Cuba Companioni

Tweeting Under Castro: Blog Talk Radio with Yoani Sanchez

2012-01-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Tweeting Under Castro: From Havana, blogger Yoani Sanchez with hosts Mirta Ojito & Teresa Puente.

Columbia Journalism School presents a revolutionary webcast our first ever webcast in Spanish with Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez (@YoaniSanchez) to discuss how social media breaks down the walls of censorship in Cuba and elsewhere.

She will be calling from Havana and talking with Prof. Mirta Ojito (@mirtaojito), author of "Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus" and professor and blogger Teresa Puente (@tcpuente).

Tweeting desde Cuba: Acompañenos en una charla revolucionaria nuestro primer webcast en español con la bloguera cubana Yoani Sanchez (@yoanisanchez), que nos contará cómo rompe las barreras de la censura con social media. Estará con nosotros las profesoras Mirta Ojito (@mirtaojito) y Teresa Puente (@tcpuente).

Are Obama's Policies Aiding Castro Murders?

2012-01-24T22:46:00.003-07:00

Obama seems delusional Ignoring the fact that his naive Cuba outreach policy has not only emboldened but also enriched Castro's death squads who continue to kill Cubans and hold American hostages with Impunity. The latest atrocity Is the premeditated murder of young courageous hunger striker Wilman Villar Mendoza.

Via Marc Mas Ferrer of Uncommon Sense

"President Obama’s thoughts and prayers are with the wife, family, and friends of Wilmar Villar, a young and courageous defender of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba who launched a hunger strike to protest his incarceration and succumbed to pneumonia.

Villar’s senseless death highlights the ongoing repression of the Cuban people and the plight faced by brave individuals standing up for the universal rights of all Cubans. The United States will not waiver in our support for the liberty of the Cuban people.

We will remain steadfast in our outreach to the Cuban people through unlimited Cuban American family visits and remittances, purposeful travel, and humanitarian assistance to dissidents and their families in support of their legitimate desire to freely determine Cuba’s future. -- White House statement on the death of Wilman Villar Mendoza

The White House did the right thing Friday in acknowledging the death of Wilman Villar Mendoza, and condemning the repression he died fighting.

But the White House also ignored how the policies it saw fit to promote as part of its statement, contributed, at the very least indirectly, to Villar's death.

Where's the connection? Just follow the money.

Out of every dollar sent to the island, whether as a remittance or in the pocket of a "people-to-people" traveler, a piece ends up in the coffers of the regime.

And from there, the dictatorship pays its secret policemen, its jailers, its informers and anyone else who keeps the machine of repression running Including those who followed their orders from the top and killed Wilman Villar Mendoza.

Obama's policies have delivered more cash to the Castro dictatorship, which coincidentally or not, has corresponded with a spike in repression.

The Cuban people cannot afford much more "outreach" like that" More

Taxpayer Money Fueling Castro Tyranny

2012-01-07T19:32:00.003-07:00

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made the following statement on the Smithsonian Institution’s, a taxpayer-funded entity, upcoming trips to Cuba under a so-called People-to-People Cultural Exchange Program:

“The Smithsonian’s 10-day trips to Cuba will amount to little more than a tropical vacation. Americans participating in these trips will not see the brutal reality of the Castro dictatorship. They will not be visiting run down hospitals where sick Cubans have to bring their own bed sheets and medications, nor will they have the opportunity to sit in a court room where peaceful pro-democracy advocates are sentenced because due process and a real judicial system are non-existent.

“The nature of the Smithsonian’s upcoming trips to Cuba becomes clear merely by looking at the ad promoting it. The ad fails to mention that Cuba is a state-sponsor of terrorism or that Castro’s thugs repeatedly and routinely beat and harass the innocent Ladies in White while they peacefully march down a street. It does not mention that an American citizen is being held hostage by the regime simply for seeking to lift the veil of censorship that the dictatorship imposes on the Cuban people.

“Americans will not be able to interact with a typical Cuban family as they conduct their daily desperate search for food, stop by a dormant newspaper’s office that no longer operates because there is no freedom of the press, or visit the ever-growing prisons where countless political prisoners languish in their cells for exercising freedom of expression. These are the real cultural experiences in Cuba. Instead, these tourists will experience a false depiction of Cuba through a biased and censored ‘tour’ of the island.

“It is deeply disappointing that the Smithsonian Institute, primarily funded by American taxpayers, is facilitating access to U.S. dollars, which enables the Castro regime to make a hefty profit. The trips not only illustrate a blatant disregard for human rights conditions on the island by an entity that receives U.S. government funding, but provide the deplorable Havana tyranny a sense of legitimacy.”

"Obamatrons" Overlooking Cuba's Wave of Repression

2011-11-22T19:37:00.008-07:00

"The Unwritten Story: How the Media and the Obama Administration Overlook Cuba's Wave of Repression"

From last week's presentation at The Heritage Foundation: Nov 22 2011

Thank you so much for the invitation to be here today

Cuba’s legal and institutional structures are under the direct control of the island’s totalitarian dictatorship.

The Castro regime’s 1976 Constitution prohibits private ownership of the media or any independent exercise of journalism. Moreover, it only allows for speech, so long as it “conforms to the aims of a socialist society.”

Its criminal code contains a host of arbitrary sanctions, such as “enemy propaganda” and the dissemination of “unauthorized news.” Insult laws carry penalties of three months to one year in prison. The sentences rise to three years if members of the regime’s Council of State or National Assembly are the objects of criticism.

The 1997 Law of National Dignity provides for jail sentences of three to ten years for “anyone who,in a direct or indirect form, collaborates with the enemy’s media.” This is aimed at independent news agencies that send their material abroad.

All of this is in contravention to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Needless to say -- those who “dare” practice independent journalism in Cuba are violently repressed.

Cuba ranks amongst the top jailers of journalists in the world, alongside China and Iran. At one point in 2009, there were just 7 more imprisoned journalists in China than in Cuba. Of course, China has a population of 1.4 billion, while Cuba’s population is 11.5 million. That makes Cuba not twice or thrice as repressive as China -- but nearly 92 times as repressive.

Yet, at great personal risk, many courageous Cubans still dare practice this key profession.

Theoretically, the repression of domestic journalists would make the presence of foreign journalists more important, as they could report on Cuba’s realities with less risk. Or perhaps, it would guide their conscience and professional solidarity. Sadly, that’s not typically the case.So let me focus on U.S. media outlets in Cuba, which was the topic assigned to me for this presentation.

The New York Times was the last U.S. media entity to leave (or be shown the door) by the newly established Castro dictatorship in the early 1960s. Apparently, that was Castro’s payback for all of the positive reporting it got from the newspaper throughout the 1950s. If you haven’t read the book, “Herbert Matthews: The Man Who Invented Fidel” by Anthony de Palma, I highly recommend it.

It wasn’t until after collapse of the Soviet bloc and years of negotiations with Fidel Castro himself that CNN was the first U.S. outlet to establish a Castro-era Havana news bureau in 1997, followed by the Associated Press in 1998.

In 2000, after ten years of lobbying the Castro regime, the Dallas Morning News and Tribune Co.(which operated both the Chicago Tribune and Sun Sentinel)also established Havana bureaus. However, both closed down in 2004 and 2009, respectively.Ironically, they operated in Havana for less time than it took them to convince Castro to let them in.

ABC, CBS and NBC have established formal bureaus in the last decade, but they have had some reporting presence there since before. For example, NBC producer Mary Murray has been in Havana since 1994. Of course, this raises other concerns, such as “clientitis.”

The fact is that the foreign media in Cuba has only one goal -- to cover one “big story” -- the death of Fidel Castro. Everything else is a balancing act of how to "report" on current events without offending the regime and preventing expulsion, so as not to miss the "big story." And how “big” is this story for them?

Put it this way -- Havana is the only news bureau in Latin America for CBS and NBC. ABC also has a Mexico City bureau. One would think there were other pressing issues in the region. Furthermore, Havana is not a strategic or efficient location to cover the rest of the hemisphere due to substantial logistical challenges, such as expensive linkage fees. The bottom line is that they are there to cover the “big story” and that’s it.

As Yoani Sanchez eloquently wrote in Foreign Policy recently: “The dilemma of foreign correspondents -- popularly called ‘foreign collaborators’ -- is whether to make concessions in reporting in order to stay in the country, or to narrate the reality and face expulsion. The major international media want to be here when the long-awaited ‘zero day’ arrives -- the day the Castro regime finally makes its exit from history”

The Castro regime’s controls on foreign journalists are wielded through its International Press Center (IPC), which not only issues the press accreditation required to report from Cuba, but also approves the necessary paperwork for these journalist to enjoy some basic comforts, such as air conditioners and refrigerators (both helpful in the tropics), or being able to import or purchase a car

The IPC also likes to remain a full-year behind in its process of renewing credentials for foreign journalists. It’s another “subtle” way of pressuring them on their stories -- like a report card hovering over their heads.

There are currently about 150 foreign media personnel (journalists and staff) accredited in Cuba by the IPC, mostly newspapers and television and radio stations from Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Accounts of the Castro regime’s methods to pressure foreign journalists against reporting on “non-approved” topics were highlighted in two recent books by Spanish journalists, who spent years as correspondents in Havana. The books -- La Casa de Cristal (The Glass House) by Isabel Garcia-Zarza of Reuters and Los Funerales de Castro (Castro's Funerals) by Vicente Botin of Spanish Television (TVE) -- are a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the reality of reporting from Cuba.

"Rare is the journalist who does not soften his reports, to avoid being expelled from the country," wrote Isabel García-Zarza of the Reuters news agency. "Self-censorship is a very common practice… No one on the island can write the truth of what happens there. Correspondents can only come close to reality," wrote Vicente Botín of Spanish television (TVE).

According to Botin, state security agents are widely believed to electronically monitor the correspondents' phones, cars and home and track their "political ideas, their preferences, their tendencies and above all their weaknesses like drugs, sex, alcohol."

Throughout the years, the Castro regime has expelled or refused to renew the accreditation of dozens of foreign correspondents -- always looking to set an “example” for other journalists. Some of the most recent include (in 2007) Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune, Cesar Gonzalez Calero of Mexico’s El Universal, Stephen Gibbs of BBC, and just last month, Mauricio Vicent of Spain’s El Pais and Juan Castro Olivera from France’s AFP news agency.

Additionally, the Castro regime has no qualms about arresting foreign journalists. In 2005, it detained, and then expelled, at least seven foreign journalists -- one Swiss, two Italians and four Poles -- who traveled to Cuba to cover a gathering of pro-democracy activists. Now, to be fair -- foreign journalists do not always succumb to the Castro regime’s pressures. It's a balancing act for them.

For example,last year, the IPC warned correspondents to stay away from the funeral of Cuban political prisoner and hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo. None covered the ceremony. But after Guillermo Fariñas launched his own hunger strike, three foreign journalists went to his home for first-hand accounts.

Both of these events were outside Havana. Increasingly,pro-democracy leaders have dramatically scaled up their activities in the provinces. Foreign correspondents are practically all based in Havana, even further limiting coverage

In a new phenomenon, the Castro regime has also adopted a strategy of “hit-and-run” repression. Since Raul Castro was promoted to dictator-in-chief, repression on the island has risen dramatically. However, the tactics have changed. In order to elude international scrutiny (despite a dramatic rise in repression), the regime will now beat up opposition activists, drag them to prison, beat them up some more and then release them in 2-3 days.

This has created a “cat-and-mouse” game with the foreign media: Journalists may write a story the first time, but by the time they get around to it, the activist will have been released. By the second and third time (etc.) the activist is arrested, they will simply not bother with a story altogether,anticipating the activist’s imminent release.There’s a silver lining though.

As Yoani Sanchez concluded in the Foreign Policy article I previously cited: “Opening the world's eyes to the real Cuba, after all, no longer requires a wire service dispatch; it can be done with a cell phone.

New media and technology have bolstered independent journalists and the entire spectrum of Cuba’s pro-democracy movement.

Bloggers like Yoani Sanchez, whose posts travel the cyber-world; independent news agencies like Hablemos Press, which has filmed numerous recent protests (including one on the steps of the Capitol building) using cell phones; independent journalists like Carlos Rios Otero, who was just re-arrested last week for investigating the cause of death of Ladies in White leader Laura Pollan; tools like Twitter,which allow activists to denounce repression in real-time; and websites like Hablalo Sin Miedo (“Speak Without Fear”) and Cuba Sin Censura (“Cuba Without Censorship”) , which turn cell phones into international microphones.

These last two (along with Twitter) have become essential tools for activists in the provinces, which are virtually ignored by foreign journalists This brings me to an important issue.

On December 3rd, 2009, the Cuban authorities arrested Alan P. Gross, an American development worker from Potomac, Md., who had gone to Havana to help provide Internet technology to Jewish groups, so they could communicate amongst each other and with the outside world.

The arrest of Gross, who is in ill health, has lost over 100 lbs and was sentenced to 15 years in prison (after a year with no charges filed), underlines the Castro regime’s determination to control information -- and punish those who would press for a free flow of information.

Once again,in contravention of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes “the right to receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

In conclusion, allow me to make just one factual observation regarding the Obama Administration’s policy towards Cuba,as it’s not my assigned topic per se.

There's an American hostage in Cuba and despite this, the Obama Administration conducted a new round of easing non-humanitarian sanctions in January 2011. Since then, political arrests have more than doubled and we’re seeing the largest spike in repression in decades –- all courtesy of an emboldened regime.

And that’s not the only thing that has doubled. Since the Obama Administration first lifted restrictions on travel and remittances in April 2009, the Castro regime’s hard currency deposits in foreign banks have doubled. That’s a troubling and indisputable fact.

Once again, thank you so much.

La Bayamesa Completa A Complete History of the Famous Song

2011-11-05T18:16:00.004-06:00

New Audio Version of this article here

The historic evolution of the famous Cuban song "La Bayamesa" & the tragic fate of It's protagonists.

Translated & Revised from the original essay In Spanish from The magazine "El Bayames" by Enrique Martinez Fajardo

"La Bayamesa Tres Etapas de un Sublime Ideal de Libertad y El Excelso Holocausto de su Protagonistas"

Ano 33 No.92 Febrero 2010

La Bayamesa Is Insolubly mixed Into the Cuban soul & three transcendental moments place It at the very center of historic action and project It vigorously Into Immortality.

With an amorous accent at first, a bellicose Impetus second & an unbend-able firmness third, post the tragic days of the heroic Immolation.

In the first romantic stage It Is the emotive love song created by Cespedes, Fornaris and Castillo Moreno In 1851.

In the second phase It Is the bellicose march song composed by Perucho Figueredo In 1868.

And In the third stage, while wandering between mountains and underbrush & their city up In flames with all of It's riches and well being In It; Bayameses nurture the notes of the original song, transforming It's verses newly Impregnated, with the purest & most ardent notes of Cuban patriotism.

The First Stage:

Marital disagreements had created a crisis In the decade old marriage between lawyer and musician Francisco del Castillo y Moreno and his wife Maria de la Luz Vazquez y Moreno.

They had three daughters at that point Lucila, Leonela and Atala and they all served to Inspire the romantic husband to reconcile and reconquer the love of his beautiful wife.

For this essential endeavor Francisco del Castillo y Moreno recruited his maternal nephew Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y del Castillo and poet, professor & lawyer Jose Fornaris y Luque paternal uncle of Carlos Manuel.

Fornaris was the "Primo Hermano" of Carlos Manuel's father Jesus Maria Cespedes y Luque whom everyone lovingly called Don Chucho.

Fornaris, after recognizing relatively easily the essence of the conflict captured In verses the passionate aspirations of the gallant husband. Cespedes then conceived the sublime melody.

After soliciting the best tenor In Bayamo, Carlos Perez Tamayo to sing the words & many rehearsals later, a firm date was set for It's debut on the 26th of March 1851.

On that fine evening the four family friends set out for the comfortable house on Cruz Verde street, whose remodeled structure now houses the Jose Joaquin Palma theater, and where In front of a beautiful window, adorned with wooden barrotes, they sang the enchanting tune to a beauty among beauties,who with her raven hair, pearl white teeth, Incomparable features & sun kissed complexion, along with her moral qualities, faithfully represents the Image of our Cuba; and on this night Maria de la Luz Is her.

"No recuerdas, gentil Bayamesa, que tu fuiste mi sol refulgente y risueno en tu languida frente blando beso imprimi con ardor?
No recuerdas que en un tiempo dichoso me extasie en tu pura belleza y en tu seno doble la cabeza moribundo de dicha y amor?
Ven asoma a tu reja sonriendo: ven y escucha, amorosa, mi canto: ven , no duermas, acude a mi llanto, pon alivio a mi negro dolor.
Recordando las glorias pasadas, disipemos, mi bien, la tristeza y doblemos los dos la cabeza moribundos de dicha y amor."

From that moment on the superb melody became master of It's people, who found In It's lyrics or melody something profound, a heartfelt protest against the horrendous oppression suffered on the Island under the Spanish "Metropoli"

It became an Indispensable part of the repertoire for musicians and orchestras throughout the Island and the beautiful song dominated In popularity for the next two decades.

The Second Stage:

This stage starts from the moment the clarion calls an end to the battle for Bayamo Oct 20 1868 and It's people emerge forged out of the joys and horrors of war, but masters of their own domain.

And with an unbending firmness and conscientiousness that propelled them Into the struggle for full Independence & with Cespedes at the fore front Bayamo Is finally free.

Carlos Manuel de Cespedes would later be captured and killed by the Spanish at San Lorenzo February 1874.

Perucho Figueredo's battle hymn Is now played openly for the first time to a jubilant populace and empowers Itself with It's notes of combat triumph and liberty Into the hearts of all Cubans delirious with freedom.

This Is the new Bayamesa which In the future would become the national hymn.

"Al combate corred Bayameses,
Que la patria os contempla orgullosa
No temais una muerte gloriosa
Que morir por la patria es vivir"

Hasten to battle, men of Bayamo!
The motherland looks proudly to you;
Do not fear a glorious death,
Because to die for the fatherland is to live.

En cadenas vivir es vivir
En afrenta y oprobio sumido,
Del clarín escuchad el sonido;
¡A las armas, valientes, corred!

To live in chains is to live
In dishonor and ignominy,
Hear the clarion's call;
Hasten, brave ones, to battle!

But Incredible sacrifice awaits following the days of disaster In which Bayameses preferring the ashes to being newly enslaved by the Spaniards burn down their bountiful city second only to Havana In wealth.

And Into the mountains go fleeing It's 10,000 souls without homes, to suffer the deadly consequences of weather and nature.

The Third Stage:

The Intolerable enemy pursues without clemency, the wandering populace between mountains and bush. The most horrible vengeance drives the "Doldadesca", Impotent against the courage and civility offered up equally now by Bayamo as In ancient "Numancia".

