Russia and China had…for feeding the world banks with money,confescated wealth and the profits made from the communist nations run as hell concentration camps…
The bankers are responsible for social engineering programs such as the (homo) sexual revolution, feminism and multiculturalism, which undermine family and social cohesion. This fundamental antagonism also supports a vast criminal underworld actually run by the elites…to destroy the pronation and its propeople’s governments,families,communities,nations,people and in Cuba,NAU,EU,ME is showing this very clearly…Cuba is run by UN and the banks of the world.It is feeding them
Abril 28th, 2012 at 08:50
The picture in this post tells it all. Here we have Mr. Ferrer dressed in brand new jeans and brand new shirt, along with the latest style of smart phones in hand. All this of course he paid with his the $20 a month that his government gives him.
The truth is he can only afford his clothes and smart phone with the dirty money handed to him by US anti-castro sources. Too bad he decided so quickly give up his hunger strike.
Abril 28th, 2012 at 00:25
YOUTUBE: Entrevista con la esposa del contratista Alan Gross - América TeVe, Sevcec a Fondo,- Interview with the wife of Alan Gross - America TeVe show “Sevced a Fondo” (English with Spanish Sub-titles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ature=plcp
Abril 27th, 2012 at 23:28
LATIN AMERICAN HERALD TRIBUNE: Jailed Cuban Dissident Ends Hunger Strike - April 27,2012
HAVANA – Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer has ended the hunger strike he launched to protest his arrest early this month, his wife told Efe on Friday.
Coinciding with the end of the fast, Cuban authorities formally charged the detainee with creating a public disturbance in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba on April 2, when he was taken into custody along with other government opponents, Belkis Cantillo said.
Ferrer, the leader of the outlawed Patriotic Union of Cuba dissident group who had begun the hunger strike on Monday, received notification from the authorities of the “public disorder” charge.
Cantillo added that when she visited him at the detention facility he told her not to obtain an attorney for him.
Ferrer, among a group of 75 dissidents rounded up and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in a 2003 crackdown, was released a year ago on parole following a Spanish-supported dialogue between President Raul Castro’s government and Cuba’s Catholic hierarchy.
The dissident is one of 12 Group of 75 members who refused to travel to Spain as a condition of his release.
In recent months, the 41-year-old Ferrer had been briefly detained in Havana and the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, where he lives, but subsequently released on both occasions without charges.
Amnesty International had adopted all of the Group of 75 as prisoners of conscience and Havana came under international pressure to release them after one member, Orlando Zapata, died following a lengthy hunger strike in February 2010.
But the Castro regime says there are no political prisoners on the Communist-ruled island and does not acknowledge the existence of an authentic internal opposition, instead referring to these individuals as “mercenaries” at the service of the United States. EFE
http://www.laht.com/article.as.....ryId=14510
Abril 27th, 2012 at 08:16
Simba&Help, I think all three are in Cuba for the May 1st parade and finnaly found out that this blog cannot be accessed from Cuba :)
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:59
Simba Sez: I may be wrong, but I suspect our Friendly English Translator has made a necessary decision to suspend a few ISPs from the site. The comments section was sort of getting out of hand with the regular spam being spouted under various names, but without doubt all by the same person. That will not stop the very same people from returning with a different ISP, but it may make them think a bit about what they say in the future at least.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:31
“It would have been a great experience for them,” Mulloy said.
“…before returning to their island shaped prison cell.” …she meant to say but didn’t.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:29
But Humberto, a pampered upper class leftist Englishwoman is sure to have unique insight into the Cuban characters’ souls. I don’t know what Cuban filmmaking did without her until now.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:26
Help…. Man of many names has crashed. His multiple obsessive posts indicated somebody in the throws of manic episode. The language, repetition, & focus on symbolic themes were the “tell”. He’ll be out for two weeks at least. Maybe much longer if isn’t getting help.
As for Cuba Liar, I suspect his mom cut off his internet until he cleans his room.
