The Nursing Home Commandos of Alpha 66

If you are in the mood for a good time, and you speak Spanish, then you owe it to yourself to read the Alpha 66 'editorial' titled “The Only Solution: The Military Defeat of the Tyrant.”

Very funny! I could not stop laughing!

Batista and Somoza: The USA's favorite "democrats"

Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista Zaldivar
In a report published by El Nuevo Herald, under the byline of Ivette Leyva Martinez, it was reported that Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle was the one who sent to Batista his last consignment of arms to fight the Revolution which Fidel Castro Ruz was waging against the general's illegitimate regime, which came to power in a military coup on March 10, 1952.

Somoza sent the arms on November 9, 1958. Two months later, on January 8, 1959, the guerrilla forces commanded by Fidel Castro entered Havana. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara had captured Santa Clara on January 31, 1958. One day later Batista fled to Santo Domingo, after first looting the Cuban Treasury Department. His followers took with them millions of dollars which were deposited in Miami banks and were never returned to the Republic.

Havana calling, with rum

The Telegraph - Calcutta, India

Cuban govt to push for bottling deal with India

JAYANTH JACOB

New Delhi, May 10: Havana Club rum and the Havana cigar have long been the bridge between revolutionary fervour and gentlemanly refinement. Now they are going to drive contact between India and Cuba.

Cuba’s post-Fidel Castro government wants the Havana Club rum bottled in India for the first time, and is sending a team to talk about it — perhaps over a few bottles of the liquid. If the deal is done, Indians can hope for cheaper Cuban rum.

The 19-member Cuban mission, which arrives on May 17 on an 11-day visit, will also be trying to push India’s import of the famed Havana cigar, which at well over Rs 1,000 a stick is becoming a craze in Indian high society.

Although business is high on the agenda of the team — headed by the deputy minister for foreign trade, Eduardo Escandell Amador — no memorandum of understanding is likely to be signed with the Indian government.

Amador will be calling on commerce minister Kamal Nath, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and junior foreign minister Anand Sharma, but it’s the Indian private sector he is interested in.

“Now the Havana Club rum will be bottled from India and it’s going to be one among the many important developments of this visit,” Nidia Banos Ojeda, the first secretary (trade, economic and scientific co-operation) at the Cuban embassy, told The Telegraph.

The Havana Club brand, established by Jose Arechabala in 1878, was nationalised after the Cuban revolution. But since 1993 the rum has been produced by Havana Club International, a 50:50 joint venture between French company Pernod Ricard and the Cuban government.

Pernod now sells many famed liquor brands in India, including the Glenlivet and Chivas Regal.

The Havana Club rum brands, which are not sold in the US, include Havana Club Añejo Blanco, Havana Club Añejo 3 Años, Havana Club Añejo Especial, Havana Club Añejo 7 Años, Havana Club Añejo Reserva, Havana Club Cuban Barrel Proof and Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo.

The team will also meet the two big names in the Havana cigar industry in India: Chetan Seth and K.K. Modi. Seth has been the dealer for hand-made Cuban cigars in India for some time now.

“Although Cuban cigars are available in India, the delegation will be meeting these two… so that the co-operation in the area can go up,” Ojeda said.

The Indian Left generally frowns on drinking but smoking is not taboo, although the comrades once used to pride themselves on their love of cheap brands. Except for the late Pramod Dasgupta, there is no known cigar smoker in the country’s communist pantheon unlike the Latin American revolutionary hall-of-famers such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

The Cuban delegation, the first to India since Castro stepped down, will also meet top officials of the Tatas, Reliance and Maruti. The team will be looking at co-operation in power transmission, transport, textile products, refrigeration components and new technology for Cuba’s famous sugar industry.

“This is the biggest trade delegation since 1980,” Ojeda said.

The current bilateral trade between the two countries is only $30 million, a 10th of what it was in the early 1980s before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mariela Castro: We do not want to install a consumer society

Excerpts:

"We do not want to install a consumer society, but to produce the goods and the services that people need," Mariela Castro said.

She added that Cuba's Communist Party was far less rigid than it once was but would remain in power as long as Cuba was a "besieged country," a thinly-veiled reference to the United States and US sanctions.

The Spanish daily El Pais in April cited an unnamed government official as saying Raul Castro will give a green light soon to migration reform, simplifying exit and entry permits and ending the requirement for people to get permission to leave the country.