No more Is there repentance; neither hunger or misery; nor cold or blazing sun, nor lightning or storm, nor cruel Illnesses, nor lead or bayonet can humble, crush or bend El Bayames. Where there's an absence of civility there's firmness.

Here again re surges the Iconic melody of the old Bayamesa gushing up with surprising enthusiasm & accompanied now with new verses speaking of faith and sacrifice In the epic struggle.

The revived song now reverberates throughout the mountains & valleys of Cuba and along the country roads and lonely pathways of the rebellious Island making more bearable the Immense journey In pursuit of It's ultimate Independence.

"No recuerdas gentil Bayamesa, que Bayamo fue un sol refulgente donde impuso un cubano valiente con su mano el pendon tricolor?
No recuerdas que en tiempos pasados el tirano exploto tu riquezas, pero ya no levanta cabeza moribundo de rabia y temor?
Te quemaron tus hijos, no hay pena que mas vale morir con honor que servir a un tirano opresor que el derecho nos quiere usurpar.
Ya mi Cuba despierta sonriendo, mientras sufre y padece el tirano a quien quire el valiente cubano expulsar de sus playas de amor"

The Sublime Holocaust of It's Protagonists

Much research was conducted In various texts and archived documents to find more precisely the relationships between the protagonists of this legendary song, who gave their lives heroically for Cuban Liberty.

We'll start with the beautiful woman who served as the Inspiration. Her complete Identity Is Maria de la Luz Vazquez-Valdez-Coronado y Moreno de Mendoza.

She was the twin sister of Isabel Antonia, who had a large family with her husband the lawyer and musician Pedro Felipe Figueredo y Cisneros "Perucho" the Immortal author of the bellicose Bayamesa, which became the national hymn at the commencement of the First Cuban Republic May 20th 1902.

Perucho was executed August 17 1870 In Santiago de Cuba alongside the father & son Rodrigo and Ignacio Tamayo by firing squad.

Luz Vazquez y Moreno and her cousin Francisco de Castillo y Moreno were married when she was just 15 and he just 21 years of age.

In 1943 they had their first daughter Lucila later came Leonela and Atala. After the debut of La Bayamesa on the 26th of March 1851 the following children were born in order Francisco, Adriana, Pompeyo and Heliodoro.

In the future Lucila del Castillo y Vazquez would marry Francisco Antonio Estrada. Leonela the poet Jose Joaquin Palma y Lasso de la Vega and Atala who emigrated to the US and Key West married Don Carlos Costales.

Turning to Fornaris who was the only one who escaped the martyrdom suffered by the rest of the protagonists.

He traveled to Europe In 1871 visiting several countries till he settled In Paris France and worked their till the end of the Ten Years War 1868-1878.

He returned after the signing of the Pact of Zanjon.

He then lived In Havana where he taught History, Literature, Grammar, Latin and Greek In various schools until his death there on September 19 1890.

The popular Encyclopedia " Cuba en la Mano" says this about Fornaris: he was censured by contemporaries for his "Inactivity" In the decade spanning the "Ten Years War" 1868-1878, notwithstanding his previously being one of the first & most Intense revolutionaries In fomenting a nationalist spirit through his literary work.

In his native Bayamo his name lives on in perpetuity In one of the street names within the historic city center.

Now to the moving sacrifices made by the families of Luz Vazquez, Figueredo and Cespedes the Bayames historian Jose Maceo Verdecia In his book "Bayamo" offers us this adequate portal with Impacting & florid language:

"There are families who come Into life touched by misfortune. chosen by destiny to propel the evolution of nations; like the martyr of "Golgata" has to endure the torment, In whose ending they find themselves obligated to exclaim the same terrible phrase " Our kingdom Is not of this world"

Bayamo was bountiful In these families. The martyrs and heroes who gave up their lives In the conflict of 1868 dragged along with them, all of their families, who In turn had to suffer the same misfortunes and hardships too.

Inscrutable plans of eternity! born between splendor and pomp; on the whims of fortune until only moments before the fire of Bayamo, from an Illustrious birth Into the arms of misfortune; her luxurious home destroyed, witness to the sinking, relative by relative, In the bosom of death, without patrimony other than misery no closer to life than the Implacable pain destroying her as rough and dismal as the oppressors of her motherland"

Francisco del Castillo y Moreno died before the start of the war against Spain. Suffering with tuberculosis he traveled to Madrid for treatment but died without a cure In 1867.

His widow Maria de la Luz and their children fulfilling a patriotic role with titanic Integrity Inscribed their surname, with the Indelible language of heroic sacrifice, Into the most amazing pages of Bayamo's history..

On Oct 17 1868 just a day before the first shots were fired In the city against the Spanish oppressors by Cespedes, Figueredo and Aguilera, the next to last son Pompeyo died at his home from the terrible ravages of tuberculosis.

With him there were his youngest brother Heliodoro and his tormented mother Maria de la Luz and her other children

He was buried the next day at the cemetery In Bayamo San Juan Evagelista, amid the Incipient battle for Bayamo.

48 hours later and victorious over the Spanish garrison there the glorious notes of Perucho's Bayamesa were Intoned for the first time Oct 20 1868.

After the fire of the city, Luz Vazquez along with an Incredible exodus, penetrated the forests of Guisa, evading the tenacious persecution of both the Spanish soldiers and their vile collaborators.

Francisco del Castillo y Vazquez the oldest of the brothers, barely past his adolescence, joined the liberating armies and became one the first to offer up his life In the fields of the heroic "manigua", fighting for the Independence of the fatherland.

But of all the Castillo y Vazquez family the one who most fervently embraced the revolutionary cause was Adriana barely 17 years old at the time.

During the conspiratorial stage, she served as an Infallible link, coordinating reunions of leaders; distributing propaganda, Transmitting opportune warnings and leading multiple episodes In which she displayed the valor, mettle and courage of the women of Bayamo.

In his book "Bayamo" the historian Jose Maceo Verdecia recounts an Illustrative episode.

"During a procession of three captured patriots, Rodrigo Tamayo, Eleusino Betancourt & Federico Sanchez & among a multitude of curious witnesses, Adriana broke through the Spanish cordon.

Then evading the guards from stopping her placed a bouquet of flowers Into the tied hands of one of the men and took off hastily throwing kisses at them and shouting repeatedly "for the three of them" "Para Los Tres" "Para Los Tres"

During the days of battle for the city Adriana Is credited with going into the homes of still neutral or Indecisive Bayameses and Inspiring them Into battle.

After the joyous but fleeting victory she led a band of girls Into the Parroquia de Dolores where they Intoned" El Te Duem" rendering thanks to the creator for the triumph of the revolutionaries.

She contributed to the heroic burning of Bayamo and after a year of evading capture and decimated by Typhus fell into the hands of the Spanish.

Again author historian Jose Maceo Verdecia narrates:

"Adriana without strength to resist the deadly malady dragging her Into delirium refused the medical attention that a Spanish military doctor was offering and summoning her last physical reserves pulled herself unto a nearby bed to die while Intoning the notes of the bellicose Bayamesa of Perucho Figueredo"

Finally to Maria de la Luz Vazquez y Moreno

Relates Verdecia:

"With Adriana now dead all the attention fell unto Lucila... with the tuberculosis destroying her lungs The Spanish doctor a gentleman like few & true to his word, with condolences for all the disgraces falling without pity upon that family, tried with all his forces to revive the sick girl.

Under these circumstances however one night after a strong attack of "hemoptosis" Lucila lost all consciousness.The doctor asked for more help but after one hour of trying to revive her was called away.

If after 2 more hours we don't get a reaction we'll have lost all hope he said to the grieving Luz Vazquez. Those were his last words before leaving for other military duties.

The mother after that Instant, crying and with deep consternation, gets down beside the bed on her knees.

In terrible suspense she waited. Hoping to see If life would somehow reappear In her stricken daughter's body.

Time passes without her turning her anguished and prayerful gaze from her daughter's cadaverous face.

Horrible pleadings overcome her heart for all of the disgraces heaped upon her family! Her oldest son Francisco recently killed after a year enduring misery In the mountains, daughter Adriana also dead only a few days ago.

And now on her knees under the terrible anguish of waiting and with a mind weakened by fatality, the time given by the doctor runs out.

She falls beaten by an agony as great as her loneliness as deep as her misfortune & embraces her seemingly lifeless daughter and dies on the spot!"

An hour later under the luminous lights of the mortuary Lucila recovers consciousness.

And so passed away the beautiful woman who served as Inspiration for the creation of the Original Bayamesa. New Audio Version of this article Here

Footnotes:

On the audio version of this article we also play Sindo Garay y Garcia's lyrics of the song written In 1919 Originally called Mujer Bayamesa

Tiene en su alma La Bayamesa
Tristse recuerdo de tradiciones
Quando contempla los verdes llanos
Lagrimas vierte por sus pasiones

Ella es sencilla, le brinda al hombre,
Virtudes todas y el corazon
Pero si siente
De la Patria el grito
Todo lo deja, todo lo quema,
Ese es su lema, su religion

From Castro's Gulag a Voice Denounces Laura Pollan's Premeditated Murder

2011-10-18T00:58:00.016-06:00

Via Mambi En Accion Videos Hat Tip Zurama

Biscet analysis points to Dengue Fever and criminal medical neglect

Update Who Killed Laura Pollan?

Rough Translation of this startling accusation by Cuban political prisoner Ernesto Borges recorded from Inside Guanajay Prison East of Havana.Video follows below.

On the 13th of October 2011, one day before the death In Havana's deplorable hospital Calixto Garcia, of the leader of The Ladies In White Laura Pollan, the ex Captain of Cuban State Security and now political prisoner, Ernesto Borges, denounced the premeditated assassination of Laura Pollan.

Because of the national and International Impact that the ladies In White have attained, the open Invitation at her home for all Cuban women to participate as a civil & human rights organization helping free political prisoners, and for her promotion along with co founder Berta Soler of a new chapter of the Ladies In Santiago de Cuba, Borges believes that Laura Pollan, the leader was specifically targeted for destruction by the Castro Regime.

He accuses the Castro Ruz Brothers of personally singling out Pollan for elimination and that If anything sinister does happen, of her slow, cold blooded and scientifically calculated assassination.

Starting long ago with multiple violent arrests, beatings and other brutal abuse heaped upon her and other female members of The Ladies In White.And possibly culminating with the nefarious use of Cuban made biological agents to complicate her diabetic and other preexisting conditions, so as to gradually kill her.

These deadly poisons, viruses and bacteria, Unknown to most Cubans are guarded & handled by Cuban Military Medical Experts at the Institute for Tropical Medicine.

If she dies I believe It will be because she was Inoculated with some sort of Imperceptible biological agent or virus designed to Inexorably deteriorate her frail condition and ultimately kill her.

There must not be any excuse for this regime of leftist fascists. If Pollan perishes from previously known and fully treatable medical conditions at the hands of Castro "healthcare"

We must condemn her political assassination and let the world media know of her valiant actions. We must also console and help her family If she dies suddenly at the hands of this vile dictatorship that fears peaceful but Indomitable Cuban women.

I stand In complete and unwavering solidarity with Laura Pollan, Berta Soler and all the rest of these Incredibly brave Cuban women.

These Castro doctors will be responsible along with Fidel and Raul and the rest of the actual "government" If anything sinister were to occur suddenly to this exceptionally courageous and Inspirational woman that has meant so much to me & all other political prisoners.

I hope and pray daily for the health of Laura Pollan and unequivocally accuse the Castro Ruz brothers of premeditated murder If she dies.

El 13 de Octubre de 2011, un día antes del fallecimiento de la líder de Las Damas de Blanco, el ex-capitán de la Seguridad del Estado de Cuba y actual prisionero político, Ernesto Borges, denunciaba el asesinato premeditado de Laura Pollán.

Inpired by Cuba's Pro Democracy Leaders

2011-10-17T18:50:00.004-06:00

Via Mauricio Carone In The Hill where Congress comes to blog

"What could be more pompous (and insulting) than the argument that American and foreign tourists can "inspire" the Cuban people to seek democracy? Not much.

Well, on second thought, maybe Republican Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York calling their bill to sweep away all remaining restrictions on American travel to Cuba, the "Export Freedom to Cuba Act."

Or, the Obama Administration, which rejects American exceptionalism everywhere else in the world, arguing that American travelers (that have been carefully screened for entry by the Castro regime) are our best "Ambassadors of Freedom" to the Cuban people.

Their argument is that Cubans, upon seeing spring breakers and tourists enjoying luxury "people-to-people" tours and Cuban-American "mules" peddling flat-screen TV's, will suddenly realize what they're missing under the Castros' totalitarian dictatorship, as if Cubans don't already know what's missing, and life under a brutal regime was their voluntary choice.

The argument further holds that American travelers are different from the throngs of Canadian snowbirds and the European sex tourists visiting the island for the last two decades, frequently degrading the Cuban people while bankrolling the repressive regime.

American travelers, in other words, will be "truly inspirational."

Americans are undoubtedly the kindest, noblest and most charitable people in the world. But it's extraordinarily arrogant to argue that any foreign tourist is needed to inspire or empower the Cuban people, when some of the most courageous and inspirational people in this world are living in Cuba.

Meet Ivonne Mayeza Galano.

Last month, this amazing woman stood alone on the steps of the Capitol building in Havana. Knowing the brutality of the repression that awaited her, she nonetheless, peacefully held up a sign reading:

"Cambios en Cuba Sin Dictadura" ("Change in Cuba Without Dictatorship")

She was promptly arrested, stripped naked, searched and violently interrogated.

Two weeks later, four other women, Sara Marta Fonseca, Mercedes García Álvarez, Tania Maldonado Sánchez and Odalys Zurma González, continued her protest. Predictably, they too were arrested, but this time it took Castro's security forces 40-minutes to drag them away, as a gathering crowd of bystanders began to heckle the oppressors.

Or how about Iris Perez Aguilera?

This Afro-Cuban pro-democracy leader is the founder of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights. She undertakes weekly protests and sit-ins. As a result of these, Castro's secret police, on numerous occasions, has abused and brutally beaten her -- to the point of hospitalization.

Or how about Iris's husband, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez?"

Antunez, often referred to as Cuba's Nelson Mandela, spent 17-years as a political prisoner for protesting in the public square of his hometown. Today, still a young 46-years old, he is the leader of Cuba's civil disobedience movement.

Or how about Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet?

A charismatic physician, he spent nearly 11-years in political prison for his democratic advocacy as head of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights. At a recent concert, U2's Bono honored Dr. Biscet as a true inspiration.

Or Marcelino Abreu, who has spent over 100 days on a hunger strike, protesting his unjust four-year prison-sentence. His crime was refusing to show a police officer identification after walking nearby the Castro regime's tourist-only Hotel Nacional. Abreu still holds that Cubans should be free to walk on the public streets and enter the public buildings of their homeland. Cuban authorities disagree.

Or the young rappers and rockers that defy the Cuban dictatorship through their lyrics and whose concerts and music festivals are under constant siege by the "Ministry of Culture" backed by the regime's armed police.

Or the bloggers and social media activists who brave the Castros' censors to inform the world of the harsh brutality and injustices the Cuban people face.

How can foreign travelers —ignorant of life under tyranny and repression– represent democratic ideals better than these icons who have spent years in political prison, and brave daily violence and beatings, to express their democratic aspirations and promote change in Cuba?

Let those of us who live in the United States stop insulting courageous pro-democracy leaders in Cuba with talk of "inspiring" them. The Cuban people don't need to be "inspired" by people abroad. They need our unwavering support for their struggle and for tangible pressure against the dictatorship that represses them.

Laura Pollan Dies In Havana Hospital Was It Cuban Medical Negligence?

2011-10-17T15:48:00.010-06:00

Via Jerry De Marco of Hudson County NJ'S Cliffview Pilot

As word of Cuban dissident Laura Pollan’s death spreads today (Oct 15 2011), people will be heartbroken. But many will also be angry. So says Union City native John O'Donnell Rosales, who blamed “inadequate medical care because of her peaceful opposition to the terrorist regime of the Castro brothers.”

Every week for nearly eight years, Pollan and the group she founded, Las Damas de Blanco, held protest marches to press for the release of their husbands, who are being held as political prisoners. They always wore white, a symbol of the organization, and carried gladiolas.

The Cuban government has often tried to move them, but the power of the Internet brought the Ladies in White a worldwide audience.

Their popularity was growing as Laura Inés Pollán Toledo, 63, was hospitalized on Oct. 7 after suffering respiratory problems.

News reports last night said she had undergone a tracheotomy hours earlier to help her breathe, and that doctors blamed an aggressive respiratory virus (Dengue Fever) as the cause of the cardio respiratory arrest that killed her.

O' Donnell Rosales believes it could have been prevented.

“She was basically permitted to die by being denied proper medical care at the beginning of her illness, due to political beliefs against the Communist Regime,” said the producer, author and host of a blog radio show, Rosales' History of The South based in Mobile, Ala.

It was more than eight years ago that the Cuban government arrested more than six dozen activists, journalists and others opposed to their country’s policies and sentenced them to lengthy prison terms after accusing them of taking money from the U.S. and other foreign governments.

Pollan’s husband, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, and most of the others have since been freed. But that hasn’t deterred the Ladies from calling out the Castro regime for its ongoing human rights abuses. It also hasn’t prevented crowds of government supporters, accompanied by state security agents, from shouting insults and profanities. They Ladies have been detained at times – and even herded onto buses and driven back to their neighborhoods.

"We are going to continue. We are fighting for freedom and human rights," Pollan told The Associated Press. "As long as this government is around, there will be prisoners… while they've let some go, they've put others in jail. It is a never-ending story."

Last year, Miami-based Cuban singer-songwriter Gloria Estefan ignited a rally that drew 100,000 people to Little Havana. Nationwide protests swelled, thanks not only to online postings and messages but to the dignified, honorable presentation she staged – far from the usual political protest rallies seen worldwide.

“This is a big message to [the prisoners] that freedom is alive,” Estefan told the crowd, “and we care for them, and we love them. Viva Cuba Libre!”

Sign at Versailles Cuban restaurant In Little Havana Miami Florida says:

Thank you for you heroism Lara Pollan "To Die for your Homeland Is to Live" Eternal will be your memory.

Estefan has opened the floodgates for Cuban-American descendants who came to the United States, studied, worked hard and planted firm roots here. A great many have settled in Hudson County – particularly in our own “Little Cuba,” Union City. They have watched Pollan’s courageous group with great admiration.

“Our community here in New Jersey wants to show solidarity with the jailed dissidents and the Ladies in White,” Luis Israel Abreu, head of the Union City-based Union of Former Cuban Political Prisoners, said last year.

Pollan taught high school literature teacher before retiring in 2004.

A year earlier, her husband was among the dissidents known as the Group of 75 who were arrested in the Black Spring, a crackdown on opposition figures.

Pollan soon began showing up outside government facilities where her husband could have potentially been imprisoned. After running into wives of other political prisoners, she began holding meetings in her Havana home. Thus was born Las Damas de Blanco.