Damir? Let’ hope they used a powerful tranquillizer dart.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:26
Help! IF THEY WON FOR ACTING, IT WAS MOSTLY THEIR TALENT! Mulloy GOT A GREAT DEAL IM SURE IN THE OVERALL BUDGET! SHE PROBABLY THREW A FEW DOLLARS AROUND AND THOUGHT SHE WAS DOING THEM A FAVOR, WHEREAS IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND, THEY MADE HER MOVIE SPECIAL, THE ISLAND MADE HER MOVIE SPECIAL, THE CUBAN STORY MADE HER MOVIE SPECIAL!!
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:05
“It would have been a great experience for them,” Mulloy said.
Don’t worry, they’ll visit New York without a communist watchdog and have an even greater experience.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 23:00
Simba, they might be conscripted for the May Day parade. I noticed the man of many names stopped posting at the same time. I also noticed that “he” posted on a 24 hour shift in the past.
Or maybe Castro’s computer is down?
Abril 26th, 2012 at 22:48
WE CUBANS HAVE A CORNER OF THE MARKET FOR POLITICAL MELODRAMA! CANT YOU TELL!
REUTERS: Missing Cuban actor, “War Witch” win Tribeca awards - By Christine Kearney
But in a continuing strange saga of life imitating art at Tribeca, a Cuban actor starring in a film about defecting to the United States, who went missing in real life while en route to the festival, shared the top acting award.
Actor Javier Nunez Florian, who was last seen at Miami’s airport and disappeared along with his female costar Anailin de la Rua de la Torre from the film “Una Noche”, did not show up to split his $2,500 award.
He shared the top acting honor with his male costar Dariel Arrechada, who did turn up on the red carpet toward the end of the awards and was the only actor present at the film’s premiere a week ago. Representatives for the film said this week no one from the film has had any contact with the missing Cubans.
“Una Noche,” (One Night), which follows the journey of three Cuban teenagers trying to escape the poverty of their homeland to start a new life in Miami, also picked up the best cinematography award and best new narrative director for New York University film school graduate Lucy Mulloy.
After winning her award, Mulloy, a London-born 32-year-old who shot the low-budget film in Havana and was inspired by a tale she heard on a trip to the island nation 10 years ago, told Reuters she wished the missing actors could have been there.
“It would have been a great experience for them,” she said. “I haven’t heard from them. I just hope they are well and they are healthy.”
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.reuters.com/article.....2320120427
Abril 26th, 2012 at 22:28
WELL HOW ABOUT THAT!! I WONDER WHAT KIND OF SPIN THE CASTROFASCIST PRESS WILL PUT ON THIS, OR WILL THEY MENTION THEIR DEFECTION!
L.A. TIMES: ‘Una Noche,’ ‘War Witch’ win awards at Tribeca film festival- April 26
NEW YORK — A movie about Cuban teenagers trying to escape the communist island and a film about a child soldier in Africa were the big winners at the Tribeca Film Festival award ceremony Thursday night.
“War Witch,” Kim Nguyen’s story of a girl conscripted into an African war, won best narrative feature, while Rachel Mwanza, a nonprofessional actress playing the girl, won best actress.
Meanwhile, a jury handed best actor prizes to Dariel Arrechada and Javier Nuñez Florian for their portrayals of two teenagers who seek to build a raft in Castro’s Cuba in the coming-of-age drama “Una Noche” (One Night).
Florian and another performer in the movie, Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, disappeared on a layover in Miami last week as they were traveling from Havana to New York. They are presumed to be seeking to defect.
Lucy Mulloy, the film’s director, won best new narrative feature director for her film, while the movie took home the best cinematography prize for its images of a Cuba both scenic and harscrabble.
The Tribeca jury handed best documentary feature to “The World Before Her,” Canadian Nisha Pahuja’s look at an Indian beauty pageant.