Source: AFP

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JG: I certainly hope that Cuba's government will simplify and reform visa and entry requirements for those who left a long time ago and are not enemies of the Revolution. I will never ask for permission and/or a license from the U.S. OFAC Nazis to visit the island where I was born.

Barack Obama in Oregon

Barack Obama: Town Hall Meeting in Bend, Oregon



Barack Obama Bend Oregon music video

The Oregonian endorses opponent of prominent ‘Gang of 66’ member

May 11, 2008

The Oregonian, the largest newspaper in Oregon, endorsed today the opponent of U.S. Representative David Wu, who is a prominent Gang of 66 member, calling him “ineffective.” The Democratic Party primary in the Beaver state will be held on May 20, and U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who was also endorsed by The Oregonian, is expected to win it.

The endorsement for U.S. Congressional District 1 went to Will Hobbs, who the newspaper described as “an articulate and razor-sharp manager at [microchip manufacturer] Intel.”

JG: This is the correct decision. U.S. Representative David Wu is only interested in receiving his $10,000 “campaign contribution” from a right wing PAC in Miami, in exchange for his votes in favor of anti-Cuba legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. I hope that Mr. Hobbs will be elected to represent Oregon's First Congressional District in the General Election, after he wins the primary.

U.S. officials send 79 migrants stopped at sea back to Cuba

South Florida Sun Sentinel

May 11, 2008

Seventy-nine Cuban refugees, stopped at sea in four incidents last week, were sent back to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, on Saturday aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Key Biscayne, the Coast Guard reported.

On Wednesday, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection air crew saw 58 Cuban refugees on two, speedboats traveling in tandem about 40 miles southeast of Miami. Also Wednesday, the Coast Guard Cutter Kodiak Island stopped 18 Cubans on a rustic vessel about 45 miles northwest of Havana.

In the first incident, U.S. border agents used disabling fire to intercept the vessels about 12 miles east of Miami, after the four suspected smugglers refused to stop, Coast Guard officials said. The suspects were transferred to border patrol agents in Miami; the Cuban refugees were transferred to the Coast Guard Cutter Pea Island.

On Tuesday, an aircraft crew saw another speedboat without its lights on about 80 miles southwest of Key West. The Coast Guard said it stopped the boat with six Cuban refugees and two suspected smugglers aboard. Three of the Cubans were sent back to the island Saturday; two are awaiting transfer to U.S. immigration officials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and one case is pending. The suspects were turned over to border patrol agents in Key West.

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JG: Greedy capitalists have discovered a new lucrative Business: smuggle "freedom seeking" Cubans to Florida at $10,000 a head. The only thing I have to say to those would be migrants is: SUCKERS!

Cuba in the 'politics of change' Look out for Obama-Castro meeting.

Trinidad and Tobago Express

Analysis by Rickey Singh

Sunday, May 11th 2008

As President George W Bush was hurling his latest political insult at Cuba last week, it was becoming increasingly evident that Barack Obama is not only set to emerge in November as the first Black American President, but become the first US Head of State to meet with President Raul Castro - brother of the legendary Fidel Castro.

With the seismic shift in presidential electoral politics occurring in the US, the small Caribbean nation of Cuba 90 miles away from the world's sole superpower appears destined to have a different kind of confirmation of Fidel Castro's memorable prophesy that "history will absolve me", in the revolution he set on course back in 1959 and when, finally, the mighty US ceases to blind itself to the Cuban reality in this first decade of the 21st century..

Do not expect miracles following an expected meeting of Obama as President with Raul Castro - whether, in Havana or Washington, once the young charismatic senator from Illinois becomes the new tenant in The White House in January 2009.

For, with his constant promise to give a significantly new meaning to the "politics of change in America", Obama can hardly ignore the challenge that Cuba presents as part of making that "change" a reality.

In signalling his own fundamental break with the past in terms of years of anti-Castro politics by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) he leads, Prime Minister Bruce Golding returned home last week from an official visit to Cuba and has been speaking of new approaches in Cuba-Jamaica relations for mutual benefits.

The title of an editorial in last Wednesday's Jamaica Observer spoke volumes: "Golding buries Seaga-era Cuban policy", it declared, as the text reflected on the previous hostile relations that existed while the former JLP leader and ex-prime minister, Edward Seaga (now in retirement) was in charge.

Seaga was also one of the closest of Caricom allies with successive Republican administrations-beyond the US military invasion of Grenada in 1983.

Bush's way

Speaking last Wednesday in Washington at a meeting of the Council of the Americas, President Bush mocked as "empty gestures" new measures introduced by President Raul Castro to improve living conditions for Cubans, including freedom to purchase commodities hitherto out of reach; staying at same hotels like foreign visitors; and having access to more land to increase food production and market their produce.