Soon after came marches through Miramar every Sunday after Mass at the Church of St. Rita (patron of impossible causes).

Pollan Is seen below at Havana's Church of Charity second row far left from an archived photo.

"We fight for the freedom of our husbands, the union of our families," Pollan said in 2005. "We love our men."

That was the year the European Union honored the group with its top human rights distinction, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Of course, Castro wasn’t about to let her travel to Europe to receive the prestigious honor. By doing so, he only raised her profile.

"She was a teacher and a housewife, but she became a leader for civil rights," said fellow activist Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. "She has played a fundamental role, without a doubt even beyond winning freedom for her husband."

La Represion Castrista contra Mujeres Cubanas

2011-10-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

Via Oswaldo Paya Sardinas

"Caminar solas, o en grupos partiendo desde sus casas o desde una iglesia, generalmente hacia otra iglesia o a un sitio abierto y público. Caminar o pararse en silencio, con una flor en la mano o con las manos vacía, vestidas de blanco de negro o de otra forma. Algunas veces sus marchas pueden transcurrir sin incidentes. Algunas han llegado y exhibido carteles, siempre en silencio con mensajes de libertad. Son vigiladas y seguidas por la Seguridad del Estado y la policía de cerca.

El pueblo las ve, la gente comenta, se admiran, algunos se atreven a dar alguna muestra de simpatía. Todos saben que se necesita mucho coraje para hacer eso. Porque todos reconocen el signo de ruptura con el miedo, que es en si mismo el mayor desafío a un poder que se sostiene por el miedo que sembró durante más medio siglo.

Caminar en La Habana, en Santiago de Cuba, en Palma Soriano, en Banes y en otros pueblos y ciudades. Pero también hay ocasiones que con turbas profesionales de estilo fascista comunista, ni siquiera las dejan salir de la casa.

El gobierno y su propaganda califican estas demostraciones presentándolas como una provocación. ¿Provocación por que? ¿ y a que? Provocación es que un esclavo le diga a su amo: “simplemente, quiero ser libre”. O mas osado: que se comporte como una persona libre Eso provoca ira, desconcierto y hasta represalias brutales de parte del esclavista.

Los que dicen que el andar y las demostraciones de estas mujeres son una provocación están al nivel de los esclavistas. Porque estas mujeres están ejerciendo derechos que son considerados universales para todos los seres humanos. Ellas ponen el valor y la voluntad de dar este signo pacífico al pueblo. Es el Gobierno quien, de manera calculada, pone la represión brutal y convierte el ejercicio de un derecho, en escándalo público.

Sara Martha Fonseca es una de estas mujeres que con sus acciones serenas, cívicas y pacíficas, hace pensar a muchos. Ella está detenida y según informaciones, que no hemos podido confirmar con su familia, está en huelga de hambre en protesta por esta injusta detención. Corre peligro de ser condenada. Nuestro llamado es a la solidaridad por la liberación de Sara Martha y por el respeto al derecho de todas las mujeres y de todos los cubanos a expresarse y manifestarse libre y pacíficamente. Mas

Full Sail Ahead with Cubanita Craft Brewer Irene Firmat

2011-09-23T21:12:00.001-06:00

Irene Firmat founded the fabulous Full Sail Brewing of Hood River Oregon In 1987 and Is celebrating 24 yrs In business this month. So when I found out today on facebook she was Cuban descended while enjoying and researching her refreshing Session Black Lager I just had to smile and grab another cold one. Full Sail just became my favorite brewery.

The Lopez Comas Family of Bayamo Cuba Ties to The Laramendi Brothers

2011-09-15T19:25:00.009-06:00

Via our famous cousin John O'Donnell Rosales aka Piqui, maternal grandson of Tio Leo.

The amazing story of the adventurous Laramendi brothers and their ties to the Lopez Comas family of Bayamo Cuba.

"I submitted a new article for my newspaper column "Rosales' History of the South" which is on the Laramendi brothers (one of which was the father of "Mamacita", who were Confederate Officers on the Blockade Runner "San Quintin" and goes back to our ancestor Maria "La Ciboney" and Guiseppi Battista.

The Laramendi brothers of Oriente Province, Cuba ran the Union blockade from Cuba into the ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast as well as in Florida at different times during the war.

They had a small sloop named the San Quintin. They were never captured and both are buried in Cuba. Their surname has also been found as Larramendi.

Jose Comas Laramendi (Father of our beloved "Mamacita" Rosa Comas Batista) was the Captain of the blockade runner San Quintin.

He married Paulina Rosa Batista ( Mamacita's Mother born 1865, died November 3, 1943). She is buried in Cauto, Oriente Province, Cuba.

She was the daughter of Guiseppi Battista, of Florence, Italy and Luz Barra or Barras, of Cuba, daughter of Maria “La Ciboney” Barra or Barras.

Luz Barra was one of the few remaining descendants of the Native Cuban Taino, Ciboney Indians.

Jose Comas Laramendi was the son of Jose Comas and Teresa Laramendi. He is said to be buried in Jabaco, Oriente Province, Cuba.

The family of Guiseppi Battista adopted the Spanish spelling of Batista, with one T..

Manuel "Manolito" Laramendi was the brother of Jose Comas Batistsa and served as his 1st Lt on the blockade runner San Quintin. He married Alta Gracia (no surname found).

He is buried in Oriente Province, Cuba.

Massive Medicare Fraud Funding Castro Spies

2011-09-10T23:28:00.003-06:00

Medicare Fraudsters fleeing Into Fidel's Fugitive Island with the stolen loot are protected - for payoffs to Castro's Cosa Nostra and become de facto untouchable from US law. Incredibly 7 out of the 10 most wanted US Medicare Fraudsters are now hiding In Cuba & funding the terrorist Isle.

Off the Mojo Wire via Net for Cuba

"The Communist Cuban dictatorship is draining hundreds of millions of dollars from America’s already financially strapped Medicare program and using the money to finance its military and espionage services, according to one counterintelligence expert specializing in Cuban affairs.

Christopher Simmons not only ties in the Cuban dictatorship with the rampant Medicare fraud, but draws a stunning conclusion about the erosion of American sovereignty in south Florida.

“The Cuban government has been a criminal enterprise for 50 years, and has never been reluctant to engage in crime to make money,” Simmons declared. Havana has a 50 year history of involvement in breaking international law, from drug trafficking to selling U.S. secrets, Simmons said.

The money taken during Cuba’s Medicare fraud scheme has returned to south Florida in the person of well-financed intelligence personnel. Simmons stated that from 150 to 200 Cuban intelligence officers are active in south Florida, vastly outnumbering U.S. spy catchers.

As many as 70% of Cuba’s spies operate in south Florida, and the limited number of U.S. counterintelligence personnel available in the region spells potential disaster for the United States.

America’s resources available in the struggle against Cuban intelligence are so thin that Simmons regards south Florida as a “denied area,” an intelligence designation indicating a place where U.S. intelligence operations “are either difficult or impossible.”

Examples of other “denied areas” are North Korea and Iran, said Simmons". Read More

Castro's El Cobre Crackdown Shows No Mercy For Cachita

2011-09-08T21:41:00.022-06:00

Fear and loathing on Cachita's feast day as Castro terror Is unleashed on peaceful opponents outside her Shrine @ El Cobre during Cuba's holiest day.

Update 9-9-11 both Ferrer and Moya have been arrested.

Off Facebook earlier today Sept 8TH 2011

In Santiago de Cuba Jose Daniel Ferrer García, coordinator for the Cuban Patriotic Union Is reporting of widespread repression In this and neighboring provinces on peaceful groups of Cubans and On the feast day of Cuba's Patroness The Virgin of Charity.

The Unmerciful surveillance, beatings and detentions on the Castro brothers' apartheid Isle have only Increased dramatically year over year and continues to spike during these key moments.

Areas affected by the mass detentions Include The Virgin's Shrine at El Cobre where upon leaving a service there 22 Ladies In White were detained,dragged Into omnibuses and then beaten by Castro Interior ministry forces.Many other ordinary Cubans were also Detained In El Cobre.

In Palma Soriano dozens more were arrested and beaten by Castro 's political police In an attempt to halt and frustrate the start of a national march to the Shrine by the "Boitel Zapata Vive" convocation of regime opposers led by political prisoner Angel Moya .

In Guantanamo over 16 other peaceful regime opposers were also forcibly detained.More via Uncommon Sense

Speak without Fear

Fact vs Fantasy Reasons of Cuba

Marine Parade In Miami for Cuba's Patroness The Virgen Of Charity

2011-09-06T23:04:00.005-06:00

Anticipating our beloved " Cachita" on her day September 8th a marine regalia In Miami 's Biscayne Bay rendered her tribute and remembrance while receiving her blessings In the historic city of exiles.
Hat Tip Babalu Blog

Via the Miami Herald:

"As a prelude to the 50th anniversary celebration of the arrival in Miami of the statue of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba’s patron saint, a group of Catholic faithful took the image for a colorful maritime procession in Biscayne Bay on Sunday. 8/28/11

A dozen boats participated in the three-hour parade, dubbed “The Lady of Charity Blesses Miami,” which carried the statue to sites significant in the history of the city and of Cuban exiles.

The marine procession departed from the Our Lady of Charity shrine in Coconut Grove, and was highly symbolic because the original version of this depiction of the Virgin Mary was found floating in Nipe Bay in eastern Cuba almost 400 years ago, according to Catholic tradition.

“In the mind of a Cuban you cannot separate the Virgin and the ocean,” said Msgr. Agustín Román, founder of the shrine and retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami. “Through these waters we also remember the Cuban rafters who obtained their freedom and those who died seeking it,” he said.

On Sept. 8 South Florida’s Cuban Catholic community will celebrate a Mass in remembrance of what happened in 1961, when a replica of the image of Our Lady of Charity was smuggled from the island to Miami just in time to celebrate the Feast of the Virgin at the old Bobby Maduro stadium, a Mass attended by 30,000 Cuban exiles".

Rosales' History Of The South/ The Spanish Language In Alabama

2011-09-06T22:22:00.004-06:00

From our other famous cousin John via his excellant print and online column "Rosales' History of the South"

The Spanish language has existed in Alabama, since the colonial period as individuals have immigrated and settled here, but the little Spanish community was never numerous nor concentrated. Once these individuals married an American, the language usually became extinct within the first generation.

If it was indeed passed down, it became a “dead” language as only passive bilinguals had limited knowledge of it. I have also searched for any survivals of Basque, Galician and specifically Catalan, in the local area, with no success.

The Spanish language in Alabama from the Spanish Colonial Period (1780-1813) and the pre-1861 period, died out in the late 1940’s. This language was still spoken by grandchildren of the Spanish colonists as late as the Second World War. My research into “Alabama Spanish” shows that the last fluent pre-1861 Spanish speaker died during this period.

I found and interviewed two grandchildren of Colonial Spanish speakers. Both are in their mid-eighties who are vestigial “rememberers” who, although they themselves cannot speak Spanish, they were able to follow a simple conversation in Spanish and answer questions posed to them.

Both of them remembered parts of a popular children’s song which was sung to them by their grandfathers and one was able to remember parts of a popular “Decima” song he heard growing up. They pronounced the little Spanish words they put together in what can best be described as the atypical Caribbean Spanish whose beginnings were in the Canary Islands and southern Spain with a admixture of the northern Spanish dialects.

There are about ten or so “rememberers” whose Spanish ancestors arrived between 1860 and 1900. I have been unable to find any other “Alabama Spanish” survivals. There has never been a study of this vestigial “Alabama Spanish,” and I fear that the last living memories of the men and women who left Spain and her colonies for a new life in Alabama will die with them.

The Spanish Ladino dialect still exists among Sephardic Jews, who live and worship in Alabama, but I have been able to identify only one individual in Mobile who speaks it fluently. There is a small Sephardic community, in Montgomery, but they arrived after 1910. The Ladino dialect spoken by the original immigrants which is based on the dialect of the Island of Rhodes exists, but is presently in irreversible language death.

Orestes Matacena's upcoming film Two De Force

2011-09-06T15:54:00.007-06:00

Our friend Orestes Matacena has an explosive upcoming action drama Two de Force check out the trailer below. Looks SPETTACOLARE.

Is It time to change the Cuban Adjustment Act?

2011-08-31T00:14:00.005-06:00

Proposal to adjust this seminal law PROVOCA POLEMICA
Within the exile community

Via Mauricio Carone

"The Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act of 1966 gives Cubans — once they reach the United States and stay for a year — a right to become legal, permanent residents. Cubans are the only nationality to which the U.S. Congress has awarded this special privilege.

The legislative history of the Act holds that immigrants from Cuba are refugees under international law. Under the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951, a refugee is a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

Undoubtedly, Cubans remain persecuted for their political opinions by the Castro regime, which remains as brutal as ever. They, thus, deserve to be paroled into the United States as refugees. Yet, it becomes increasingly difficult to argue that Cuban-Americans traveling back and forth to Cuba, particularly those who recently arrived in the United States, but are on a plane heading back as soon as they become permanent residents, are refugees warranting the special privileges granted by the Act."

Cuban-American travel to Cuba has tripled from approximately 85,000 visits per year to approximately 300,000 in 2010. Most of the increase consists of travelers taking multiple trips per year. Adept at keeping their heads down and their mouths shut to avoid offending the Castros and being barred from the island, they have become one of the regime’s top sources of revenue". Read more Here

Cuba's help was crucial fo America's Independence

2011-07-08T19:27:00.004-06:00

July 04, 2001|By Myriam Marquez, Orlando Sentinel Columnist

In this land of the free, it's all about money. That ought to be a source of pride on this Independence Day.
Americans should recognize the sacrifices made to build a nation that values freedom. Money, blood, tears and hard work got this nation to where it is today.

The Founding Fathers might not have pulled it off, though, if not for the help of other nations and many foreigners who supplied George Washington's rag-tag army with the money -- and sometimes, the men -- needed to fight the British crown.

France's prominent role in helping the colonists is well known, but few Americans know about the Cuban connection to American independence.

A decade ago, I wrote about the ladies of Havana and their critical role in the battle that led to the end of the Revolutionary War -- the Yorktown campaign. In May, I was reminded of the Cuban ladies' efforts by a Cuban-American reporter in Washington

We were both covering a White House reception for Cuban exiles, and, as President George W. Bush pledged to encourage democratic reforms in Cuba, our thoughts turned to 1781

The Continental Army was a sorry mess. Washington feared a mutiny as his soldiers, many of them barefoot and lacking supplies, grew hungry. Several battles lost, Washington had a plan, devised with the help of the French navy under Jean Baptiste Rochambeau. They would take back Virginia from British Gen. Charles Cornwallis But, first, they needed money.

Rochambeau sent an urgent missive to Adm. Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse, who commanded a French fleet of 23 frigates and was on his way from the Caribbean Antilles to the Chesapeake Bay to fight Cornwallis. "I must not conceal from you, Monsieur," Rochambeau wrote de Grasse June 11, 1781, "that the Americans are at the end of their resources, that Washington will not have half the troops he is reckoned to have to defend Virginia."

On July 28, 1781, de Grasse, who already had recruited some 3,000 men for the Continental Army -- many of them blacks from Saint-Domingue Colony, now known as Haiti -- wrote Rochambeau: "The Saint-Domingue Colony has no money, but I will send a frigate to Havana in quest of it, and you may depend upon receiving this amount: one million, two-hundred thousand livres."

Cuba, then a rich center of trade for the Spanish, delivered for the Americans.
The Cuban women, mostly well-to-do ladies who belonged to cultural patriotic associations, joined with Cuban merchants to raise the money.

The merchants despised Spain's restrictions on trade with the American colonies. They were hoping that a victory in North America would quickly lead to Cuba's freedom from Spain.
The Cubans donated jewelry, diamonds and about 1.2 million pounds sterling -- just what Rochambeau said was needed.

"The million that was supplied by the ladies of Havana, may, with truth, be regarded as the `bottom dollars' upon which the edifice of American independence was erected," American historian Stephen Bonsal wrote in When the French Were Here (published by Doubleday, Doran and Co. in 1945)

The Cuban Creoles had much in common with the American colonists. They, like the colonists, felt more allegiance to their New World than to a crown in Europe. It didn't hurt that the Cubans hated the British, too.
The British military occupation of Havana in 1762, in which soldiers looted many businesses, left Cubans with ill will toward the Brits.

And so it was that the Cuban Creoles, no longer feeling an allegiance to Spain and hating all things British, would do their part for the American Revolution and most likely played a pivotal role at a crucial moment.
It was partly self-interest, but there also were selfless reasons -- the understanding that people have a right to chart their own destiny.

Two hundred and 25 years after the Founding Fathers declared a new nation's independence from the tyranny of Great Britain, those of us who weren't born here but chose to become American citizens know all too well what it takes to be free. More

Cuba's Connection to American Independence

2011-07-04T19:00:00.002-06:00

July 03, 1992 By Myriam Marquez of The Orlando Sentinel Staff

France's role in helping the colonists fight the British troops in the War of Independence is well known. But did you know about the ''ladies of Havana''? They played a critical role in the battle that led to the end of the Revolutionary War - the Yorktown campaign. Oh, puleeze, you say, what could Cuban ladies have done in 1781? Sew a few uniforms for the Continental Army? Send over some black beans and rice?

Not quite.What Washington needed most was money to avoid a mutiny by his raggedly dressed, barefoot and hungry soldiers. The Continental Army was suffering great losses at the time, though Washington, with the help of the French navy under Jean Baptiste Rochambeau, had a solid plan to take back Virginia from British Gen. Charles Cornwallis

Enter the ladies of Havana. Enter, too, Cuban merchants who despised Spain's restrictions on trade with the American colonies and were hoping that a victory in North America would quickly lead to Cuba's freedom from Spain. The Cuban women, most likely well-to-do ladies who belonged to cultural patriotic associations that were common in the Spanish colonies of the time, and the Cuban merchants donated jewelry, diamonds and about 1.2 million pounds sterling.

This is precisely the amount that Rochambeau had asked Adm. Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse to raise on his way from the Caribbean Antilles to the Chesapeake Bay to fight Cornwallis.''I must not conceal from you, Monsieur,'' Rochambeau wrote de Grasse in a June 11, 1781, letter, ''that the Americans are at the end of their resources, that Washington will not have half of the troops he is reckoned to have . . . to defend Virginia.''

De Grasse, who commanded a French fleet of 23 frigates, also recruited some 3,000 men for the Continental Army - many of them black men from Saint-Domingue, which is now called Haiti. On July 28, 1781, de Grasse wrote to Rochambeau: ''The Saint-Domingue Colony has no money, but I will send a frigate to Havana in quest of it, and you may depend upon receiving this amount; one million two hundred thousand livres.''

And so it was that Cuba, which was a rich center of trade for the Spanish, came through for old George.