For a full list of winners visit tribecaonline.com. The Tribeca Film Festival wraps this weekend, when the audience awards will be announced.
latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/04/una-noche-war-witch-win-awards-at-tribeca-film-festival.html
Abril 26th, 2012 at 16:11
Simba Sez: The Cuban Gestapo must be in really bad shape to quit paying Damir, Cuba Libre, and Unsoricel all at the same time. I sort of miss them already. I may have to take their side of the usual mud slinging that goes on here so the rest of you have someone to argue with. I’ll wait a while though to see if some new hired goons show up first.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 10:05
Café Fuerte is reporting that the two Cuban actors who disappeared on their way to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York to premier a Castro film on Cubans who, in a deliciously ironic twist, defect to the U.S. have finally appeared in Miami. Javier Núñez Florián and Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre are with family members in South Florida and claim to be fine and happy with the decision they made to defect. The two actors stated they will file for political asylum in the U.S. in the coming days.
http://www.babalublog.com/2012.....ll-defect/
Abril 26th, 2012 at 09:28
Senator Marco Rubio on U.S. relations with Latin America
It’s no coincidence that increased prosperity has followed in the wake of stronger democratic institutions in Latin America. Nor is it surprising that Cuba, which is still not a democracy, is struggling. Looking toward a post-Castro era, Cubans are taking increasingly bold actions to secure for themselves the political and economic freedoms enjoyed by the majority of their fellow Latin Americans. The United States should support them by finding new ways to increase connectivity among Cubans and expand access to 21st century technologies on the island.
We also need to assist Latin America’s many fledgling democracies. Free elections are crucial, but they aren’t enough to secure a democracy. As we’ve seen in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia, elected leaders can use democratically obtained power to abuse their people, attack fundamental freedoms and weaken civil society.
http://www.latimes.com/news/op.....6710.story
Abril 26th, 2012 at 07:18
The Cuban dissidents, such as José Daniel, the Ladies in White, Dr Biscet, and others, represent whatight be the last chance to save Cuba from the Fascist future which Raul Castro & the regime are pursuing. They want to transform the Cuban system from an isolated Stalinst model to the state monopoly model typified by Vietnam & China. The Communist Party will continue to rule, through the army, the secret police & the state run union. But they hope to open up & expand their international business partnerships with the aim of taking in enough hard currency to keep the regime in power forever. The prospect of a major oil project in Cuban water and the complete elimination of the last best ages of the US embargo are key steps toward this goal.
This is why it is vital for the sake of Cubam freedom, democracy & independence to support the dissident movement today. It may be the last chance.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 06:08
Humberto re #6,
Raul’s “anti-corruption” crusade sounds more like a gangster style shakedown. Notice how these foreign investors’ assets are handed over to GAESA, the holding company owned by the Cuban army. The director of GAESA is Raul’s son-in-law. Under the excuse. Of fighting corruption, the regime is concentrating more and more business, wealth and power into GAESA. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
There’s a name for the type of political system where power is held by an elite, state controlled monopolies dominate the economy and the army runs everything. It’s called Fascism. That’s where Castro is taking Cuba.
Abril 26th, 2012 at 00:10
VIRTUAL MOJITOS FOR EVERYONE!! BRAVO FLACA!
YOANI SANCHEZ TWITTER: 250,006 Followers
Abril 25th, 2012 at 22:11
WE ALL KNOW THAT THE CASTROFASCISTS ARE THE MOST CORRUPT OF ALL! SUCH CYNICISM & HYPOCRISY ON THE PART OF “LA CHINA” RAUL & “THE MUMMY” FIDEL!
BELLINGHAM HERALD: Cuban authorities arrest British man in corruption probe - By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Cuba’s investigation of Coral Capital was the latest in a long string of official corruption scandals that have become known since ruler Raul Castro replaced ailing brother Fidel in 2006.
They have hit the aviation, telecommunications, nickel, juice, cigar, and several other industries and led to the arrests or dismissals of scores of government officials - including Julio Cesar Diaz Garrandes, boyfriend of Raul Castro’s youngest daughter.
MIAMI - In the latest of Cuba’s burgeoning corruption scandals, government investigators have arrested a British architect who spearheaded an ambitious project to build a 1,200-home golf resort just east of Havana, according to news reports.