For President Bush, "Cuba's change in leadership has not changed the way it (the government) treats the Cuban people...the regime has made empty gestures at reform but Cuba is still ruled by the same group that has

oppressed them for half a century.."

Bush also returned to his familar position in demanding "release of political prisoners" and for the holding of "free and fair elections...".

Truth is, the world is quite familiar with the fundamental difference in the governance systems in the US and Cuba. It is also familiar with the reality of Bush's own policies that account for the gross human rights violations of political prisoners by America at Guantanamo.

Nor should it be forgotten how George Bush was defeated by Al Gore by more than half a million popular votes at the 2000 election, but ended up being President by a single casting vote of then US Chief Justice William Rehnquist to halt a recount of the votes in Florida.

Those who advocate free and fair elections-to which all Caricom states correctly subscribe-must not ignore how George Walker Bush became President of the US. In this context, it may also be instructive for all friends of the US to carefully monitor developments to flow from last month's majority ruling by the US Supreme Court in support of voter IDs at elections.

The ruling, which upheld an Indiana law, could have serious negative consequence for Democratic voters, especially of the Black American and Hispanic communities, according to reports in leading US media.

The Inter-Press Service (IPS) in a report on April 28 titled "US Supreme Court gives Republicans a boost", also quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat) as decrying that, "The court's decision places obstacles to the fundamental right, especially the poor, the elderly and individual with disabilities,to participate in the electoral process..."

Confronted with the challenges of their own governance system, the Cuban government of President Raul Castro would hardly be sidetracked by President Bush's latest jibe about "empty gestures" by a dictatorial regime in Havana.

From Eisenhower

Not since President Dwight Eisenhower imposed a most unique punitive economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba in February 1962, has there been a meeting of a President of the US and Cuba, which has sucessfully defied for 46 years endless attempts by successive Washington administrations to suffocate its revolution and have Fidel Castro cry to "Uncle Sam".

In contrast to her Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, an intellectually challenging, charming and tenacious candidate, continues to engage in a words game on engagement with Castro's Cuba.

Obama, on the other hand, went on record last February in a televised debate to tell America and the world that he would "move quickly" toward a meeting with President Castro's replacement.

This position, unique for a US presidential candidate, was consistent with Obama's previously expressed commitment to hold direct talks with controversial world leaders of nations such as Syria and Iran, viewed as hostile to the US.

While the very articulate Hillary Clinton engages in a word game about wanting to first see "evidence of change in Cuba" (a reference to the Cuban political system) before commiting herself to a meeting, as president, with her Cuban counterpart, Obama, has declared with characteristic eloquence:

"If we (presidential candidates) think that meeting with the Cuban President is a privilege that has to be earned (by him), I think that reinforces the sense that we stand above the rest of the world..."

Now, some four months later and with greater momentum building for his presidential campaign, there seems good cause to keep watch for a Barack Obama/ Raul Castro meeting.

The optimism would be greater should the Democrats end up with a historic and formidable Obama/Clinton ticket for November.

Call a Doctor! Florida has Fidel-o-phobia

The Havana Note

Even in retirement, Fidel Castro exerts outsized influence over our country’s political life. Even now, he may affect the access Floridians have to health care.

How can this be? To teach Castro a lesson, a state legislator is fighting to ban American doctors, educated in Cuba, from practicing medicine in Florida, and already a committee has acted to move this proposal forward.

This story, about a small and largely symbolic issue, speaks volumes about how Fidel-o-phobia can cause even our most well-meaning public officials to do the strangest and most self-defeating things.

Nearly a decade ago, President Castro founded the Latin American School of Medicine, also called “ELAM,” where foreign students are given a medical education for free. They come largely from developing countries’ poor and indigenous communities where medical care is desperately needed, and they are encouraged to return to those communities to practice. ELAM is a classic example of Cuba’s application of soft-power in its international diplomacy.

Over a hundred American students—mainly from minority communities-- are now enrolled there. Who are these students? They are whip smart, highly motivated kids, desperate to become physicians, yet unable to afford a medical education in the United States, or unwilling to shoulder the $200,000 debt that now hits the average US medical student the day after graduation.

So, they go to Cuba, learn Spanish (coming home bilingual), take bridging courses in sciences if necessary and spend six years being trained as physicians in Cuba alongside students from 28 other countries. After which, the hope is, they will return to the United States and practice medicine in some of the thousands of our country’s under-served communities.