''The million that was supplied . . . by the ladies of Havana, may, with truth, be regarded as the 'bottom dollars' upon which the edifice of American independence was erected,'' American historian Stephen Bonsal wrote in When the French Were Here (published by Doubleday, Doran and Co. in 1945).

So why did Cuban Creoles blindly give to the American cause of freedom? Two reasons: One, the Cubans empathized with the American colonists. They, too, were people who felt more allegiance to their New World than to their Spanish heritage. Second, the Cubans hated the British.

In The Cuban Contribution to American Independence, essayist Eduardo J. Tejera explains: ''The population of Havana always manifested a special hatred for anything English, as these had militarily occupied Havana in
1762, looting businesses and leaving behind a strong aversion of all things British.''

Yes, the Cuban connection in America's independence is little-known - not much more than a footnote in a handful of American history books, and certainly not a tidbit that's used in public schools. Still, the contribution was quite important" More

Blogging In Cuba "To feel free despite the fear"

2011-03-16T17:47:00.000-06:00

Laritza Diversant a lawyer from Havana explains how blogging has helped her feel free from the fear and paranoia Imposed on her and her contemporaries by their Internet enemy, the Castro dictatorship.

Hat tip Uncommon Sense

"Writing online is not easy for Cubans. A challenge. And we have to be brave to face it. Because every citizen is strictly supervised by social and mass organizations: at home by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), in school by the Union of Young Communists (UJC), at work by the Workers Central Union of Cuba (CTC), as well as other “revolutionary” organizations.

Thus the fear, the silent panic that accompanies every Cuban since they can remember. Be careful about expressing yourself and commenting on the system. If it’s reported you are in opposition, your existence can change overnight.

At first you are paranoid. But you get used to 24 hours a day of this hellish surveillance mechanism. Now I don’t pay too much attention to the control apparatus that used to scare me so much.

They follow me, listen to and record my conversations, take pictures and videos…It’s all the same…I overcame that fear when I decided to start blogging".
Read More

Cuban baseball agent was a personal prisoner of Castro

2011-03-09T18:16:00.002-07:00

Juan Ignacio Nodar, a Cuban born baseball agent released In Nov 2009 after 13 plus years In a hellish Cuban prison says he was a personal prisoner of Castro.

A cousin of another Cuban American baseball agent, Joe Cubas, Nodar helped his cousin produce over 10 million dollars In contracts for these lucky few by 1996.

Humiliating subsequent losses by Team Cuba In International competition marked him a wanted man, sought personally for punishment by dictator and slave owner of Cuba's national baseball team Fidel Castro Ruz.

After his arrest In Sancti Spiritus @ a baseball tournament In 1996, he was sentenced to 15 years prison, where he lost over 63 pounds In just four months, as well as enduring years In Isolated confinement.

We recently spoke to Nodar In the Dominican where he's back In business assisting ball players at his 'Warriors' base ball training camp.

From there he splits his time with south Florida, from where we made contact with him via a family relative Mya Cigars owner Jorge Rodriguez Sr. More

Listen to him here from May 2010 on NPR (6 minutes)

Castro Rat Serpa Maceira Infiltrated Opposition Groups

2011-03-02T02:35:00.009-07:00

Update 3-2-2011 Here

Castro spy Serpa Maceira Is exposed but not after Infiltrating scores of opposition organizations

Carlos Serpa Maceira's recent outing along with his fellow Castro chivato Moises Rodriguez confirms yet again how the terrorist regime Infiltrates and manipulates both Internal and Exile opposition groups.
Sowing slander, libel & discord against their only true enemy- the exile community- again witness to how the cockroach regime Infects and Infests.. Via Secretos de Cuba In Spanish Here

Obama Cuba Policy: A Stimulus "Paquete" for Castro

2011-03-01T22:34:00.002-07:00

Awaiting more clueless concessions from Obama , Castro racks up on rent a relative..

The Cuban ponzi regime charges five to ten times the normal rates of any country on earth for travel Into the cockroach Infested paradise. Bon Voyage Read more here

El Verdadero Zapata

2011-02-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

The real Zapata - Rest In Peace My Brother

Is Cuba Aiding Qadaffi

2011-02-22T02:44:00.000-07:00

Late Nite Breaking News From Tripoli of Cuban regime pilots who may be bombing Libyan civilians.

Via Capitol Hill Cubans

"Information is patchy as communication networks are down, but reports from Libya all indicate that after 42 years in power, Colonel Gaddafi's time is up.

The tribes are heading to the capital en masse, soldiers still answering to the regime are trying to stop them, and the violence is escalating.

According to the latest reports the regime has deployed helicopters and jets to crush the uprising, allegedly flown by mercenaries from Eastern Europe, Cuba and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, former regime stalwarts have been defecting in growing numbers. The head of Afriqiya Airways, the head of the Libyan Chamber of Commerce and several ambassadors are among those who have resigned or relocated.

Many of them are reportedly now in Dubai. Islamic scholars in Libya spoke up today for the first time to rule that fighting Gaddafi was legitimate jihad.

The demonstrators are calling for a million people to march tomorrow on Bab al-Aziziya, the fortified military compound where Gaddafi lives in Tripoli. But no one knows where he is now. More

Cuba: The Disconnected Isle

2011-02-22T01:57:00.007-07:00

Waiting for Help & The Brother From Another Planet

Via Yoani Sanchez Generacion Y

"Currently on display at Pabexpo (11 Feb 2011), the exhibition center located in the wealthiest part of the city (Havana), are computer-related products created within and outside our country.

Guests from all over are brought together there, including a large group of foreigners whom I imagine are more interested in taking a trip on our Paleolithic technology than doing business with local firms.

The Kaspersky Group, for example, is showing a version of its well-known anti-virus program, developed in conjunction with the national company Segurmática.

Everything has been made to look like an exhibition of this type anywhere in the world, were it not for one detail: This is the Island of the Disconnected

Already well into the year 2011, inhabitants of the “Cuban archipelago” cannot buy a bus, train or airline ticket on the web, we don’t know the sensation of managing our bank accounts online, and purchasing a product through the computer screen is something we have seen only in foreign films.

Still, today, my compatriots have never handled bureaucratic paperwork via email, not even the simplest of requests for one’s own birth certificate.

Don’t even talk about reserving some vacation on the flashy webpages of the travel agencies Cubatur or Islazul.

Among my hundreds of friends, none have managed–from here–to recharge their own mobile phones on those portals that offer the service, without having to stand in the long lines at the ETECSA office.

We are a people who have no opportunity to pay our bills through cyberspace and who live as software pirates faced with the impossibility of purchasing licensed versions.

Here we live at a stage that is more characteristic of the first half of the twentieth century than it is of the twenty-first. Thus, the Information Science Fair appears as a glimpse into the future, a shop window that displays to others what we haven’t even tasted.

After the visitors return home, they will praise the skill sets of the Cuban computer scientists and remember the tasty Mojito they were given at the farewell party. Meanwhile, we remain in the twilight of the disconnected, turning on autistic computers unable to connect to others.

We dream–it’s true–of one day filling out a form on the Internet where a phrase will confirm for us: “Thank you for your purchase, your ticket to Guantanamo has been reserved. Have a nice trip!”

Exile Filmaker Shunned For Exposing Che Guevara

2011-02-21T23:20:00.007-07:00

Those who worship Che and Fidel get Invited to surreal events such as London's a couple of years ago celebrating a half century of Cuba's Fantasy Revolution.

Via Pajamas Media Hat Tip Cubanology

"Those who document the reality of the Castro regime, however, do not find themselves well received in the academy.

For example, Juan J. Lopez once taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago but was denied tenure in spite of a teaching award and a well-received book published by The Johns Hopkins University Press titled Democracy Delayed: The Case of Castro’s Cuba.

Lopez had escaped Cuba with his parents and moved to the United States in 1967.

Agustin Blazquez who wrote about Lopez’s predicament in 2002 also is a Cuban exile frustrated by the artistic/academic community that, while ostensibly worshiping all that is “Latino,” shuns those who expose the communist Castro regime.

In Cuba, Blazquez had been apprehended twice on bogus charges, and saw the inside of El Castillo del Principe prison that he calls a “dungeon.”

In 1965, at the age of 21, he used the offer of an acting school scholarship in Canada to request an exit permit and managed with some finagling of the communist bureaucracy to leave

After living in Spain and Canada, Blazquez arrived in the U.S. in 1967. He was greeted with warmth by Americans — except those in the art world.

He learned that grants and prizes for documentaries in his series “Covering Cuba” would not be forthcoming. The latest, and seventh, titled Che: The Other Side of an Icon, was produced on a budget of $14,000. Only about $4,000 of that was from a non-profit that he had started himself.

He had submitted a more typical budget of $494,000 to CPB-PBS (Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting System)

Blazquez had no success with the publicly supported organization, nor did he with the taxpayer-supported American Film Institute in his other projects.

In fact, he could not even get an airing on POV (Point of View), the program created by PBS specifically for the purpose of airing “controversial” films. More

American History Intertwined with Cuba

2011-02-21T20:26:00.001-07:00

On this Presidents Day An article from the New York Times recalls Cuban History through the prism of Filibustering expeditions by the south and their effects upon President Abraham Lincoln In his pondering over the future of America's Peculiar Institution vis a vis Cuba.

Via Capitol Hill Cubans for full article

"Going back to the republic's dawn, American political leaders had believed that geographical proximity and shared interests would eventually pull that island colony of Spain into the federal union to its north. As early as 1805, President Thomas Jefferson pondered a military conquest of the island. Presidents James Madison and James Monroe also favored acquisition. Still later Presidents James Polk, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan attempted to purchase the island from Spain

In his reference to Cuba, Lincoln had touched on one of the great, if often downplayed, issues of that day. Most conversations about the future of American slavery focused on the interior of the West—realms already under American title, but in which the "peculiar institution" had not yet been introduced, nor its legal status determined. But at the same time, many Northerners and Southerners alike doubted whether slave-based agriculture could ever be established in the arid West.

By the late 1840s, as debates over slavery reached fever levels in the nation's political discourse, American acquisition of Cuba—because the island was a bastion of plantation slavery—had become widely identified with Southern partisans. As a consequence, the quest for Cuba lost much of its national appeal, even as it gained currency in the South.

In late 1848, in the wake of Polk's failed effort to purchase Cuba, many Southerner leaders turned toward a charismatic political exile from Cuba named Narciso López to realize that vision. López had fled Cuba in the summer of 1848 in the wake of a failed uprising against the colonial government.

On American soil, López soon committed himself to organizing a new conspiracy. He sought political and financial backers, and soldiers for a filibuster army. And he offered the command of his envisioned army to several prominent Southerners, including John Quitman, governor of Mississippi; Jefferson Davis, then a senator representing Mississippi; and Robert E. Lee, then an Army captain and widely admired for his service in the Mexican War. All declined.

Big Week in Cuban History

2011-02-21T19:46:00.004-07:00

Remembering Orlando Zapata Tamayo The Brothers to the Rescue and El Grito de Baire for a popular uprising In Cuba This week Feb 21-25 2011.

Photo of Zapata above Via Uncommon Sense

Keep up with the latest news on Cuban political prisoners and remember this week there are solidarity protests around the world and In Cuba organized through the Internet to commemorate Zapata's murder by Castro sadists last Feb 23 2010.

This week In Cuban history also recalls the cold blooded murders of 4 Brothers to the Rescue members shot down by Cuban MIGS Feb 24 1996 over the Florida Straits.

Feb 24 Is also the 116th anniversary of the Grito de Baire the cry that set off Cuba's second war for Independence from Spain In 1895, better known as The Spanish American War.

Facebook Group Calls For Cuban Popular Uprising

2011-02-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Via Uncommon Sense

Stirring to start a social media revolution in Cuba, organizers of a Facebook group calling for a popular uprising on the island have called for Cubans to gather for a demonstration on Feb. 21 in Havana.

The protest will be to "demand the freedom and democracy that have been taken from us," states a message on the group's Facebook page.

The message calls for Cubans to gather at 5 p.m. outside the old presidential palace in Havana, which is now the "Museum of the Revolution."

In Cuba, as in Egypt, Iran and elsewhere where this kind of activity is not well received by the autocrats in power, this is a dangerous business, making it vital that those of us who share the same goals as the organizers do our part to support them.

Spread the word about what is happening in Cuba.Attend related events being scheduled around the world.
Pray for those who will risk what little freedom they enjoy, who will risk their lives to demand what is theirs — their freedom, their democracy, their human rights.

The odds are stacked against them, and conditions in Cuba are very different than in Egypt. A social media revolution on the island is not easily organized or attained.

Now is the time for you to pick sides and to do what you can — even if it's just to share a link you see on Facebook or to pray — to help.

The Socialist Paradise That Hates Social Media

2011-02-16T00:48:00.010-07:00

Breaking the stranglehold on communication & Information from the paranoid Castro regime will be a key element for fomenting popular revolts across Cuba.

Inventing a connection to a Hughes Net Satellite with an umbrella antenna above serves both as conduit & symbol for the Ingenuity & resolve ordinary Cubans have for getting news from the Island and the outside world.

But these makeshift antennas are routinely destroyed by units of ETESCA the Cuban regime's telephone and communication company and hundreds of average Cubans get jail terms simply for wanting more Information.

Freedom of expression and Information by any means of communication available is protected under article 19 of the Declaration of Universal Human Rights.

That means blocking freedom of expression & Information In Cuba equals no face book, blogger, blogtalkradio and twitter to It's citizens.

Counter Intuitively Cuba Is the socialist paradise that hates social media.

But Cubans are blockaded from the Internet not by an embargo but by an Intransigent and entrenched terrorist anti government fearful of sudden change bought on from bloggers & face bookers organizing gatherings for popular uprisings In public defiance of the regime.

In Fact less than 10% out of a population of 11 million has access to the Internet. This Is lower than post earthquake Haiti or the Congo.

A virtual Information blockade against the Cuban people

A recent fiber optics Internet cable link from Venezuela reached Cuba earlier this month Feb, and Is forecast to be operational right In time for hurricane season 2011.

Before this fiber optics link Cuba was the last & only nation of 38 In the Western Hemisphere to not have one.

Last In Internet but first In fantasy.

A striking DIFFERENCE for a nation that before Castro was a leader In the cutting edge social media of the day - television, telephone, radio and the printed press.

Today after 52 years of Castro Dictatorship; the longest such rule In the world 23 more years than Mubarak 11 more the Qadaffi, In Cuba 'No Hay Nada' except for Fidel.

Cubans must continue finding ways around an aging and ossifying regime In the ongoing and crucial Information war for Cuba's freedom.. More In Spanish From Secretos de Cuba

F@$K Chavez and OPEC Buy American Oil

2011-02-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Stop giving your money to ass hole dictators who hate YOU buy American gas.

Via Cubanazos a list of American Gasoline Companies who use only American Produced Oil

The following gas companies import Middle Eastern oil:
Shell.....................................205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco...................144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil........................130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway...............117,740,000 barrels
Amoco..................................... 62,231,000 barrels

And CITGO oil is imported from Venezuela by Dictator Hugo Chavez who hates America and openly avows our economic destruction!
(We pay Chavez's regime nearly $10 Billion per year in oil revenues!)

The U.S. currently imports 5,517,000 barrels of crude oil per day from OPEC. If you do the math at $100 per barrel, that's over $550 million PER DAY ($200 BILLION per year!) handed over to OPEC, many of whose members are our confirmed enemies!!!!!

It won't stop here - oil prices could go to $200 a barrel or higher if we keep buying their product.

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco......................... 0 barrels
Conoco......................... 0 barrels
Sinclair..................... 0 barrels
BP / Phillips................. 0 barrels
Hess............................. 0 barrels
ARC0............................ 0 barrels
Maverick....................... 0 barrels
Flying J......................... 0 barrels
Valero........................... 0 barrels
Murphy Oil USA *......... 0 barrels

*Sold at Wal-Mart, gas is from South Arkansas and fully USA owned and produced.

*Not only that but they give scholarships to all children in their town who finish high school and are legal US citizens..

All of this information is available from the U.S. Department of Energy and each company is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing.

Cuban Intelligence Briefing Feb 2011

2011-02-10T18:24:00.002-07:00

An Economic Special Period Has Castro Regime Cockroaches Wary Of A Brewing Popular Revolt

Via Capitol Hill Cubans

From today's briefing to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James R. Clapper:

The continued deterioration of Cuba's economy in 2010 has forced ~~President~~ Raul Castro to take unprecedented and harsh economic actions that could spark public unrest over the coming year.

Havana announced last September that it will lay off 500,000 government employees by spring, with another 500,000 to follow. The government employs about 85 percent of the total work force of 5.1 million.

In a probable attempt to consolidate his reforms, Castro is planning a Party Congress for April, the first in 14 years.

The economic situation is dire. Major sources of foreign revenue such as nickel exports and tourism have decreased. Moreover, a decline in foreign currency reserves forced dramatic cuts to imports, especially food imports, and we have seen increases in the price of oil, food, and electricity.

As a result, Havana has become even more dependent on subsidized oil shipments from Venezuela and earnings from over 40,000 health workers, teachers and advisers in that country.

We doubt that the Cuban economy can quickly absorb all the dismissed state workers given the many bureaucratic and structural hurdles to increased private sector employment.

There is little organized opposition to the Cuban Government and Cuba's security forces are capable of suppressing localized public protests, although a heavy-handed Cuban putdown of protests could spark wider discontent and increased violence which could lead to a level of political instability.

Cuban Internet:Captain Nemo's Cable Arrives In Cuba

2011-02-10T17:49:00.003-07:00

Captain Nemo's thousand mile undersea cable finally arrives but due to a deplorable Infrastructure within Cuba end lines won't be ready till about hurricane season 2011.

Via The Real Cuba

Cuba gets fiber-optic cable link from Venezuela

Feb. 10 - The cable was laid from a ship by the French company Alcatel-Lucent and came in near the city of Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba

The $70 million project was financed by the communist regional group ALBA which includes Cuba and Venezuela.

It will not be connected until July and Cuban officials have said it will take time to link up the island due to poor infrastructure (Santiago de Cuba is 540 miles southeast of Havana).

Cuban dissidents have accused the government of stalling Internet access because it wants to control the islanders' access to information, only 14 out of every 100 Cubans used the Internet in 2009, one of the lowest rates in the Western Hemisphere Watch Video Report & Yoani Interview

Posada Carriles Trial A Dubious Circus In El Paso

2011-02-09T20:09:00.002-07:00

The US Govt. Is trying to railroad a US Military Veteran and nemesis of Fidel Castro's cockroach dictatorship.

In an ongoing trial In Texas the Us Justice Dept. seems to be following the Castro line taking testimony from Castro agents & useful Idiots More.

Castro Repression Intensifies Under Raul

2011-02-09T17:56:00.004-07:00

Cameras record everyone In public or "private" while the Cuban church sells out It's people for deportation.