Architect Stephen Purvis has been chief operating officer for Coral Capital Group Ltd., a British investment fund that backed the Bellomonte golf resort and partnered in a $43 million development project in the port of Mariel, west of Havana.
Rhys Patrick, spokesman for the British embassy in Havana, confirmed “there’s a British citizen arrested and under investigation,” according to reports Wednesday by Radio Marti and Cuba Standard, a Florida-based website on the Cuban economy.
Although Coral Capital’s managing partner, Amado Fakhre, also a British citizen, was arrested in October, the Cuban government has made no public comment on the case or most of the other corruption scandals.
Coral Capital, registered in the British Virgin Islands, was founded in 1999 to invest in Cuba projects, such as the Hotel Saratoga in Havana and the golf resort. It also owned a trading company that sold heavy equipment to the Cuban government and financed other import deals.
Its website has claimed it invested $75 million in Cuba and had more than $1 billion in projects, including the 650-acre Bellomonte, one of at least four huge golf resorts that Castro has green-lighted to expand Cuba’s tourism industry.
The Reuters news agency in Havana has reported that the Cuban investigation involves bribes paid by Coral Capital’s trading arm to usually poorly paid government officials to win large contracts for state purchases.
The Cuba Standard report noted that many foreign business persons in Havana are complaining about the lack of transparency in corruption prosecutions, and one predicted it would be difficult for Cuba to find foreign investors in the future.
http://www.bellinghamherald.co.....itish.html
Abril 25th, 2012 at 17:11
Mi Nombre Es Libertad: una hermosa canción de Zaida Peréz ( Señora ) Reconcida compositora nicaraguense, dedicada a las Damas de Blanco
Está acompañada por imágenes de las marchas de estas valientes cubanas y de la represión de que han sido víctimas por parte de las hordas castrocomunista
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U_XT6ZhkoM
Abril 25th, 2012 at 14:51
YOUTUBE DOCUMENTARY: “La Primavera de Cuba” The Cuban Black Spring- part #2 (English sub-titles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Abril 25th, 2012 at 14:51
Filmmakers Carlos González and Pablo Rodríguez made this important 2003 Czech documentary with interviews with dissidents prior to the March 18 crackdown knows as The Black Spring and with their relatives after their arrests and summary trials. Takes a look at the Varela Project as well.
YOUTUBE DOCUMENTARY: “La Primavera Negra de Cuba” The Cuban Black Spring- part #1 (English sub-titles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfKW7ZJyDgc
Abril 25th, 2012 at 14:18
YOUTUBE: Berta Soler y José Daniel Ferrer en SATS - Ladies in White leader Berta Soler & Top Dissient Jose Danier Ferrer in SATS program - Feb 13, 2012 - A conversation with social activists Berta Soler coordinator of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) and Jose Daniel Ferrer who heads the Patriotic Union Cubana.- Una conversación con los activistas sociales Berta Soler coordinadora de las Damas de Blanco y José Daniel Ferrer quien dirige la Unión Patriótica Cubana. - State of SATS project hopes to create a plural space for participation and debate, where open and frank debate is exchanged. The project sponsors panel discussions, forums and other events that are filmed and broadcasted on the Internet. Opinions or points of view expressed on this site by individual participants do not necessarily represent the position of the rest of contributors. SPANISH ONLY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6iuZqGDhCo
Abril 25th, 2012 at 14:08
WOULD LOVE TO SEE IF THESE “PARTICIPANTS” WILL GIVE INTERVIEWS & MAYBE A PRESS CONFERENCE? MAYBE IT WILL BE TELEVISED LIKE ON C-SPAN!! JE JE JE!! I DOUBT IT! ITS SOUNDS LIKE A “LAMEBOTAS” OR “SPY” CONVENTION TO ME! JE JE JE!
MIAMI HERALD: Cuban diplomats in Washington will host émigrés for talks on U.S. policy toward the island- The Cuban émigrés and Cuban diplomats will talk about how to change U.S. policy toward the island.- By Juan O. Tamayo
Cuban diplomats in Washington will host an estimated 150 friendly Cubans living in the United States on Saturday for a by-invitation-only gathering to discuss how to change U.S. policies toward the island.