Is a Cuban medical education any good? According to experts we’ve consulted, the answer is yes. Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, a former U.S. Assistant Surgeon General, says Cuban medical education is well-respected and that Cuba’s achievement in scaling up physician training is an important example for other countries. The first US graduate has already passed his medical boards and is in his first year of residency in New York City. With the latest class, a total of 17 will have graduated by this summer.

Enter Rep. Eddy Gonzalez.

His bill, HB 685, which was passed by the Healthcare Council, and will now go to a floor vote, will strictly prohibit any of these American medical students currently enrolled at ELAM from practicing medicine in Florida.

According to the Federation of State Medical Boards, this would make Florida the first state in the nation to ban all physicians who graduated from any school in a particular country.

Even though Rep. Gonzalez has called facets of Cuba’s health care system "state of the art," he says that students educated in Cuba, whose government he despises, “do not possess the basic judgment and character required for the ethical practice of medicine in Florida."

Rep. Gonzalez vastly underestimates the idealism and the devotion to medicine possessed by these doctors, and nothing in his legislation will change the Cuban system. What it will do is stop Florida from getting young, talented physicians to practice where they are surely needed.

Dr. Karl Altenburger, president of the Florida Medical Association, calls the state’s doctor shortage severe. He’s said that young doctors don’t want to come to Florida to practice; the state lacks internships, residency programs, and fellowships. The average age of doctors in Florida is 51 and a quarter of the state’s physicians are over 60.

Florida, the fourth most populous state, is ranked 20th in its number of active physicians by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Tad Fisher, executive Vice President of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, said that Florida needs an additional 12,000 primary care physicians by 2020 to meet its health care needs.

And there are plenty of underserved people in Gonzalez’s home district: the Health Council of South Florida’s Miami-Dade County’s 2007 Community Health Report Card gave “access to health care” a pretty scary “F”.

Florida acknowledges these problems and advertises on the internet to recruit physicians to treat patients in the state who don’t have adequate access to doctors. It even offers waivers to attract foreign-born, foreign educated physicians to serve. But American students educated in Cuba? They need not apply.

When Floridians come down with Fidel-o-phobia, they torment each other (and the rest of us) just to show Castro up. More often than not, we end up with silly ideas like this which hurt us, not him. Now that Fidel’s retired, we should stop dancing at the end of his string, look squarely at our own interests, and decide for ourselves the right way to pursue our nation’s ideals.

-- Sarah Stephens and Gail Reed

Gail Reed M.S., is a journalist who serves as International Director of Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC). Sarah Stephens is Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

Posted on April 8, 2008 6:10 PM

What is locavore?

When I first saw the word, thanks to Ybor City Stogie, I said to myself, what is locavore? I was busy with the blog and other things and did not investigate.

This amateur mixture of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and Lawrence Block found out today!

Click and discover.

Mural celebrates Brunswick's bond with Cuba

The 32-foot piece of artistry,
years in the making, will be unveiled Saturday
The Times Record - Maine

Rachel_Ganong@TimesRecord.Com

05/09/2008

BRUNSWICK — "Dance of Two Cultures," a mural by artist Christopher Cart that celebrates the Brunswick Trinidad Sister City Association, will officially be unveiled during a ceremony beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday at 11 Pleasant St.

The ceremony will feature Cuban music from Primo Cubano, a presentation, refreshments and a video showing the creation of 8-by-32 foot mural over the last three years.

The mural's dedication comes five years after the start of a sister-city relationship between the town of Brunswick and the city of Trinidad, Cuba, through the BTSCA, which aims to promote a cultural exchange in the arts, education, music, history and traditions with the residents of Trinidad.

To meet that goal, Hallowell artist Christopher Cart, assisted by dozens of local artists and volunteers, worked to create Brunswick's only public outdoor mural featuring images of more than 50 Mainers and Cubans enjoying each others' cultures at a festival.

Along with artwork by Trinidad high school students and local artists, the mural depicts Brunswick notables like Joshua Chamberlain and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, contemporary Brunswick residents like Spindleworks artists Earl Black and Rita Langlois and Trinidad's vice-mayor, historian and community gardener.

"Christopher could barely take the brush out of his hand," project organizer Susan Weems said about the mural artist Christopher Cart. "He was paying attention to how people's eybrows are done let alone fingers and teeth. This is a painting, not a mural."