Via Uncommon Sense

Last week, the Centro Información Hablemos Press news agency/human rights group reported that in January there were 181 politically motivated arrests in Cuba. On Tuesday, another human rights group, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, upped the ante, reporting that by its account, there were 268 such arrests, with most of those detained released after a few hours or days. Sixty-one of the arrests occurred over a three-day period, Jan. 26-28, in the city of Santa Clara; and four of those detained nationwide remain imprisoned, waiting for trial.

Whatever the number — and it's likely to be much higher than 268 — the sobering statistics again remind anyone paying attention that despite all the hype from the archdiocese in Havana, the foreign ministry in Madrid and think tanks in Washington, nothing has changed in Cuba.

The repression remains as rampant as ever, and the need for the world to react — or not — accordingly is more vital than ever.

Cuban Internet: Waiting for Captain Nemo

2011-02-09T13:54:00.005-07:00

Via Generacion Y

It is getting close, but it hasn’t arrived; they announced it but it’s not concrete. We may be able to see it soon from Punta de Maisi, nevertheless it seems so distant and remote to us. For more than two years the fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela has been the carrot dangled before the eyes of the inhabitants of this disconnected Island.

Its thin threads have served as an argument against those who insist that the web access limitations have more to do with political will than lack of bandwidth. We have paid attention to the sluggish wanderings of the umbilical cord that will connect La Guaira with Santiago de Cuba, the boat that brought it from France, and the news which announced it will increase our data, image and voice transmission speed by three thousand times. But something tells us that this cable already has a name, an owner and an ideology.

With its 640 gigabyte capacity, the new tendon will be particularly devoted to institutional projects monitored by the government. When the official press mentions its advantages it stresses that “it will strengthen national sovereignty and security,” but not one word is directed to the improvement of the information spectrum for citizens

At a cost of 70 million dollars, this underwater connection seems destined more to control us than to link us to the world, but I am confident we will manage to upset its initial purposes.

In these times, when several installations from the so-called Battle of Ideas have been converted into hotels to raise foreign currency and there are warnings that unprofitable businesses will be liquidated, it is quite likely that many of the digital pulses will reach the hands of those who can pay for them.

With authorization or without, connection hours will be sold — to the highest bidder — in a country where diversion of resources is a daily practice, a strategy for survival. Read More

Cursed Be Your Name Liberty Hiv & Roqueros In Cuba

2011-02-04T21:33:00.002-07:00

Via Humberto Fontova's bestselling book "Fidel Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant"

"In a film titled 'Cursed Be Your Name Liberty' Cuban exile Vladimir Ceballos exposes this grim and almost Inconceivable episode.

Back In the 1980's, young people In Cuba who listened (or tried to listen) to American rock music-Bonnie Raitt, Carole King and Jimmy Buffet ( or Santana The Dead or Jimmy Page my edit) - were called Roqueros and were special targets of the police. They were constantly harassed, beaten and jailed ( see Canek Sanchez Guevara Che's grandson my edit)

Ceballo's film documents how more than 100 of these 'Roqueros' deliberately Injected themeselves with the AIDS virus. It sounds stupid, crazy and horrible, I agree. But to these people, banishment to AIDS sanatoriums was a taste of freedom.

One scene shows a Roquero AIDS victim holding a small, crumpled American flag. With trembling hands, he scrubs It clean, then drapes It slowly across his emaciated chest.

This man preferred death by Inches, a lingering death of suppurating sores, constant pain, and eventual dementia to living under the the rule of a man Carole King warmly serenaded with "You've Got A Friend".

He gave himself AIDS because It bought him a few years of life in the equivalent of US federal prison. On Bonnie Raitt's "happy little Island", he reckoned this as freedom.

Perhaps some of these roqueros are crazy, but are they all that different from the tens of thousands who risk death to paddle Into the Florida straits on Inner tubes, styrofoam chunks, and rusty barrels? They know the odds: one In three of making landfall. Errant tides, storms and tiger sharks await"

Cuban Regime Targets Bloggers Secret Cyber War Video Surfaces

2011-02-04T20:17:00.004-07:00

"Cuban bloggers like Yoani Sanchez and young exiles who reach out to their counterparts on the island are part of a U.S. campaign to overthrow the Castro government, according to a secret Cuban video posted on the Internet.
"The video also alleges Washington launched a secret effort in 2008 to create 10 wi-fi points around the island that would have allowed up to 250 computers access to the Internet through satellite telephones -- totally independent of Cuban government controls

The nearly one-hour video appears to be of a secret June 2010 lecture on the Internet's dangers to the revolution, delivered by an Internet expert to an audience of men and women in military uniforms -- likely Armed Forces or Interior Ministry officers. ( 38 yr old Counter Intelligence Officer Eduardo Fontes Suarez has been Identified as the lecturer)

Its content largely repeats the Cuban government's allegations that independent bloggers and groups like Raices de Esperanza -- Roots of Hope, an organization of young exiles that has been establishing contacts with youths in Cuba -- are part of a U.S. campaign to undermine the Castro government.

Perhaps more surprising is the appearance on the Internet of what is clearly a secret lecture to Cuban security officials. The video appears to have been first posted on the Internet by a person identified as Black Coral. It was also posted by the Spain-based blog Penultimos Días." More

Babalu Films: Ariel Sigler Amaya Freedom By The Pound

2011-01-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

Freedom by the Pound from Babalu Bloggers on Vimeo.

Wiki leaks Cuba: Going Broke On Fantasy Island

2010-12-17T18:19:00.007-07:00

These Cuban Wiki leaks from February 2010 auger the mass layoffs of a million Cuban workers in the socialist paradise. Cuban workers make an average of 15 dollars per month and are paid In Castro slave script (see Cuban dual currency)

Also worth noting Is the Cuban terrorist regime's ongoing confiscation of Spanish, Canadian and Chilean funds totaling around 2 billion dollars over the last 2 years - which Is In addition to Cuba's total outstanding debt of approximately 50 billion counting loans owed to the ex Soviet Union.

Cuban dictator number 2 Raul Castro: Happy Hanukkah while I screw Jew.
SEE ALLEN GROSS DETAINED IN CUBA WITHOUT CHARGE SINCE DEC 09

An extract from the article- "details a breakfast meeting held by the Interests Section's chief economic officer with diplomats from some of Cuba's main trading partners, including China, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Italy, as well as France and Japan, both of which are among the island's top creditors.

"All diplomats agreed that Cuba could survive this year without substantial policy changes, but the financial situation could become fatal within 2-3 years," the cable said, adding that Italian diplomats cited sources within the Cuban government as predicting that the island "would become insolvent as early as 2011." More

Albita Unplugged : New Documentary & Album Toda Una Vida - Cuban Masterworks

2010-12-03T22:07:00.013-07:00

The new album and documentary debuts In Miami and on PBS Dec 2 2010 Full Story & Music

(A Lifetime: Cuban Masterworks) is an intimate and lively one-hour look at what makes the Grammy Award-winning Albita Rodriguez tick. It is the work of local award-winning director/producer Joe Cardona, who often tackles Cuban exile projects. The independent filmmaker has done documentaries on the Operation Pedro Pan children exodus and the Freedom Flights, and on another iconic Cuban singer, the late Celia Cruz.

Select articles on Cuba

2010-10-08T18:14:00.000-06:00

Selected Articles From Various Sources Another Day Another Way

Hezbollah Sets Up New Terror Training Base In Cuba

Castro Sics Dogs On Flower Carrying Women

Castro Crime Family At Center Of Medicare Fraud

Will Obama's Cuba Policy Bail Out Castro's Ponzi Island?

Tyrant Castro Can Roar but Can't Hide His Racist Deeds

Civil Rights Activists Affirm Cuba Travel Ban

Cuban Internet Not for It's People

Mauricio Carone: A Transformational Year For Cuba

Concessions reward Castro repression of civil rights

Cuba's Mass Layoffs latest Disaster of Fidelismo

Frozen Dead: Mazorra Murders Await True Justice

Fidel Castro Un Astuto Fracasado

Cuban Pilots Recall The Country Where Nobody Flies

The Real Deal On Anti Castro Warrior Luis Posada Carriles

Wiki leaks Cuba 2007 Castro Illness

Six Months After His Murder by Castro Sadists Zapata Lives

Jorge Luis Perez 'Antunez': A False Fabricated Image of Cuba

Venezuela deadlier than Middle East or Mexico

Freed Cuban Political Prisoners Describe life In the Gulag

Leon Weinstein's Letter to America via Socialism Survival

Cuba & The KGB by Jose Cubanology Reyes

Maria Conchita Alonso Blasts Chavez and Oliver Stone

Deported Dissidents Reject Lifting Sanctions on Cuba

Castro's Gulag via Armando Valladares 22 yr Political Prisoner

En Cuba Las Remesas Crecen mientra La Economia Falla

Fidel Castro Predicts Nuclear War

If the Castro's Are Cornered Why Lift Cuba Travel Ban Now?

Hasta Manana Cuba Los Tiempos Cambian

Fighting Racism In Cuba Here

The Lies of Workers Rights In Cuba Here

Penultimos Dias Nuevo Accion

Cuban Snakehead/ Clarias Caught In Havana's Almendares River

2010-09-17T15:02:00.007-06:00

File Under Cuban Ecological Disasters :

A group of Cubans are shown here with Cuban 'Clarias', a species of hybrid catfish crossed between the Cuban & the African catfish, recently caught In Havana's Almendares River.

The Cuban regime produced these alien fish In their laboratories, with the Intent of providing a fast growing food source for everyday Cubans, but what's transpired has been another ecological disaster, as the voracious fish are arch predators, feeding on anything that moves, both In or out of the water.

Numerous reservoirs and rivers In Cuba are now thought to be Infested with these Clarias, which much like the Infamous Chinese Snakeheads ,can live and hunt outside of water for several days, making any native animals potential prey More

Who are Cuba's Ladies In White

2010-09-08T18:52:00.004-06:00

Via The Human Rights Foundation

'The Ladies in White, or "Las Damas de Blanco," is a civil society group inside Cuba that organizes peaceful Sunday marches for freedom and human rights. The world-renowned group is formed by the wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, and supporters of political prisoners who were arrested during the "Black Spring" government crackdown on Cuban dissidents. During the four-day period that occurred in March 2003, 75 independent journalists, librarians, and democracy and human rights advocates were arrested and ultimately convicted with sentences ranging from 6 to 28 years.

In July 2010, the Catholic Archdiocese of Cuba announced that the Cuban government would release the 52 Black Spring prisoners still imprisoned over the course of the following months. The Ladies in White have declared that they will continue protesting every Sunday until all of the Black Spring prisoners have been released' more

Zapata Vive Film draws Ariel Sigler In Miami

2010-08-30T15:51:00.001-06:00

Via Jorge Utset of the Real Cuba Blog

Aug. 28 - On Saturday night, I attended the presentation of "Zapata Vive," a documentary by El Instituto de la Memoria Histórica Cubana Contra el Totalitarismo y Plantados Hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba.

The documentary, directed by Wenceslao Cruz, produced by Pedro Corzo and with original music by Miguel Ulíses, was shown at Belen Jesuit School's Teatro Roca.

Minutes before the documentary was scheduled to begin, everyone stood up and applauded for several minutes at the arrival of former Cuban prisoner of conscience Ariel Sigler Amaya, in a wheel chair being pushed by his brother Miguel Siegler.

It was a very emotional moment. More

Castro goons attack Reina Luisa Tamayo calling her 'A depraved worthless nigger '

2010-08-16T11:09:00.002-06:00

Castro goons attack Reina Luisa Tamayo yet again At her home In Banes eastern Cuba 8-15-2010

Reached by phone In Banes Cuba, Lady In White Reina Luisa the murdered Orlando Zapata's grieving mother, had this to say about the fear & loathing that this degenerate regime has against defenseless women and girls on Fidel's Apartheid Isle.

"Well, at this moment I can say that at 8:30 this morning we attempted to leave the house and go to church. More than 600 people are currently surrounding my house and Dariel Mesa was hit on the arm by a rock. They are aggressively attacking us with offensive slurs, saying “you sold your son,” and calling us “worthless niggers” and “depraved.” Just like that it must be said so the world knows.
The Castro brothers have no respect for this mother after having assassinated her son. Until when will they continue to injure this family? We are only 6 women and one girl, and they are stopping us; they don’t let us go to church, they don’t let us go to the cemetery. Until when? When will the Castros have shame, when will they have dignity towards their fellow man? After they assassinated my son, now they want to assassinate this family and the little that they have.
Here they are at the corner my house, women of low class, women who have no morals to be in front of this mother, they have no dignity. They are here at the corner of my house screaming “whore!” These low class women are nothing but thieves who steal from the government, and that is why they are there"

Crackdown on Regime Opposers Continues more from Babalu

Fidel the Fugazi : "It's just that I'm In the habit of lying."

2010-08-10T03:03:00.003-06:00

Hat tip Mauricio Carone Article Via The Scotsman

"The Castro myth was created by Herbert L Matthews in three articles for the New York Times in 1957. Since then, inky-fingered useful idiots have never been in short supply

Castro himself is probably best equipped to confect his own legend: as he disarmingly confessed to a teacher during his schooldays, "it's just that I'm in the habit of lying"

The myth of Castro, second only to the legend of "Uncle Joe" Stalin, was the great socialist PR imposture of the 20th century. Castro executed 16,000 political opponents. His lieutenant Che Guevara enjoyed executions so much he made sure his office window overlooked the prison yard; whenever a distraught mother came to him to beg for the life of her son he would have the young man shot in front of her. The one execution Guevara did not appear to enjoy was his own ("I'm Che! I'm more use to you alive!"). More

Will there be a Castro Bailout?

2010-08-07T00:33:00.001-06:00

Humberto Fontova's Biography

Humberto Fontova is the author of four books including Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who idolize Him and Fidel; Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant. Visit www.hfontova.com

Townhall slice of Fontova

"The so-called U.S. embargo merely stipulates that the Castro regime pay cash up front through a third–party bank for all U.S. agricultural products; no Ex-Im (U.S. taxpayer) financing of such sales.

Per-capita-wise, Cuba qualifies as the world's biggest debtor nation with a foreign debt of close to $50 billion, a credit rating nudging Somalia's, and an uninterrupted record of defaults. In 2007 one of the world’s most respected economic forecasting firms, the London- based Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked Cuba as virtually the world's worst country business-wise. Only Iran and Angola ranked lower. This firm predicted that Cuba's abysmal business climate would remain that way for the next five years, at the very least.

Last year the Castro regime suddenly froze $ 1 billion held in Cuban banks by foreign (mostly Spanish) businessmen. “Cuban banks informed depositors that they had no foreign exchange to back up the convertible peso in which many were doing business,” explained Reuters Havana Bureau. Spain’s criticism of the U.S. “embargo” has recently become much shriller More

Remembering El Maleconazo Riot Havana 8-5-1994

2010-08-06T17:09:00.001-06:00

Via Babalu's Alberto della Cruz

"Sixteen years ago today the Cuban people came as close as they had been in a long time to finally ridding themselves of the tyrannical Castro dictatorship. What started as a shoving match on Havana's famed Malecón on August 5, 1994, quickly escalated into a riot with thousands of Cubans streaming onto the seaside boulevard and chanting for freedom.

The situation deteriorated with every second that passed, and the regime's state security soon found themselves losing control of the crowd. There was no other choice but to use deadly force and they began beating and arresting protesters they could safely get their hands on, and shooting those they could not. Wounded protesters began arriving at the hospitals with bullet holes in their buttocks and eyes missing from their sockets, and fearing the mayhem would spread, civilian doctors were sent home and military doctors were brought in to treat the wounded"
More

Cuban Exile Writer Zoe Valdez was there here's her story In Spanish With Videos

Babalu Interview with Ariel Sigler Amaya In Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital

2010-08-03T12:24:00.003-06:00

Via Alberto De La Cruz

"As I mentioned last Friday (July 30th 2010), Pitbull ( Moneo) and I had the honor and privilege of meeting and interviewing the former prisoner of conscience from Cuba, Ariel Sigler Amaya. It was an emotional experience being in the presence of not only one real Mambí, but two of them since Ariel's brother, Miguel Sigler Amaya, is also another courageous warrior. Both of these men, and a third brother, Guido, were all arrested during the Black Spring of 2003. The Sigler brothers

We were able to record the audio of the interview portion of our conversation with Ariel for our Babalú readers and friends, which totals a little over 13 minutes. Obviously, the conversation took place in Spanish, but for our non-Spanish speaking friends, I have translated some highlights of the interview to English, which follows" Here

Sigler Released arrives In Miami

2010-07-28T17:04:00.004-06:00

Ariel Sigler Amaya on a gurney after his arrival today at Miami Airport 7-28-2010
En route to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he will finally receive proper medical care for the torture and abuse Inflicted upon him by sadistic Cuban jailers.

Via AP Wire

MIAMI – "A recently freed Cuban political prisoner arrived in the United States on Wednesday, where he greeted 100 well-wishers who cheered as the paralyzed former boxer called for the overthrow of the Castro government. (See a video tribute & more photos of Ariel Sigler Amaya )

Gaunt and sitting in a wheelchair, Sigler wore boxing gloves adorned with the Cuban flag as he addressed the crowd, which often interrupted with chants of "down with dictatorship." He is paralyzed below the waist.

"I feel a mix of happiness and hurt," Sigler said in Spanish. "Happiness because this is a free country. A country where in reality human rights are respected. Happiness because this beautiful country has taken me in to try to re-establish my health. And hurt because in reality I am a patriot."

"Down with the dictatorship. Down with the Castro tyranny. Down with the assassins Castro," he yelled as the crowd echoed him. Many in the crowd held Cuban flags and signs that read "Welcome to Miami" and "Human rights for the Cuban community" More

Revolucion: Eres La Daga Asesina Clavada En El Corazon

2010-07-27T01:01:00.000-06:00

REVOLUCIÓN

Eres la daga asesina

clavada en el corazón,

eres pura demagogia,

eres mentira y traición.

Eres vil alevosía,

disfraz de revolución,

eres destrucción y engaño,

eres llanto y paredón.

Eres tú la acción canalla

que ahogaste en sangre mi son,

eres castigo inhumano,

eres pena, eres dolor.

Eres el sufrir de un pueblo

que vive bajo el terror,

eres el odio y la envidia,

la antítesis del amor.

Te enraizaste en mi tierra

como un maligno tumor,

destruiste la familia,

mataste la tradición.

Pronto llegará el final,

pronto saldrá un nuevo sol,

pasarás pronto a la historia,

tú, falsa revolución.

Cástulo Gregorisch

11/15/03

Cuban purges continue: bye bye Balaguer responsible for Mazzorra freezing deaths Jan 12 2010

2010-07-23T18:06:00.001-06:00

Updated 1-19-11 Show Trials Begin In Cuba

Via The Real Cuba

"Health minister is latest victim of the ongoing purge

Cuba's official press reported today the firing of José Ramón Balaguer as minister of health.