The invitations to the “First National Meeting of Cubans in the United States, for Unity and the Change in Policy Toward Cuba,” included questionnaires that must be returned to the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, along with photos.
The gathering and others like it — one took place in Spain last week — are part of ruler Raúl Castro’s drive to improve relations with Cubans living abroad. Backers say he is seeking reconciliation with them, while critics say he wants their money.
The list of invitees was not made public. But several Cubans who privately confirmed they had been invited support the Castro government or have business interests with Cuba. Not even moderate Castro critics are known to have been invited.
A letter accompanying the invitations lists more than 50 years of “arbitrary” U.S. policies toward Cuba, from the “criminal and unjust” trade embargo to assassination attempts and terrorist attacks that have “taken thousands of lives.”
The U.S. government also “unjustly” jailed five Cuban spies arrested in South Florida and keeps the communist ruled island on its list of countries that support international terrorism, the letter noted.
“It is time to end so much evil and say enough,” it added. “The people of Cuba and the United States are destined to live as good neighbors, based on the principle of respect for the sovereignty and independence of each country.”
The invitation says the gathering will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, which acts in lieu of an embassy in the absence of full diplomatic relations.
It gave no detailed agenda and Cuban diplomats did not answer a request for comment. One person invited said the hall where the group will gather holds about 150 people, and another said he had been told the gathering would end Saturday night with a cocktail.
An estimated 2 million Cubans live abroad, the vast majority of them in the United States, although the diaspora extends to Spain, Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries and as far away as China, Pakistan and Australia.
Castro has said his government is planning a broad reform of its migration regulations. But there have been unconfirmed reports that hardliners are blocking any major easing of the ultra-tight controls on Cubans who want to leave or return to the island.
Under a recent change, Cubans who were once forced to hand their property to the government when they emigrated can now pass it to anyone. About 400,000 émigrés visited Cuba in 2011, a significant hike from 2010, according to travel agency officials.
The first announcement of the Washington gathering, issued in February, painted it as part of a Cuban government campaign to normalize relations with émigrés that went back to the controversial “dialogue” in 1978-1979. That led to the release of some 3,000 political prisoners, and permission for exiles to visit Cuba for the first time since 1959.
Those talks were followed by the several “Nation and Emigration” conferences held in Havana from 1994 to 2010. Those gatherings, attended usually by 300-350 Cuban émigrés, were always tightly controlled by the Cuban government.
The gathering last week at the Cuban embassy in Madrid brought together 200 émigrés, according to Luis Pérez, who said he has lived in Spain for 28 years and heads the 5,000- member Federation of Associations of Cubans resident in Spain, created in January.
Pérez told the Efe news agency that the meeting was designed to eliminate the wrong impression that all Cubans living abroad are opponents of the government. They are mostly migrants, like those from any other country, he argued.
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....ngton.html
Abril 25th, 2012 at 13:54
MY SOLIDARITY TO JOSE DANIEL FERRER, UNJUSTLY DETAINED BY SECURITY POLICE FOR HIS IDEAS. May be, this comment possible explain what is happening in Cuba.
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TWO WISE GORILLA: DO NOT HEAR, NO SEE, OR UNDERSTAND THE WORLD
The Castro brothers will go down in American History as The two “wise”, gorillas, or at least that they themselves believed. They do not hear advice from anyone, because anyone who dares to contradict them, even the timid suggestions in a low voice, his hands in plain sight, head down and body denoting inferiority required manu military, are considered counterrevolutionary. So hundreds have been ousted. From a coward Vice President, toady ministers, senior officials, MPs and leaders of the that spurious mob PCC, have gone to the toilet, luckily for them, in the mansions of the two gorillas they are always bright, as if the employees cleaned them with their tongues.