Cart finished his final strokes on the mural with his signature on Saturday. On Monday he, Dan Atkins of FineBlade Carpentry and artist Bev Bevilacqua hung the painting on an aluminum frame.

"This has been an incredibly difficult project," Weems said. "The wall was uneven, and they couldn't find the studs, so they ended up having to build away from the wall because it wasn't flat," she said.

But for some the effect has already surpassed the effort. "With the darker side of humanity so prevalent these days, the mural's illumination of the promise of humanity is an extraordinary gift of inspiration to our community," Atkins said.

Weems said the community raised $60,000 for the project, half in cash and half in-kind donations like landscaping, lighting, printing and other services.

While organizers still have more to raise, Weems said the project already has met its goal. "All of the community was involved, and that was the purpose," she said.

For more information about the mural or Saturday's celebration, visit www.brunswicktrinidad.org or call 729-7624.

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JG: A beautiful project. Way to go Maine!

Cuba and Mexico Boost Bilateral Trade

Invasor.cu

(Updated may 9 2008, 10:30 am)

Some 200 Cuban and Mexican business executives held a two-day meeting this week in Havana hoping to boost trade and business opportunities between the two countries.

According to Granma newspaper, Raul Becerra, president of the Cuban
Chamber of Commerce, highlighted that in the first quarter of 2008
commercial exchange between Cuba and Mexico increased by 70 percent compared to the same period in 2006.

The Mexican business representatives present came from a wide gamut of sectors including the food, steel, energy, tourism and informatics
industries.

Luz Maria de la Mora, in charge of the Economic Relations and
Cooperation office of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, said her country
imports rum, tobacco, chemical goods, medicines and copper products
among others from Cuba for a total of US $16 million in 2007, while
Mexico sold Cuba $190 million in farm and industrial products.

An agreement was signed at the meeting between the National Bank of
Foreign Commerce of Mexico and the National Bank of Cuba in an effort to boost imports and exports between the two countries.

Estrella Madrigal, trade and economic adviser at the Mexican embassy,
told Prensa Latina that this 15th Meeting of the Cuba-Mexico Business
Committee was an important opportunity to promote and develop ties. (acn)

Cuban Central Bank report advocates stronger peso, fewer subsidies

International Herald Tribune

The Associated Press

Published: May 10, 2008

HAVANA: Cuba's Central Bank is urging the government to gradually unify the island's two parallel currencies and cut back on "indiscriminate" subsidies, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.

The document, which was distributed to Communist Party members, says a single, strong peso would boost productivity and morale in Cuba. The island now has two separate currencies: one for locals, and one designed principally for foreigners.

Party members were instructed to discuss the bank's recommendations between April and June. One of those members provided a copy of the document to a local journalist.

The report, a rare glimpse into the back rooms of one of the world's last communist economies, says Cuba would be more efficient if its currencies were streamlined. But it warns that the transition should be gradual, with incremental revaluations to narrow the gap between the two pesos over time.

Rumors have circulated that Raul Castro, who replaced his brother as president in February, is planning to strengthen the ordinary peso, which is now worth about 21 per U.S. dollar. The convertible peso is currently worth slightly more than a dollar.

The government controls more than 90 percent of Cuba's economy, paying the typical Cuban state worker a regular peso salary worth about US$19.50 (€12.50) a month. It also operates upscale grocery and department stores catering to tourists and foreigners that charge in convertible pesos.

But because many products are not sold in regular pesos, Cubans who are paid in that currency must buy items such toilet paper and cooking oil at the more expensive convertible-peso stores.

As a result, many blame their low buying power on the double currency system, fueling support for a single currency "as a magic and definitive solution," the Central Bank document said.

But to suddenly boost the peso against its convertible counterpart, the report warned, would drive Cubans to buy expensive, imported goods at drastically reduced prices — leaving state stores with little income to restock shelves and sparking shortages.

About 60 percent of Cubans have access to at least some convertible pesos, either by exchanging foreign currency from relatives in the U.S., or by working for foreign firms or in jobs that let them collect tips from tourists, government figures show.

The Central Bank's report also suggests that the government reduce "indiscriminate" subsidies to cut state expenses and ease the burden of strengthening the currency.

All Cubans receive the same subsidized services: free health care and education, an inexpensive selection of basic foods, utilities and public transportation. Few pay for housing.

The 700,000-member Communist Party plans its first party congress since 1997 in the second half of this year.

Apátrida Gutierrez talks about Cuba

Today, apátrida Commerce secretary Carlos Gutiérrez talked again about Cuba, good Yankee parrot that he is. I will provide the necessary link so you can read for yourself his speech.