Balaguer, who is 78 years and has always been considered as a hard-liner, will be replaced by Roberto Morales Ojeda, 43, who was serving as deputy health minister.

Last June, the Castro brothers fired the transportation minister for alleged professional mistakes and replaced the head of the Sugar Ministry after he admitted incompetence.

In March,

Also in March, another member of the old guard, Rogelio Acevedo, was abruptly dismissed as the overseer of Cuba's airlines and airports after reports that security agents found several million dollars hiding in a water tank at his home".

Fidel Castro front man Max Marambio charged with fraud court case set

2010-07-21T22:56:00.007-06:00

Update 8-31-2010 Is a foreigners money safe In Cuba? & Are golf resorts soon coming to Fidel's Apartheid Isle? Find out Here

Marambio left with spy partner Tony de la Guardia who was executed 1989 along with the top General In Angola & Africa Arnaldo Ochoa after being Implicated with the Castro Ruz brothers In cocaine smuggling and numerous other crimes.

One of Fidel Castro's straw men fronting for and apparently skimming from Don Fifo, Marambio Is lucky In that being off of Fidel's Fantasy Island right now & residing In Chile might be the only thing keeping him from suffering the same fate as the Infamous Sicilian American swindler Robert Vesco - another old & Illicit business associate of the Castro crime family until they caught him skimming & scheming behind their back and put him In the gulag till his death a few years ago

A July 29 2010 court date has been set In Cuba for Marambio.

"Chilean Attorney Juan Pablo Hermosilla said information would reveal "the total inconsistency of the supposed crimes" for which Chile-based magnate Max Marambio is being investigated.

Marambio had a joint venture with the Cuban government known as Rio Zaza that produced fruit juice, milk and other products. It is being investigated for financial irregularities.

Marambio was the bodyguard of Chilean President and Cuban ally Salvador Allende, who died in a 1973 coup.

He went into exile in Cuba, where he became close friends with Cuban leader Fidel Castro as he built a business empire on the communist-led island that extended to other Latin American countries" More

Happy Birthday Biscet July 20 1961

2010-07-21T15:29:00.000-06:00

See more on Dr Biscet who's 49th birthday was yesterday 20 July 1961 Eleven of those birthdays Including this one have been spent rotting In Castro's gulag archipelago.

Dr Oscar Elias Biscet recognized Internationally as a Cuban prisoner of conscience has affirmed his Intent to remain In Cuba and remains locked up despite the promises of the Cuban regime to release him.

See more on Dr Biscet via his film website Oscars Cuba Here

Brits ban Savage but welcome Che's daughter

2010-07-13T15:33:00.002-06:00

File under political correctness: Via Humberto Fontova

Aleida with her father Che "Piss Boy" Guevara's Iconic Image behind her.

"One month after insulting and banning Michael Savage last summer, Britain opened her arms to Che Guevara’s daughter, Aleida. The occasion was a celebration in London titled Cuba50, billed as “the biggest European celebration in the 50th anniversary year of the Cuban Revolution. “In London’s expansive Barbican Centre, Britain threw the continent’s biggest party commemorating fifty years of Castro’s Stalinist regime, which jailed political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s, murdered political prisoners at a higher rate than pre-war Hitler’s, and came closest of anyone to plunging the world into nuclear war.

Che’s daughter was there to promote, in her own words: “my father’s ideals, his concerns, and his ambitions. I believe that my father is a banner to the world. If we could only follow his example, the world would be a much more beautiful place.”

Fine. Let’s have a look at Aleida’s father’s “ambitions,” keeping in mind that what got Michael Savage banned was his purported “fostering of extremist views” and his “hate speech.” Read More

Che Guevara Urinal

2010-07-13T02:43:00.000-06:00

Hat tip The Real Cuba

Art Project by Lili Bernard (below left)

"This work came about a few years after I had had a conversation with a friend named Kevin Glynn, who is a history teacher at an inner-city Los Angeles public high school. We were speaking about the hardships that my family personally endured at the hands of the Castro regime and of my father's personal face-to-face contact with "Che" Guevara, during our exodus from the island.

The conversation touched upon the political nature and complexity of some of my art pieces and the simplicity of some works of art exhibited in museums, such as the infamous 1917 "Fountain," by Duchamp, which is nothing more than a urinal. I commented to Kevin that I had heard of some Miami Cubans displaying a roll of toilet paper with the face of Fidel Castro on each square.

Kevin then suggested that I paste the image of "Che" Guevara's face on a urinal and hang that on the wall, next to the Fidel Castro toilet paper. We spoke about the criticism that I would assuredly receive for displaying the image of an international icon on a surface where people urinate and I said that I didn't know if I was prepared to receive that. I also indicated that lots of people may prefer to see the face of George Bush on a urinal. Read More

Cuban Political Prisoners: No Liberation with Deportation

2010-07-10T16:48:00.006-06:00

Spanish foreign minister Moratinos & Cuban tyrant Raul Castro

Why Are these two Momos smiling so happy? Is It an Inside joke? On the Internal opposition perhaps?

Maybe they think they have It all set - lifting the EU common position on Cuba, one correctly predicated on Cuba's human rights record, while ejecting their most embarrassing problem - these Incredibly brave activists, dissidents and hunger strikers, who day by day act by act march by march are destroying the Castro regime's lies and myths with their peaceful but persistent civic resistance to the decrepit dictatorship.

If so they better wise up. I say no to any Liberation with forced Deportation of Cuba's Civil & Human rights Activists.

To be forced would equal blatant exploitation of their desperate condition as hostages of the slave regime - to be used as pawns - and the continuing castration of their absolute right to determine for themselves, perhaps the most essential of all human rights - the right of physical movement to or from one's own country.

The homeland belongs to all of us - forced exile Is not an "option" It's a blatant violation of our civil & human right to exist In the land of our birth period.

But as Island blogger Yoani Sanchez above with hunger striker Guillermo Farinas keenly observes from Havana:

"Forced expatriation, expulsion, exile, has been standard practice to get rid of dissenters. The ability to rid themselves of the inconvenient, the skill to push off the island platform anyone who opposes them, this is a talent in which our leaders are quite adept".

Moratinos would have to have a very large plane to fit all those who obstruct the island’s authoritarians. Not even a jumbo jet could transport all those potentially at risk of going to prison for their ideas or their civil actions. A veritable airline with weekly flights would be necessary to remove all those who don’t agree with the administration of Raul Castro.

But, as it turns out, many of us do not want to go. Because the decision to live here or there is something as personal as choosing a partner, or naming a child; it is not permissible that so many Cubans find themselves caught between the walls of prison and the sword of exile. It is immoral to force emigration on those who might be released in the coming days.

One question, simple and logical, jumps out at us with regards to this issue: Wouldn’t it be better if the ones they carried on this plane were “them”? - Now then we'd be laughing! More

The Cuban Holocaust

2010-07-08T19:45:00.006-06:00

Hat Tip Alberto de la Cruz @ Babalu

In light of breaking news out of Cuba that 50 + political prisoners may soon be released and that Dr. Guillermo Farinas has decided to end his 134 day hunger strike as a result, Socialist Spanish authorities may feel they played a key role In the purported prisoner release, helping to possibly save the lives of these 50 something men by dialoguing with the murderous Castro regime.

But the sinister history of Spain In Cuba exposes a horrible truth - The Spanish were murderers too responsible for the deaths of some 200,000 Cuban campesinos, In the world's first "modern" concentration camps no less - Spain's Infamous Campos Reconcentrados.

Today In bitter Irony the whole of Cuba under the Spanish descended Castro remains an Insular species of concentration camp perhaps evolving from and echoing those earlier Spanish ones.

The photo below reveals the gruesome evidence - Human skeletal remains of some of the 200,000 civilian victims of Spanish General Valeriano Weyler's policy of forced "Reconcentration" of the Cuban countryside during the Second War of Cuban Liberation 1895-1898.

This was Cuba's Holocaust Research by Dr Antonia de la Cova

Fate of Farinas In Castro Brothers' Hands Updated

2010-07-07T03:21:00.000-06:00

Update via The Real Cuba Blog

Full Story Via Uncommon Sense

Guillermo Farinas unconscious being taken to hospital In Santa Clara Cuba from a photo taken around the start of his 4 month + hunger strike around late February / early April 2010

Cuban Regime officials are bracing themselves while blaming Farinas and his followers around the world for his eminent death - a death that will on the Cuban Anti Government which continues denying the existence of Cuban political prisoners while confirming It simply by acknowledging Farinas.

Dr. Darsi Ferrer Freed But Under House Arrest

2010-06-22T17:26:00.015-06:00

Havana Cuba: Doctor And Civil Rights Activist Darsi Ferrer his wife Yusnamy & Darsi's mother Mercedes Ramirez after his release from almost a year In the Gulag Archipelago 6-23-2010 Ferrer Is now under house arrest like so many other Cuban Civic Activists

Update two Mon 6-23-2010 Yoani Sanchez Interviews Dr.Darsi Ferrer

Update Via the Real Cuba: I spoke with Darsi & his wife Yusnaimi today details Here

"Ferrer's trial was closed to the media and most of the public, but his wife, Yusnaimy Jorge Soca, said he was found guilty of buying black-market building materials and then ordered released. He is supposed to serve the roughly four months remaining on his 15-month sentence at the couple's Havana home.

"I think what happened inside was the fair outcome. It's what we've waited for since the beginning," Jorge told reporters outside the courthouse in the Cuban capital's 10 de Octubre district. "We only wanted to repair our home."

Ferrer was taken to a police station for processing then driven home, saying: "I'm going to enjoy this with my friends and family."

From his Havana home, Ferrer said he was not giving up his activism for political change" MORE

Conviction In Case of Virginia Man & Cubans Smuggling Somalis Into US

2010-06-21T20:23:00.006-06:00

In February 2010 The Washington Examiner first reported this disturbing story of the Cuban connection In human smuggling Into The USA

An Extract follows below of the latest In the case against Virginia Resident Anthony J. Tracy who used forged travel documents provided by Cuban Embassy personal In Kenya to smuggle several hundred Somalis with terrorist ties Into the US via a variety of third countries throughout 2009.

Full Story via the Miami Herald Here

"The case of convicted alien smuggler Anthony J. Tracy raised national security concerns because of his contacts with a Somali terror group, Al Shabab.

Tracy, 35, a Virginia resident, pleaded guilty to one charge of alien smuggling and was sentenced last week (1st week of June 2010) to time served -- four months -- and a $100 fine in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

The two Cubans, identified only as Consuelo and Elena, were fired by their supervisors for providing the Somalis with visas so they could slip into the United States via Dubai, Moscow, Havana, South America and Mexico, the records showed." More

Antunez: Neither leaving nor shutting Up

2010-06-19T17:06:00.004-06:00

Via Cubanlogy

Neither leaving nor shutting up - so says the sign above & reflecting his position

Afro Cuban civil rights activist "Antunez" explains what ending the Cuba Travel ban really means for Cuban civil society

"The tragedy of Cuba does not reside in the right to travel of a people who are already free, such as the American people. The main problem resides in the absence of liberty for Cubans, the only citizens of the world who are denied the right to exit or enter their own country and where many find themselves in the condition of hostages.

At a moment such as this, to be benevolent with the dictatorship would mean solidarity with the oppressors of the Cuban nation. The below signatories believe that the freedom of Cuba will not arrive by means of the pocket-book nor the lips of libidinous tourists, who are aseptic to the pain of the Cuban family. Rather, it will come through the efforts of those, who from within and abroad, fight for democratic change in Cuba"
More

Jews In Cuba A short History

2010-06-02T14:46:00.007-06:00

Update 7-7-10 Miamian Betty Heisler Samuels a Cuban Jew recalls her time In pre Castro Cuba

Jews in Cuba (from the Encyclopedia Judaica)

"The first Jewish group to settle in Havana after Cuban independence (1902) came from the United States. They founded the United Hebrew Congregation in 1906. They were followed by Sephardim, mainly from Turkey, whose communal congregation, Shevet Ahim, was founded in 1914.

In the 1920s thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe arrived in Cuba, hoping to use it as a stepping stone to the U.S. Many of them settled in Havana, where they founded the Centro Israelita (Jewish Center) in 1925, together with a large number of social, religious, cultural, and political organizations.

In the late 1930s and during World War II Havana became a temporary haven for thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, using loopholes in Cuba's immigration laws. In May 1939, however, Havana was the scene of the tragic episode of the S.S. *St. Louis, whose passengers were refused landing and were compelled to return to Europe, where many of them perished in extermination camps.

Following World War II the Havana community prospered both economically and socially. In 1951 the Ashkenazi community laid the cornerstone for the Patronato, a magnificent building that symbolized the social mobility and prosperity of Havana Jews. When the Sephardim inaugurated their Sephardi Center, Fidel Castro was already in power.

The Cuban revolution of 1959 marked the decline of Havana Jews. Following the nationalization of private business, around 90% of them emigrated from Cuba, most of them to the United States."

Hugo Chavez'war vs Venezuelan Jews

Cuban Oil & The Gulf Spill an Analysis

2010-05-19T18:02:00.036-06:00

The recent oil blowout disaster 4-20-2010 in the Gulf of Mexico already oozing unto shores across Gulf states & now entering the so called loop current , which can stream around the Florida Keys or down towards Cuba, has been a sickening wake up call for all those speculating In Cuban snake oil promises.

Since 2001 Cuba has been actively hyping claims of huge oil reserves off it's northern coast and In the Gulf, claims which are mostly thought to be exaggerated & unverified due to serious concerns over the methodology, secretiveness etc of the Cuban Regime..

However the U. S. Geological Service has estimates that the Exclusive Economic Zone ( established In 1977 & basically splitting Florida straits waters between US & Cuba) contains 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Cuba has sectioned off about 60 blocks only 20 of which have been leased over the years for drilling exploratory wells by foreign oil firms, whom must bear all of the costs associated with the dangerous drilling while holding a minority stake In any future profits with Cupet - Cuba's state run oil firm.

Of course all of this Is extremely risky & costly for the foreign Investor, In equipment and otherwise.For example Transocean's deep water horizon rig whose explosion triggered the current cataclysm costs about $600 million!

But aside from this & the looming slick the main problem for Cuba now is that it's primary partner in exploration, development & refining capacity upgrades is Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), now Itself suffering from serious reductions in oil revenues, operational difficulties and government liquidity problems.

Serious Problems Indeed & most traceable to Hugo Chavez' takeover of the formerly Independent company 3 years ago which Included the mass firings of up to 30,000 Individuals deemed politically Incorrect by him.

Adding woe for Huguito his showcase deepwater gas rig just recently sank off Trinidad & Tobago, that energy giant next door,from which Venezuela has had to Import liquefied natural gas for a couple of years running now, Indicating serious lack of maintenance or upgrades of It's refining facilities.

Notwithstanding these disasters & embarrassments Chavez continues to send Cuba about 90,000 barrels of oil daily which combined with Cubas' crippled output of 50,000 bpd just barely meets the Communist Isles' needs.

This Chavez oil aid & loans to Castro (6 billion estimated yearly) does not prevent harsh energy rationing and blackouts from being Imposed regularly on Cuba's 11 million desperate subjects. Literally keeping them In the dark.

Current estimates of Cuban oil production is about 50,000 barrels per day,down significantly from just a few years ago. This figure is In decline despite Venezuelan aid to restart production at the decrepit & mothballed Soviet built Cienfuegos facility.

Most of Cuba's production is heavy sulfur rich crude from the aging Varadero field 5 miles off the famous beach resort 's north coast, discovered in 1971 by Soviet engineers & now thought to be In production decline.

Although some half dozen foreign oil companies from Spain to India have invested in Cuban offshore blocks (about $2 billion combined), since 2003 none so far have been worth developing. Some of these exclusive Cuban blocks are potentially as close as 50 miles from US coasts. Recently the Russians have concluded several contracts In these blocks.

Imagine If one of those Cuban sites had spilled. By now It would have undoubtedly despoiled Florida, the Keys & much of the Gulf, with International & Environmental Implications that are astounding.

For example Who would be responsible for the horrible damage a similar slick, this time emanating from Cuban waters, would render American coastal communities?

Additional concerns such as volatile oil prices, green energy trends & longstanding sanctions on oil technology sales to Cuba have also spooked an Increasing number of Investors from Cuba.

Others you see had been burned before.

Prior to 1959 American oil companies like Esso & Amoco had done preliminary oil & energy surveys In Cuba, later only to have all their Cuban holdings, properties & Investments confiscated without any recompense whatsoever to this day from the still defiant & crooked Castro regime.

The Terrorist Island’s top foreign investor partners In oil after the Soviets left In 1990 - They're back now - have In fact been Canadian, with Toronto-based Sherritt International Corp. and Montreal’s Pebercan Inc. accounting for about 60 percent of recent production.

But when the two Canadian companies last year (2009 ) said Cuba owed them a combined $501.3 million - the Cubans bought out their 25-year contract for $140 million and said bye bye !

But Hey Joe Don't Worry be Happy It's Just Another Shitty Day On Fifo's Fantasy Island.

Gulf Oil Slick Threatening Entire Gulf Coast

2010-05-04T15:59:00.008-06:00

Via Crypto Cuba's John O'Donnell Rosales from Mobile Alabama

"The explosion and sinking of the oil rig last week (4-20-2010) is causing an enviormental and economic disaster along the coast's of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
and part's of northwest Florida. The oil which is leaking at approx. 5000 barrel's a day (that's about 210,000 gallon's) is reaching land fall and will mean calamity for the fishing industry and the tourism industry
and the thousand's upon thousand's who depend on these two vital industries to make a living. Here in Alabama places like Bayou La Batre, already devastated by Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, will once again be devastated financially, as the fishing industry is one of the area's main employer's. Dauphin Island and Gulf Shores, both of which have beautiful beaches and thriving tourism will also be devasted economically, by any type of oil spill, on it's pristine beaches. Then you have the enviormental impact which is estimated to impact approx. 600 different types of species (including us human"s). This is bad folk's and added to this, the official start of Hurricane Season is only a month away ! Unbelievable !!"
Famous Oil Spills In History

Bay of Pigs From the Depths of the Earth Surges our Cry Assault Brigade 2506!

2010-04-15T22:14:00.011-06:00

Brigade Air force Memorial Miami Florida April 2010

The 49th Anniversary of Playa Giron or the Bay of Pigs Is this week from the opening bombing run on the 15th of April 1961 to escape & evade capture on the 19th April 1961. Despite being abandoned by a cowardly and Inexperienced Commander In Chief John F. Kennedy, these men of Assault Brigade 2506 displayed an extraordinary level of bravery and skill In Combat on par with any veteran of World War Two or Korea; fighting literally until the last bullet against all odds.
Humberto Fontova who had a cousin fighting In the Brigade has the whole story below.