Nor do any of these two gorillas heard international criticism from all corners of the earth. “These are reviews sorted by imperialism”, they say the two gorillas in uniform to each other. When rebuked them abroad, have responded with vulgar insults, and the Main gorilla has a preference for accusing the other of “fagot.” Is it because he had a bad homosexual experience?
Neither these gorillas ‘wise men’ see anything, only themselves in the mirror each day. They look handsome in uniform, pink, healthy, neat, well bathed and perfumed, because they do have water worthy of the name. This is sent by pipeline to displace purified water from plants installed in their mansions. They do not know the water with worms that the Cuban people drink, and that causes dysentery. When they go out in armored cars going through street protected by sheets of 3 and 5 cm thick, they fell any way squearred. They do not care about the average cars cost of every car, likely a Cuban salary of fifty to one hundred years of work. These cars have tinted glasses to avoid seeing the widespread poverty in the streets of Cuba. The gorilas do not look out, because this would cause them vomiting. When they get to where they will meet with their subordinate chimpanzees, they do not see anyone, because the human wall that separates them from the Cuban reality prevents it. Of course, they can not see beyond their nose, and it is proved that at least the lesser of the wise gorillas, reads only the headlines. Not think that he reads the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations. What they know is that it “is the work of imperialism”, but the Cuban zoo maintain a segurity idiot with diplomatic passport to oppose any criticism of the organism against The kingdom of gorillas and chimpanzees.The minor Gorilla believes him self to be a King.
They do not understand the world, I have very clear to me.They accuse capitalism of all evil, and it left them out of capital during the special period, because the only capital they were, were Russian´s on account of his betrayal to Latin America, as these gorillas tried to give it to the Russian Empire, the same as still have invaded and dominated to 154 Asian republics. Now they tried to deliver it to the Islamic Empire.
Nor do they understand a bit of national economy, the Russians said it was political economy, which transformed the whole public administration in a whore home. where everyone was pulling for his plot. What accounting, cost analysis, performance evaluation, budget and audit adjustments, were nothing. “We have the power, boys. ” They said these gorillas hardened.
Nature also they do not understand, because it has become evident that they have destroyed cities, forests, mountains, waters, lands, beaches, not to mention the agriculture. There are millions of chimpanzees who have betrayed Cuba allowing all this. They like ” we go with another invention”. The main gorilla believs him self as a scientific, and who have worked in this area faint laughting hearing him explained in scientific terms his animal cross of cows with cows and bulls with bulls. The dream of breeding cows the size of elephants, to display as a “triumph of the revolution”, have come to nothing. As the ten million tons of sugar project. In a country where someone ordered that failure and world ridicule would have meant a resounding kick were these gorillas have the back. But not in Cuba, because chimpanzees are content with bananas.
The gorillas of this story not understand anything about sociology. Rather, have adopted the insane nihilism of a German-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - who believed they had to eliminate all “inferior people”. Salvador Allende was one of his followers. The problem is that, these gorillas have triumphed admirer of Nietzsche, and the German Karl Marx also mad, whose followers formed an alliance with Nazism, National Socialism . Themselves, the two gorillas had gone to Siberia, or the gas chamber if Stalinism and Hitlerism hade succeded. So it is, and are, and have been socialism, collective madness trying to destroy ourselves to the same societies that support them. But, these gorillas feel other Cubans and Latin Americans inferior to all, otherwise you could not understand his repeated attempts to create “no one but a thousand Gulags” in this world.
How is it that , President Barak Obama did not include Cuba in the group of countries which practice systematic genocide? Obama has created an Atrocities Prevention Board, Government Commission for the Study and Evaluation of situations of genocide in the world and mentioned only Syria and Iran. Curious, not Cuba, which has been practiced a systematic but very slow genocide, depriving of food, clean water, sanitation worth the name, medicines to the population to them disaffected. And why not not mention North Korea where they have deliberately failed to food production to kill millions of Koreans and thus maintain the status quo? Cuban brothers, tihis is very rare, very rare.
Prof. Carlos Medina de Rebolledo
Acting General Secretary
World Federation for Human Rights in Cuba (forming)
Email: fmddhhcuba@yahoo.se