He, and the other vendepatria, U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, are constantly talking about Cuba. The two individuals may claim that they are Cuban, but the real Cuban people, those who live and work inside the island and are ready to give their lives every day to defend the nation’s independence and national sovereignty know very well that the only thing that they can truly be called are faithful servants of American imperialism.

They both employ the old Nazi technique which states that “if you repeat a lie thousands and thousands of times, eventually enough gullible, naive, uneducated, and ill informed citizens will come to believe that those lies are the truth. They will say war is peace. It is typical George Orwell newspeak.

They constantly parrot the imperialist’s favorite word about Cuba: human rights. They repeat it ad nauseam.

Who are they tying to fool? Only themselves!

The people of the world know very well who are the true human rights violators: those who have committed and continue to commit innumerable atrocities and tortures in Iraq, Guantanamo, Cuba and in those infamous secret CIA rendition jails in eastern Europe.

“By their deeds ye shall know them”

Apátrida Gutiérrez Speech

Columnist: Obama should play the Cuba card

Joe O’Neil, a columnist for the South Shore News and Tribune in the Tampa Bay Area wrote today that U.S. Senator Barack Obama should take the initiative in the foreign policy domain. Here are quotes from his key four paragraphs:

And while [Hillary] Clinton prattles on about gas-tax holiday gimmicks and Lincoln-Douglas debates on flatbed trucks, Obama can make the case that Cuba is the first place he'd start the FOREIGN POLICY overhaul. And that, to be sure, includes the counter-productive economic embargo. Sure, it will upset the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and some other family-feud zealots in South Florida and Jersey City. So what? The rest of the country and the rest of the world would applaud.

Moreover, such an issue would provide Obama with another forum to help rally a Democratic Party that must produce a bigger majority in Congress to make meaningful progress. Especially where Cuba – and the Helms-Burton Act – is involved.

Even though the usual exile suspects will shriek in choleric rage, Obama will get much more credit than criticism. Let's face it; change is coming anyhow. But it will show some Obamian guts, and it will be seen as the right thing for all the right reasons: morally, economically (especially in Florida) and geopolitically.

It will be a signal to the rest of the world that this isn't business as usual any more coming out of Washington.

JG: Very well said Mr. O’Neil! It is time to revamp and reform our failed Cuba policies.

Miami want ad: ‘Terrorist experience a plus’

Progreso Weekly

May 8 - 14, 2008

Al’s Loupe

By Alvaro F. Fernandez

alfernandez@the-beach.net

“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” -- John 4:20

Frankenstein’s monsters have chosen to settle where they began their lifetime of terror. Actually, the fact that the U.S. harbors terrorists in Miami doesn’t surprise me. They helped to create them here.

I recently read that Luis Posada Carriles was feted in a Miami country club whose members yearn for the Cuba before Fidel Castro. This is the same Posada Carriles who masterminded and blew up a Cubana Airliner while in flight with 73 human beings on board -- most, young people from the Cuban olympic fencing team. When convenient, Posada Carriles has also laid claim to plotting the murder of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. At other moments, he has admitted to reporters of planning numerous attacks which damaged tourist spots in Havana and killed at least one person in the process. The fact is, that in the 1970s, he was the Western Hemisphere’s Osama bin Laden, before the U.S. had even thought of training the bearded Saudi. Interestingly, they both have something in common: at different moments and for different purposes, they were taught their trade by the U.S. government.

Bin Laden should consider moving to Miami. I am sure some wacky group would find some reason for honoring him. If he’s lucky and this particular organization has become powerful enough and contributes enough money during political races, Osama might even find himself standing on the dais during a presidential visit.

It is possible in Miami. Yes! A place where ‘good’ terrorists are revered by people blinded by hatred.

A couple of years back, during a visit to Miami, President George W. Bush had the ‘honor’ of sharing the stage with convicted terrorist Orlando Bosch -- also implicated in the Cubana bombing. Among many other crimes, Bosch was arrested in Florida in 1968 for attacking a Polish freighter with a 57 mm recoilless rifle simply because it flew the flag of a communist state. Bosch served time for this and other terrorist doings. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (at the time a businessman), Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (in the state legislature then) and Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero (then an up-and-coming attorney and Harvard grad) managed to have him pardoned by Jeb’s dad, the first President Bush.