The Bay of Pigs—An Anniversary of Heroism and Shame

An Extract:

"They fought like Tigers," wrote a CIA officer who helped train these Cuban freedom-fighters. "But their fight was doomed before the first man hit the beach."
That CIA man, Grayston Lynch, knew something about fighting -- and about long odds. He carried scars from Omaha Beach, The Battle of the Bulge and Korea's Heartbreak Ridge. But in those battles, Lynch and his band of brothers could count on the support of their own chief executive.
At the Bay of Pigs, Lynch and his band of Cuban brothers learned -- first in speechless shock and finally in burning rage -- that their most powerful enemies were not Castro's Soviet-armed and led soldiers massing in Santa Clara, Cuba, but the Ivy League's Best and Brightest dithering in Washington".

More

Castro Crime Family Clips Chilean Business Associate Roberto Baudrand

2010-04-15T19:13:00.008-06:00

Update 7-20-2010 via Baracutay Cubano Marambio accused of theft and fraud by Cuban Regime court hearing set for 29 July 2010

Hat Tip Babalu and The Real Cuba - links Here

I just wonder how much more money they caught Baudrand (above), Max Marambio (below) and General Rogelio Acevedo skimming from the Godfather Fidel.

Remember Gen. Acevedo was arrested a couple of weeks ago and Is being detained for having 15 million dollars hidden In a Water tank at his residence In Cuba. Now maybe they'll find him next In that tank swimming with the fishes.

Meanwhile Castro's Murder Inc.- 51 years after unceremoniously extirpating the American Cosa Nostra off the Island (the first and only time the Italian Mafia has ever been eradicated completely from anywhere) - Is still not only whacking anyone It wants anytime, but also remains "Untouchable" from both American & foreign Justice. Surreal!

"Baudrand, 59, was general manager of Alimentos Rio Zaza SA and served as point man in Cuba for Max Marambio, the former head bodyguard of Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled in a 1973 military coup. Marambio sought refuge in Cuba after the coup and took part in secret military missions before becoming one of Cuba's wealthiest business leaders. He has lived mainly in Chile in recent years, with Baudrand acting as his liaison in Havana.

Marambio is known in Cuba as "Guaton," or "Potbelly," and his company makes "Tropical Island" brand juices and other food products sold in hard-currency stores catering to foreigners and tourists. The company is joint-owned by Cuba's government and Marambio, but has been shuttered for months as part of an investigation." More

Farinas Faring Worse 48 Days Into Historic Hunger Strike

2010-04-14T00:37:00.018-06:00

Update 4-14-2010 - Audio report from Santa Clara's Hospital on Farinas' medical condition after 46 days of hunger strike In Spanish listen here

Farinas In Worsening condition Santa Clara Hospital Arnaldo Milian 4-13-2010

Off the Mojo Wire 4-13-2010

Via Sucede Ahora comes word the general physical condition of Dissident Afro Cuban Dr.of Psychology Guillermo "Coco" Farinas has deteriorated.

According to his wife Clara he's running a high fever and has hypertension, a negative combination for his highly distressed physical condition.

Farinas with Dr.Ismel Iglesias In Santa Clara Cuba early April 2010

Farinas And His wife are In a Santa Clara Hospital, where he was taken after collapsing for the third time throughout this his 24th Hunger Strike against Castro Inhumanity simply for asking the medical release and Civil treatment of 26 gravely Ill Cuban Prisoners of Conscience.

This comes after the death 23 Feb 2010 of another afro Cuban prisoner of conscience laborer mason Orlando Zapata Tamayo was tortured to death during an 85 day hunger strike In Castro's Gulags.

On Castro's Island of Ill Your mind Is Indeed! A terrible thing to waste.

Dr Darsi Ferrer Ends Hunger Strike

2010-04-13T17:07:00.000-06:00

Update 4-13-2010 Story Here

Update 4-11-2010 Dr Ferrer thrown Into Isolation cell story here

Update 2-4-2010 Via Ziva - ¨Mensaje a los intelectuales y líderes del movimiento negro en las Américas que condenan el racismo en Cuba¨ Aqui

Dr.Darsi Ferrer seen here In a photo from a past beating

Via Payo Libre for full report with links In Spanish

Noted Afro Cuban civil & human rights leader Dr. Darsi Ferrer was beaten on Sunday 24 Jan 2010 while handcuffed by Cuban regime "reeducator" Luis Felipe Betancourt In Valle Grande prison Havana Cuba, where He's been detained,tortured and abused since 21 July 2009, that's over 6 months without trial accused of having 2 sacks of cement without a receipt. Surreal!

Life In Cuba Sacred? Mazzorra Messes with Your Mind

2010-04-01T21:32:00.004-06:00

Freezing to Death In Fidel's Tropical Paradise Update 1-19-11 Via Babalu Show Trials Begin

Medicina Cubana

By: Claudia Cadelo de Nevi - All Links Above

Life In Cuba Sacred?

These words of Arlín Rodríguez, from the TV talk show The Roundtable on March 17, thundered in my ears for half an hour. A few days ago I had access to three hundred photos of the autopsies of those who died at the psychiatric hospital in Havana and I cannot imagine how that phrase came out of the mouth of a journalist.
When I opened the little folder called “Mazorra” a series of monstrosities hit me in the face and I couldn’t stop looking at the cruel graphic testimony. A friend who is a doctor visited and while he analyzed images I didn’t have the courage to look at, expressions like, “Holy Virgin Mary, Blessed God, What in God’s name is this?” issued from his outraged throat, mixed with obscure pathologies and the names of diseases both treatable and curable.

Enormous livers, tubercular lungs, and wormy intestines are the proof, Señora Arlín, of the sacredness of life in Cuba. Meanwhile The Roundtable throws a fit because the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo has unmasked a crumbling public health system, and they try to cover up the disgrace of a seeing soldiers dragging and beating a group of women dressed in white with flowers in their hands. I ask myself, Gentlemen Journalists, when will they explain to Cubans the reasons why twenty-six mentally incapacitated people died in inhumane conditions during their confinement in Mazorra?

Note: I publish this photo with a completely clear conscience; if they were not shown there would be no proof of the suffering that these people were subjected to. If not for the hard photos that denounced the Nazi Holocaust, the genocide of Pol Pot or the tortures in the prisons of Abu Ghraib, they, too, would not have existed.
Editor's Note: Considering the interests of the readers of this Blog, we have included this text in English.

Octavo Cerco Blog

March for The Ladies In White In Miami Turns out Thousands In Support

2010-03-26T18:10:00.017-06:00

The March In Miami In solidarity with Cuba's Ladies In White and Cuba's political prisoners Including hunger strikers led by Afro Cuban Dr. Guillermo Farinas pictured below

was an encouraging success from the point of view that more awareness than ever has been bought to light - both from the msm and celebrities about this distressing situation.

Throngs In white rally on Calle Ocho or SW Eigth St. In the heart of Little Havana Miami Florida 3 25 2010

Cuba's continuing oppression and tyranny against It's own people has reached an Intolerable point even for regime supporters. Continued pressure to Isolate the terrorist regime In both the blogosphere and the main street media Is doing incalculable damage, so do the right thing & support Cuban freedom .

More Pics from the simultaneous rallies In Havana and Miami Here

Keep up with Cuba news by visiting our sidebar links.

Another Day Another Way

Guillermo Farinas to Lech Walesa : When I die Lay A Wreath For Me

2010-03-14T21:00:00.009-06:00

Saturday, March 13, 2010

GDANSK, Poland (AFP) — Cuban dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas has asked Polish anti-communist icon Lech Walesa to lay a wreath on his grave when Cuba is free, the former Polish president told AFP.

The two spoke by telephone on Thursday, several hours before Farinas was hospitalised in critical condition after losing consciousness in his third week of fasting to win the release of 26 political prisoners who are in need of medical treatment.

"I was concerned, I tried to convince him to break off the hunger strike. I told him that in order to build a free Cuba they will need people like him alive," said Walesa, who led the Solidarity trade union that defied and ultimately defeated communist rule in Poland.

But Walesa said the 48-year-old cyberjournalist was adamant in continuing his hunger strike.

"He replied: 'if I die, I ask you to lay a wreath on my grave when Cuba is free'."

Farinas, seen below on 3 /2/ 2010 - who had steadfastly refused medical treatment, lost consciousness several hours later and was hospitalised in his home town of Santa Clara, around 175 miles east of Havana.

He has vowed to press ahead "to the end" with his protest fast, which he began February 24, the day after political prisoner Orlando Zapata died on the 85th day of his own hunger strike.

Fariñas: "La Esencia del régimen Cubano es Criminal y Violenta"

Remember The Maine Day Feb 15 1898

2010-02-15T20:18:00.003-07:00

Via the Intrepid author historian genealogist John O'Donnell Rosales of The Sons of Spanish American War Veterans - Cuba Libre Camp 172

On this day Febuary 15th 1898 In Havana Cuba The USS Maine exploded In Havana's harbor precipitating United States Involvement In Cuba's struggle for Independence from Spain.

Venezuelan Energy Blackouts Resemble Cuba's Experience

2010-02-04T17:33:00.012-07:00

Blackouts and energy rationed In Venezuela, reminiscent of past and ongoing Cuban energy catastrophes , have left both batty dictators In the dark.

Maricio Carone has more at Capitol Hill Cubans - be sure to visit on our sidebar everyday.

"President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism Wednesday from opponents who say that the communist-led island is notorious for its own electricity woes.

The socialist leader announced that Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes had arrived on Tuesday to head a Cuban team advising Venezuela on its efforts to reduce energy consumption."

Ramiro Valdes, a former Cuban Minister of the Interior, who was widely feared for his brutality and ruthlessness, could surely teach Chavez many things about repression. But about energy?

NOTE TO OPPONENTS OF U.S. POLICY: There is no U.S. embargo towards Venezuela. Therefore, next time you look to blame sanctions as the culpirt of Cuba's woes, remember Chavez's Venezuela.

Ali Van Van y Los 40 Caraduras

2010-01-30T18:24:00.005-07:00

Hat Tip Agustin Blazquez -- Article by Pepe Forte

In Spanish a penetrating condemnation of the lackey Castro Regime band Los Van Van their leader Juan Formell and his son A Killer Musician who are scheduled to play Miami at the end of this month 31 Januery 2010.

An Extract:

"Juan Formell y su orquesta se presentan en Miami, Florida, el 31 de enero del 2009. Es la segunda vez que lo hacen desde 1999. Sólo quien desconoce el honor, como Formell, toca en un lugar que desprecia. Pero lo hace por mortificar y por las ventajas materiales y monetarias que la presentación le significa. Castro, junto con la destrucción física de Cuba, ha generado una selecta casta de espíritus abyectos de la que Juan Formell es uno de sus integrantes más prominentes.

Cuando se es un descarado —que habla o actúa con descaro, sin vergüenza o recato, según definen más o menos todos los diccionarios de Castellano—, se carece de dignidad y se opera en pro de un objetivo, no importa qué, sin el más mínimo sonrojo. Hay naciones, como Japón, que se erigen sobre una zapata de honor. En vergonzante contraposición hay hombres, como dijo Martí, penosamente carentes de decoro…

Un descarado. Eso es Juan Formell.

Van van… yo sé que van van…
Así como Hitler y el propio Castro son genios, Juan Formell posee un gran talento musical. Hace más de 40 años, luego de separarse de la orquesta del maestro Elio Revé, Formell fundó el Changüí y, al borde de 1970, creó Los Van Van, cuyas primeras presentaciones tuvieron lugar en En Vivo, un programa meridiano de lunes a viernes en la televisión cubana que animaba Germán Pinelli. La orquesta se llamó Los Van Van en un acto de suprema lisonja a uno de los fracasos personales más grandes de Castro, la Zafra de los Diez Millones, que pretendía producir la aberrantemente inalcanzable cifra de 10 millones de toneladas de azúcar. Dos de las frases oficiales de la propaganda gubernamental para la campaña rezaban, “palabra de cubano: los diez millones van”, y “de que van, van”. Como era costumbre en los combos de la época, el tom-tom de la batería de la orquesta decía “Los Van Van”, acompañado del dibujo de unas cañas de azúcar. Formell y su orquesta cantaban una canción oda a los Diez Millones, cuyo estribillo repetía, van, van, yo sé que van,van..".

Marti Images Poetry and Paradoxes

2010-01-28T21:16:00.003-07:00

Hat Tip Ziva and our cousin Val at Babalu

"The first duty of man is to think for himself"

"If you see a hill of foam
It is my poetry that you see:
My poetry is a mountain
And is also a feather fan.
My poems are like a dagger
Sprouting flowers from the hilt:
My poetry is like a fountain
Sprinkling streams of coral water.
My poems are light green
And flaming red;
My poetry is a wounded deer
Looking for the forest's sanctuary.
My poems please the brave:
My poems, short and sincere,
Have the force of steel
Which forges swords"

Jose Julian Marti y Perez "El Apostol" was born Jan 28 1853 Havana Cuba & died at Dos Rios (confluence of the Contra-Maestre & Cauto Rivers) Cuba May 19 1895 at 42 years of age.

At 16 he was sentenced to 6 yrs hard labor for an article blasting Spanish oppression In the publication La Patri Libre .

Later In 1871 he was exiled to Spain and Latin America (Guatemala and Mexico)-

Returning to Cuba after the ten years war 1868-1878 He's Detained for conspiring against the Spanish - again he's deported landing In New York Jan 1880. There he wrote" Here one can breathe freely liberty is the basis, the shield,the very essense of life".

Exile In the United States of America would be the place from which Marti did his most profound political and literary work which Inspires to this day.

In New York Exile Marti also founded "modernismo" a literary movement that pushed the Spanish language poetry into the mainstream of the 1800's.

His literary transformation was richly Ironic In that his "modern " poetry rested In medieval classics from Castile Spain, the soul of the madre patria he spent his life fighting.

In 1890 Marti wrote from New York's Catskills mountains his Versos Sencillos.
Upon which one critic wrote Marti with his use of the simple Spanish 8 syllable verse line " unlocked the secrets of ancient romances"

In final Irony Marti, the man who changed poetry In Spanish, did so while In Exile In the English speaking world.

United In Hate The Left's Romance with Tyranny & Terror

2010-01-25T17:04:00.002-07:00

Via Ziva's Insightful Blog for Cuba for full post In a Related article The Real Cuban Mafiosi

New Book by Jamie Glazov an extract below:

"In rejecting his own society, the believer spurns the values of democracy and individual freedom, which are anathema to him, since he has miserably failed to cope with both the challenges they pose and the possibilities they offer. Tortured by his personal alienation, which is accompanied by feelings of self-loathing, the believer craves a fairy-tale world where no individuality exists, and where human estrangement is thus impossible. The believer fantasizes about how his own individuality and self will be submerged within the collective whole…
As history has tragically recorded, this “holy cause” follows a road that leads not to an earthly paradise, but rather to an earthly hell in all of its manifestations".

Cuban Hospital Patients Found Frozen to Death : Castro Criminal Negligence Showed No Mercy For Mazzorra 's Hypothermia Victims

2010-01-21T19:12:00.014-07:00

Update 1-19-11 Show Trials Begin

Update 3-3-2010 Mazzorra victims photos via Penultimos Dias and The Real Cuba

On our last radio show 18 Jan 2010 Discussing Haiti and Latin America we also relayed the news from various sources on the Cuban blogosphere Including the gruesome report of at least 26 victims of hypothermia In the notorious psychiatric hospital named Mazzorra In Havana Cuba. Now new reports Provided In Spanish In the updated links Indicate as many as 56 Cuban hospital patients In 2 more Cuban health facilities may have perished by freezing to death In the tropical health paradise of Castro's Cuba.

To Date (1-25-2010) almost two weeks after the first findings (1-12-2010) no public announcement or acknowledgment from either Raul nor Fidel Castro or anyone else within the Castro criminal cupola been given regarding this sickening story . Nor has any apology officially recognized this depravity against the most defenseless of human beings.

Novo: 1-24-2010 Las cifras pueden ser más altas tal vez 56 muertos en varios hospitales en La Habana Cuba la storia via Desde Cuba

Novo: 1-21-2010 Vigilia en Regla por los fallecidos en Mazzorra Aqui

An extract of post by Yoani Sanchez of Generacion Y - Full post here

"Since the nineties, with the coming of the Special Period, the diversion of resources showed no mercy to Mazorra. The residents of nearby streets were well stocked through a black market in blankets, food, clothing, towels and medicine coming from the hospital. Those admitted there thought it was part of their everyday suffering—like in the film Gaslight—with the light bulbs missing in most rooms. Everything indispensable was stolen and no one noticed the broken windows, the clogged toilets, the broken beds. This time there was no journalist authorized to portray the misery.

Man Responsible for these chilling deaths and the systematic criminal negligence In all Cuban Apartheid Hospitals.
Jose R. Balaguer Cabrera - Minister of Cuban Health - Member of Communist Politburo - Personal friend of Raul Castro

.."The official press could not hide, however, the deaths of 26 patients—some say the true figure approaches 40—from hypothermia and the illnesses associated with neglect. They left this life on a cold day in January, while huddled together, body upon body, without the power to avoid this end. The cunning, for their part, built houses with the dividends from theft and thought no one would ever detect their embezzlement. Today, those responsible in the hospital are being investigated amid a police deployment to keep away the curious. No pictures have come out, but I’m tormented by the idea of how much they have come to resemble, in their helplessness, those patients whose faces we see in the photographs from the past". More

Afro Cuban Doctor & Dissident Guillermo Farinas to Raul Castro: Trade Ariel Sigler for Me

2010-01-19T00:53:00.015-07:00

Guillermo "Coco" Farinas A Doctor of Psychology seen above during one of his 20 hunger strikes this one a 7 month stint from 31 Jan 2006 to 31 August 2007 In which he lost 66 pounds. The man Is a true Cuban hero, an exceptional case study of both compassionate courage and defiant dissent.

In this case he's offering himself up In exchange for another presently Incarcerated Political Prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya a former champion boxer now reduced , crippled and confined to a wheelchair by a vengeful regime hell bent on beating both him and his whole family down.

Extract below via Marc Mas Ferrer's Uncommon Sense for full story

"Fariñas made the offer after attending the funeral last week for Sigler's mother, Gloria Amaya. The authorities allowed a wheelchair-bound Sigler to also attend; Fariñas told Castro that he appeared be a "nothing but a corpse who could talk."

"I have the hope that there remains in you a sense of "magnanimity," wrote Fariñas, a Cuban army veteran who fought in Angola and received training in the former Soviet Union,..

The offer is another example of the selflessness that is a hallmark of Fariñas' personal struggle against the Castro dictatorship.

For example, in 2006, Fariñas went on a lengthy hunger strike, after the dictatorship's censors barred him from using the Internet to transmit his stories after the Miami Herald quoted him as criticizing the regime.