Four years ago I ran into Guillermo Novo by happenstance. He was working for the Allappattah Business Development Corporation, a quasi-public enterprise funded through the city and county of Miami and Miami-Dade, respectively. Novo is another convicted Cuban American terrorist. He was involved in the 1976 murder of Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier. He once fired a bazooka at the United Nations when Che Guevara was to speak.

But here was Guillermo, it was 2004, his hands shaking from old age, and collecting a paycheck from a Miami taxpayer-funded institution. It was as if a “terrorist experience a plus” want ad had been placed in The Miami Herald.

A friend recently told me that Miami Cuban exiles are a very united group. What brings them together, she said, is hatred.

Her words surprised me. The more I thought about them, though, the more I agreed with her. Their hatred is so ferocious and overpowering that most have become old, and in many ways useless, as they wage their war to overthrow the Cuban government from Miami street corners while sipping “cortaditos” in their over-starched and expensive linen guayaberas. No wonder the few with the misguided courage to really do something are lauded for the bravery that is missing in the many who live vicariously through them.

Sadly, in the end, Frankenstein’s monsters, now living their waning years comfortably in Miami, are responsible for way too many deaths for the sake of American democracy. And most disturbing is the perception that they’ve had Uncle Sam’s blessing along the way.

Setting the Record Straight

May 7, 2008

Alberto N. Jones DVM

Dear editor,

Please allow me to express my deepest gratitude for your editorial “Golding buries Seaga-era Cuban policy , The Jamaica Observer, 5/7/08, which may have contributed to a better understanding of this intentionally distorted historical fact.

As the grandson of Jamaicans, who were part of tens of thousands of emigrants from the English speaking Caribbean islands and Haiti, lured to Cuba in the early 1900’s as cheap labor for the development of a burgeoning sugar industry, where they contributed billions of hours in many suffocating sugar cane plantations and were forced to live in infra-human conditions in thatched-roof huts without running water, electricity, schools or health care, causing many to shed tears, blood or paying the ultimate price.

Incalculable riches was poured into the bulging coffers of native sugar barons and the United Fruit Co., Guantanamo Sugar Co and many other US transnationals, who brutally segregated and withheld all opportunities of advancement from these emigrants.

No blacks was given employment in banks, office setting, garment stores, large companies except for menial employment picking-up trash or even allowed to drive a Greyhound type, inter-provincial bus. What we did have was rampant malnutrition, pervasive infant and maternal mortality and the infamous gully winding through our communities with the putrid effluent from those living on the other side of the railroad tracks.

When South Africa gained its independence, thousands of people from around the world flocked to that country to see what Apartheid was all about. We did not have to, since most of us were born, lived and died in our own Soweto in Cuba.

It was not until 1959 with the triumph of the Revolution, that a serious attempt was made to level the playing field, by removing all legal forms of racism or segregation. This single act, created an unprecedented opportunity for millions of blacks, who accessed every field of middle and higher education, which resulted in one of the largest pool of educated blacks in the world.

Tens of thousands of Afro-Cubans have provided free health care, education, sports and cultural training in over eighty countries around the world. Afro-Cubans have also played an important role as educators for over 50,000 middle and higher education graduates from Africa and the rest of the world. Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa would present an immensely different political arrangement, but for the thousands of Cubans in general and Afro-Cubans in particular, willing to shed their blood, limbs and lives.

The collapse of the Soviet Union inflicted an enormous financial setback on Cuba, impacting severely the Afro-Cuban community, who up until then, had only a negligible migratory tendency and therefore, none or very little possibilities of receiving remittance from abroad.

Spain developed a life-line support for its emigrants and descendants living in Cuba. The miniscule Chinese, Arabic and Jewish communities received all sorts of moral and material support from their maternal countries or emigrant communities. Afro-Cubans were, and still are on their own, with help from no one or no country in the world, placing this community of 2-3 million people, on the brink of a catastrophic social collapse.

And yet, it is precisely during this incredible financial disaster, when there is little food, no electricity, scarcity of medicines and all other basic means of survival, that Cuba exhibit its greatest humanitarian principles, by founding the Latin American School of Medical Sciences in Havana with over 8000 students primarily from Latin America and the Caribbean School of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba, where over 2000 students from 11 African countries and 10 Caribbean islands are all trained free of charge.

Against this backdrop, is the constant barrage of accusations of Human Rights violations in Cuba coming out of Washington and their mouthpieces, against so called independent journalists, independent unionists, independent librarians and others, created, directed and paid by USAID and tens of front foundations.