Fariñas quickly expanded his protest to demand that all Cubans have unfettered access to the Internet. Fariñas ended his protest before the dictatorship gave in to his demands, but he was successful in raising awareness about how the dictatorship's repressive ways had extended attempts to control the Internet"

Destroying Castro Myths: Franc Pais (not Fidel Castro) was the true leader of the 26 of July Movement

2010-01-12T19:08:00.019-07:00

MARIA ELVIRA LIVE 08 08 2008

Mega TV | MySpace Music Videos

Destroying Fidel Castro myths one at a time with Maria Elvira and Professor Emeritus Jose Alvarez , whose books, 20 years of research and personal experience as a member of the 26 of July Movement serve as key components In the recounting of these real events that occured during the hijacked Cuban Revolution.

In this segment Professor Alvarez explains how the 26 of July Movement was actually run by Franc Pais (1934-1957) from Santiago De Cuba, not the mythical phony Fidel Castro.

Also Detailed Is the financing of the 26 of July
Movement and how the exceedingly well funded movement (one of If not the richest guerrilla movement on record) was robbed by Fidel Castro's criminal crew of chameleon like communist crooks.

Franc Pais was the actual leader and Natioanal Director of The 26 of July Movement, a fact obscured all these decades from the general public by Castro lies and manipulations.

The popular Pais only 22 years old when killed was already a natural leader. Civic, democratic and religiously minded, he was also both diametrically and philosophically opposed to Fidel Castro, and this fact was not lost on the sociopathic criminal Castro Ruz, who systematically used, abused then eliminated all rivals standing In his shadow, Including the Indomitable Santiaguero Franc Pais.

Castro used the astute and fearless leadership of Franc Pais and specifically the funds collected by his 26 of July Movement - a sum conservatively calculated from over 400 reference texts - half of whose authors are still In Cuba - of 35 million 1959 dollars (today equivalent 250 million dollars)- an astounding figure barely glimpsing at the amount of money that was ultimately stolen and embezzled by Fidel Castro for his own personal use and degeneration from the Cuban nation.

Castro then as always a calculating, unscrupulous and wary Predator of any rivals, plotted against and then had Pais whacked on 30 July 1957. Using In Infamous treason, Vilma Espin ( Raul Castro's wife) to Inform police of his hideout, where he was later gunned down.

Meanwhile from the Sierra Maestra mountains Castro cunningly utilized his relative safety (he didn't fight on the front) to further plot complete control from his rivals both In Cuba and In exile. From the La Plata encampment, Fidel Castro spewed calumny and propaganda on Radio Rebelde that were heard via a sophisticated relay chain of radio signal repeaters throughout Cuba, the Caribbean basin and even extending Into South America.

This Surprisingly fact shows that not only were Fidel Castro's lies heard across the Cuban Archipelago & Caribean basin but across the entire Americas.

Castro's mistress Celia Sanchez,Professor Alvarez explains, carried and secured a metallic box that held the so called reserve funds, this was the cash that was both collected and extorted from the Cuban people not only to pay for both arms and ammo but also to bribe Batista commanders and to place full page propaganda adds in the American press such as the New York Times.

Many more details are cited by Professor Alvarez of the manipulation of these funds as well as all the other forms of help and aid Fidel Castro received from exile groups such as the signers of the Miami Pact.

Bottom line Is that Castro received massive aid from numerous sources Including other countries such as Haiti's Papa Doc Duvalier, which were hidden from the Cuban public, Fidel Castro then embezzled those funds for his own use and then betrayed all those who helped him Including the doomed Franc Pais through lies and terror.

Finally Fidel Castro Ruz was not the fearless leader of legend who fought In the front lines, but Instead an Inveterate lier and conniving charlatan who has used a myriad of myths about his activities to hide his true depravity from the world.
More Here

7 Cuban doctors detained, menaced and extorted In Venezuelan finally arrive In Miami

2010-01-07T17:57:00.006-07:00

Testimonio de uno de los medicos Cubanos que fueron detenidos y amenazados nel aeropuerto de Maiquetia en Venezuela por agentes, que en parte, eran de Cuba. Cortesia de Medicina Cubana

Update- See the video of Cuban doctors arriving to Miami from Venezuela after an ordeal with local and Cuban agents at Maiquetia airport In Venezuela. The Cuban doctors 4 men and 3 women arrived safely after being detained.and threatened with deportation back to Cuba. They were released after paying a bribe of 5200 dollars to these thugs at the airport. The Cuban doctors had received entry visas from the US consulate In Venezuela as part of the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program . more

La Isla Grande's Roberto Ferranti Con Il suo Video Intervento per Cuba

2010-01-05T20:17:00.003-07:00

Via Roberto Ferranti of La Isla Grande

"Il mio intervento video per "a ti palabra" del blog Blogacciones. Registrato a casa mia con la webcam. Registrate anche voi il vostro intervento, pubblicatelo su YouTube e succesivamente inserite il link su Free Cuba Net TV. Partecipate al Network!"

Cuba : Waiting for a revolution Current TV with Cuban exile Musician Jorge Moreno

2009-12-30T04:38:00.005-07:00

"Vanguard Correspondent Adrian Baschuk travels to the last remaining Communist state in the western hemisphere to see how hard life really is there and investigates whether or not there exists any possibility of regime change".

Update Via Abajo Fidel and as an accompaniment to the above video comes an excellent podcast from Un Cubano En Canarias Aqui

Berta Antunez exposes Castro propaganda and racism against Afro Cubans

2009-12-23T17:24:00.007-07:00

(Antunez and sister Berta)

Update 1 31- 2010 : Audio /video/text of Antunez and others of the Civil Disobedience and Civic Resistance National Front defying a Castro Regime mob sent to Inflict an act of repudiation on them 28 Dec 2009 In the eastern town Holguin.

Full Story Via Capitol Hill Cubans

Berta Antunez on the arguments Cuban regime apologists use to excuse their contemptible collaboration with the Apartheid Isle of the Castro Ruz Brothers.

"All my life I have had to deal with the true face of the Castro regime: its thugs, its interrogators and its prison guards. As a result, my brother, my family and I do not fall under the spell of the regime's sophisticated diplomats, its well-placed agents of influence, and its propagandists.

It's ironic to hear some argue that the Castro regime is repressive only to avoid engagement with the United States, as if a 50-year-old dictatorship is full of closet reformists kept in check by their fear of the ``evils'' of U.S. imperialism. No, I come from deep inside Cuba and I know how the regime treats us Cubans and what it really thinks of us, especially if we happen to be black.

The regime represses us because it can. It brooks no dissent and tolerates no opposition. It can't because it knows that the majority of Cubans want their freedoms restored".

Marta Beatriz Roque analisa que sucedera en Cuba en el nuevo ano

2009-12-22T18:35:00.002-07:00

Via Pinceladas de Cuba

"Uno de los problemas más álgidos que tiene el país, es la situación alimentaria, los miembros de las comisiones Agropecuarias y de Atención a los Servicios, después de largas intervenciones, llegaron a la conclusión de que: “…pese a los recursos asignados la calidad de lo que compra el consumidor es insuficiente”. El ministro de la Agricultura, Ulises Rosales del Toro explicó: “Buscamos la solución de un problema que acumula más de 20 años…”, pero el ministro de Comercio Interior, Jacinto Angulo, a pesar de las necesidades que tiene el pueblo afirmó: “…la necesidad de investigar y profundizar en la demanda real de la población en determinados renglones”. Ambas declaraciones permitiría a cualquier observador neutral preguntarse: ¿Y qué ha hecho el gobierno cubano en estos 50 años en materia alimentaria?

Por su parte la comisión dedicada a la Niñez, la Juventud y los Derechos de la mujer, acordó celebrar una audiencia de valores, el próximo año, para con el apoyo de la UJC dirigir una mirada a las jóvenes generaciones y sus reservas para sustentar el proyecto revolucionario. No hay dudas que se ha comprendido que en Cuba, en estos momentos, hay un grave problema generacional y la gerontocracia en el poder está consciente que no habrá continuidad del totalitarismo".

Mas

Cuban Jamaican Dr. Carlos Moore and the historic Afro American letter against Apartheid In Cuba

2009-12-19T18:24:00.009-07:00

Hat Tip The Real Cuba

Updated 1-18-2010 with new video of Another Afro American.This time, Detroit Labor Leader Mark Wells seen doing the right thing Denouncing Castro's Apartheid. Just clic on Link above

Slice From The Real Cuba:

"For almost 5 years we have been denouncing the blatant racism in Cuba and the incredible lack of support from the Afro-American community in this country for those brave Cubans fighting for human rights in Cuba.

Let's hope this signals a new beginning. Many of those who signed this Document, were among the more than 1,500 black leaders and politicians who received our postcard about Dr. Biscet earlier this year.

Maybe it contributed to open their eyes and Investigate further what has been happening 90 miles from the Florida shores".

Audio from Ethnologist and political scientist Dr.Carlos Moore seen below In the video recounting Racism In Cuba 50 years later

Cuban Art Students protesting Lack of food and water

2009-12-16T18:16:00.011-07:00

Via Cubano en Canarias

Previously unseen footage of Havana art students at the ISA or Institute of Superior Art, protesting the lack and quality of their food and water - apparently the superior school Is Inferio- In providing the students with the most basic elements of life.

The students you see decry not only the slop of food and the rationing of water, but also their lack of freedom of expression - and the apparent dodging of the reality by school regime officials.

At one point later In the video a professor with glasses suggests - that since he Is not In position to help them with these issues, they should meet the next day with the correct authorities, and In an organized manner tell them your concerns.

After listening some students are seen acknowledging the man's efforts, but that they know nothing Is being done on purpose,and that they foresee no changes -In effect, that school officials know full well, that students are being severely rationed on orders of the state. And that students need freedom of expression to voice their legitimate civil rights to adequate food and water.

The scene shifts outside, where a student In underwear, Is taking from a bucket, what seems some slop of food, and Is bathing himself - while dancing students chant and sing In encouragement. Surreal!

The Cuban criminal regime, used to be able to hide all these miserable realities of the apartheid Isle, but as the Internet and you tube videos demonstrate - the Castro Crock Pot Is boiling over. Buon Apetit!

More Images of Human rights day marches In Cuba 10 Dec 2009

2009-12-15T23:20:00.003-07:00

Images of the Cuban Ladies In White or Damas De Blanco and other peaceful Cuban civil rights protesters during this years' human rights day marches In Havana Cuba.

Damas marching down la Avenida de los Presidentes

Damas march front of Cuba's presidential palace 10 Dec 2009

Damas surounded by "turbas" sent by the state to disrupt their peaceful civil rights march In front of the presidential palace Havana Cuba

Dama de blanco Juana Riego and her family

Afro Cuban man being detained by Cuban Secret police during human rights day marches In Havana

Cuba 10 Dec 2009

U.S.S. Maine Afro American Hero William Lambert lead pitcher on Champion Navy Baseball Squad

2009-11-30T03:13:00.007-07:00

Via Cuba Libre Camp 172

"This is one of the few existing photo's of African American Crew Man, William Lambert (of Hampton, Virginia), Fireman 2nd Class and lead pitcher, of the U.S.S. Maine's Baseball Team. He is pictured, in the uniform of the Maine's Baseball Team and is holding a baseball (left handed pitcher). He died, in the explosion, of the ship, on February 15th, 1898, along with every member, of the Baseball Team, with the exception, of John H. Bloomer (who held the rank of Landsman, on the Ship). William Lambert led the U.S.S. Maine's team, to the Navy Championship, in December, of 1897, after the team defeated the crew of the U.S.S. Marblehead. William Lambert was one of 23 African American's, on the U.S.S. Maine. May He and all his Navy Comrades, on the U.S.S. Maine, who lost their lives, on February 15th, 1898, Rest In Peace."

Elian remembered on 10th Anniversary of Thanksgiving Arrival

2009-11-28T00:53:00.001-07:00

Hat Tip Cubanology

".. It was 10 years ago Thanksgiving day that the little Cuban refugee -- famous enough to be known by his first name -- was found drifting alone in an inner tube by two fishermen off Fort Lauderdale.

Today 26 Nov 2009,(Delfin )González, 77, has made it his personal mission to preserve the political and emotional footprint Elián González left in Miami. He is commemorating the 10th anniversary with a modest ceremony at Casa Elián, 2319 NW Second St., from 10 a.m. to noon.

The struggle for the little shipwreck survivor eventually caused a major rift between those who wanted him to go back to his father in Cuba and most exiles who hoped he would be spared communist indoctrination. The fight became a defining moment in exile politics." Full Story Here

Cuban Emiritus Professor of History Manuel Marquez Sterling on Blog talk Radio

2009-11-19T17:05:00.005-07:00

Historian, Author and Co Host of Conversa Cuba John O'Donnell Rosales and I are proud to announce our collaboration with Cubanology's Jose Reyes on his excellent blog talk radio program Speak Your Mind this Thursday 19 Nov at 9pm Eastern time call in number 646-915-9812.

Cuban Professor Emeritus of history Manuel Marquez Sterling will be Interviewed about his new book exploring details of Cuba's rich but mostly unknown history between those fateful years 1952-1959.

Explore this exceptional site edited by Rembert Aranda Cuba 1952-1959 here

15 Minute Audio of Manuel Marquez Sterling on Bulldog radio New Hampshire Here

Another Day Another Way - Forza Liborio

Tribute to Cuban Civil and Human Rights Leaders

2009-11-18T03:22:00.001-07:00

Hat tip Uncommon Sense

The Courage To Be Free: Tribute to Cuban Democracy Activists from National Endowment for Democracy on Vimeo.

Engaging Cuba On human rights article here

Major Rudolf Anderson Sole victim of Cuban Missile Crisis Honored

2009-11-13T19:19:00.004-07:00

Via John O'DOnnell Rosales

"Maj. Rudolf Anderson Jr. was the only life lost in a conflict that teetered on the edge of utter destruction, a crisis remembered today more for the tense diplomacy of the world’s leaders than the daring missions Anderson embarked upon.

Saturday (14 Nov 2009), Anderson will be honored at his gravesite in Woodlawn Memorial Park in Greenville (South Crolina), where officials will announce Oct. 27 to be annually set aside to honor the day the Soviets shot down Anderson’s spy plane during the heart of the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis

Anderson, who was 35 when he died, was a graduate of Clemson University and Greenville High School, where he was the football team manager

The president (John F. Kennedy) awarded Anderson the first Air Force Cross and later awarded a Purple Heart". More

Footnotes:

1- There's testimony by Ex Castro Air force chief Rafael Del Pino That Fidel Castro himself pressed the button that launched the missile that actually killed Major Rudolf Anderson.

2- Anti-Castro Resistance members within The Island and Infiltrated groups provided Intelligence about the Soviet Missile presence In Cuba Before Major Andersen's reconnaissance flight but were ridiculed and Ignored.

Cuban Author of "The Homeland Belongs To All Of Us" Marta Beatriz Roque near death

2009-11-12T20:36:00.007-07:00

Who Cares About Cuba? Read here

Updated Roque and other dissidents end hunger strike here

Via Medicina Cubana

Urgent news out of Cuba about the dire condition of Marta Beatriz Roque a diabetic suffering the effects of repeated acts of repudiation against her and other peaceful Cuban civil rights leaders at the home of Vladimiro Roca points to a situation In which the Cuban Government may be trying to kill her by the hardship of getting her medication,the unrelenting stress of repression against her for months and the effects of a fast by her and others calling attention to the brutality under which Cubans live.

Another link for the story here Is In Spanish but has an English translator.

Read a translated version of the now famous yet largely unknown document "The homeland belongs to all of us" here

Cuba Travel opposed by more Democrats

2009-11-08T18:53:00.006-07:00

Via Mauricio Carone of Capitol Hill Cubans

Slice from the story by the Miami Herald /

"53 Democrats in the House have told Pelosi that they oppose lifting the ban, blunting the momentum that proponents of lifting the travel ban have had under a Democratic president and Democratic-led Congress.

``Any legislation that would seek to ease or lift sanctions . . . would send a devastating message to Cuba's opposition movement and legitimize an ailing dictatorship,'' states the letter signed by Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek, Alcee Hastings and 50 others.

Wasserman Schultz, who helped gather signatures, said the letter is aimed at showing that a number of Democrats oppose easing sanctions against Cuba, a stance that is traditionally associated with Republicans.

``We felt it was important to show that when push comes to shove, the votes aren't there,'' Wasserman Schultz said. ``The number of Republicans opposed combined with these Democrats would seem to spell that it would not be successful.''More

Yoani Sanchez & Friends beaten Sicilian style

2009-11-08T18:32:00.011-07:00

Update Here 11 21 09 Yoani's husband Reinaldo Escobar defends himself against a state mob

Cuban Female blogger Yoani Sanchez and friends were beaten In the streets of La Habana Cuba, In what she described as an attempted kidnapping by Cuban secret police thugs, Just a couple of days ago November 6 2009 on their way to a public act against Violence.Protest Video Here And Here

FULL STORY

Bipatisan panel of Washington DC politicians condemn brutal attack on Yoani and her friends HERE

Cuban workers fear losing food and jobs

2009-10-28T19:17:00.013-06:00

(Bananas outside a Cuban state owned food depot)

Updated 11 11 2009 Thousands of Cuban state workers getting axed story here

Food story slice below /

"..Police were called to one farmers market this month when customers shouted and chanted at state workers conducting a routine inspection. Two Associated Press reporters were escorted out of the same market Tuesday after their questions about the changes caused another shouting match.

Producers, sellers and customers said they heard from party officials that new price controls were set to begin Nov. 1 — but were postponed until January after a public outcry unheard of under the totalitarian government.

The agros first appeared in the 1980, when food shortages forced a reluctant Fidel Castro to allow farmers to sell produce at prices driven, at least in part, by the free market. Castro shuttered them six years later to improve foundering state agricultural production

But the small dose of capitalism returned in 1994, when Cuba was again forced to allow more free-market enterprise to keep its people from starving after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which gave Cuba billions in annual subsidies".
Full story here

Cuba revealed In new pair of books by Juanita Castro & Manuel M. Sterling

2009-10-27T17:25:00.010-06:00

Hat tip John O'Donnell Rosales

(Juanita Castro / Fidel's sister)

".. (Juanita) Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned. In a Spanish-language memoir published by Santillana USA and co-written by journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961.

Castro says in the book, "My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story," that she traveled to Mexico City under the pretense of visiting her younger sister Enma. There she also secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as "Enrique" at the elegant Camino Real hotel.

Castro said she remained on the island while her mother was alive, believing she was protected from the full wrath of her brother. Her mother died in 1963 and she fled Cuba the following year, eventually settling into a quiet life in Miami, where she ran a pharmacy until 2007 and is generally well regarded by other Cuban exiles."
More

Another just released book by Professor Emeritus In History Manuel Marquez Sterling plots "The True Story of Castro's Rise To Power" Via The Cubanology Report

Listen to the 15 minute Interview with Professor Manuel Marquez Sterling via Brian Tilton of Bulldog Radio from New Hampshire Audio Here