These are some of the crude realities that make Cubans in general and Afro-Cubans in particular, have a different take on the selective use and punitive imposition of the so called Human Rights violations upon those that are disliked or intended to destroy. No one in that nation can better identify and describe the real meaning of Human Rights Violations than blacks, which has been an integral part of most of our existence.

It is my hope, that this partial historical summary, may serve to illustrate the roots of some of our burning problems that are clamoring for our support, without ever excusing past or present mistakes, abuses or worst.
We should all express our eternal gratitude to Prime Minister Bruce Golding for his courageous trip to Cuba against the retrograde advise of some; which we hope, may pave the way for those sister islands, who have so far refrained from becoming part of our community of nations.

No political, social, ethnic, religious or financial differences, should be allowed to supersede our common history, sufferings and aspirations. Only by working together, respecting each others view, intensifying our exchanges and collaboration, identify our areas of strength and weakness, remove all vestiges of chauvinistic nationalism, respect our borders without allowing them to become divisive walls, will we be worthy of the dreams of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Simon Bolivar and Jose Marti calling for the creation of “Our America”.

The Best Cuban Baseball Players for the 2004-2008 Olympic Cycle

Please scroll down. I do not know why the big blank space, before the table shows up, and I am not an expert on HTML Tables. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The Best For The Olympic Cycle
BATTING
	AB	H	AVG	HRS	R	RBI	SLG	OBP	CRE	PRO
Rolando Meriño	1367	482	353	49	314	308	557	457	573	419
Alexei Bell	1360	454	334	75	306	311	593	422	542	399
José Julio Ruiz	1094	368	336	27	227	224	483	426	424	388
Yoandry Urgellés	1474	525	356	52	325	294	545	440	567	385
Yulieski Gourriel	1611	535	332	98	359	352	602	423	613	381
Alexander Malleta	1322	428	324	68	230	336	545	446	498	377
Frederich Cepeda	1364	462	339	65	311	264	554	497	510	374
Joan C. Pedroso	1275	413	324	105	300	275	629	465	460	369
Michel Enríquez	1084	412	380	38	241	193	579	480	396	365
Yoennis Céspedes	1559	475	305	87	347	293	550	385	553	355
Eriel Sánchez	1473	484	329	69	256	334	532	400	521	354
Yoandri Garlobo	1000	363	363	39	199	189	556	481	349	349
Statistics: Alden González Díaz and Rafael Pérez Pérez.

Abbreviations:

AB: Times at Bat
H: Hits
AVG: Batting Average
HRS: Home Runs
R: Runs Scored
RBI: Runs Batted In
SLG: Slugging Percentage
OBP: On Base Percentage
CRE: Runs Created
PRO: Productivity

Source: Sigfredo Barros - Granma

JG: Cuba has not announced yet the names of the baseball players who will defend their Olympic Gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Cuba off to strong start at Pan American

USA Today

Posted 8h 26m ago

MIAMI (AP) — Cuba's Driulis Gonzalez, Idalis Ortiz and Yurisel Laborde won gold medals Thursday in the women's competition in the Pan American Judo Championships.

Gonzalez topped the field in the 63-kilogram category, Laborde won at 78 kilograms and Ortiz took the gold medal at 78 kilograms-plus in the 22-country regional event that determines team spots in the Beijing Olympics. Individual berths will be set later.

"I'm proud for myself. I'm proud for Cuba, but mostly I'm just happy I did well," said Gonzalez, one of eight Cubans to medal.

Brazil also placed eight athletes in the medal rounds in all weight classes, with seven winning medals - including Mayra Aguiar in the women's 70-kilogram division.

Travis Stevens of Glenville, N.Y., earned the lone medal for the United States, losing to Brazil's Guilherme Luna in the 81-kilogram final.

Brazil's Eduardo Santos won at 90 kilograms, Canada's Keith Morgan topped the 100-kilogram field, and Brazil's Walter Santos won at 100 kilograms-plus.

A group of protesters gathered outside of the hotel as the preliminary rounds drew to a close. The group, a sect of anti-Castro Cuban exiles called Vigilia Mambisa, took issue with the inclusion of a Cuban delegation at the games.

Thursday marked the first time a Cuban judo team had competed on American soil since the 1996 U.S. Open in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Associated Press

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JG: Vigilia Mambisa is a very violent group of Miami right wingers. See the following Cuba Journal post: January 2007: Vigilia Mambisa violence CBS video

Condemn Reverend Rod Parsley

Let us all condemn the preaching of hate
by Reverend Rod Parsley,
who is the “spiritual adviser” of U.S. Senator John McCain.