A new full length Cuban Documentary
Released on YoutTube recently. I am trying to download it and add English subtitles.
It's a must see! There is an epic scene right about at 28:00 mins into the film (no language is needed to communicate this level of oppression.)
See the movie here at this link. The film is titled GUSANO
If you can find a way to download it and send it to me. I will add the English subtitles.
YOU CAN ALSO WATCH THE FULL LENGTH DOCUMENTARY HERE!
It's a must see! There is an epic scene right about at 28:00 mins into the film (no language is needed to communicate this level of oppression.)
See the movie here at this link. The film is titled GUSANO
If you can find a way to download it and send it to me. I will add the English subtitles.
YOU CAN ALSO WATCH THE FULL LENGTH DOCUMENTARY HERE!
Early days of the Castro Regime
Thousands of Cubans have died in front of Castro's infamous firing squad. There was no discrimination, as far as the firing squad was concerned. Young and old, black and white, rich and poor were sent to 'el paredón' (the wall).
Many of those who helped Castro gain power, like Comandantes Ernesto Sori Marin and William Morgan, an American, were among the thousands who were shot.
Many of those who helped Castro gain power, like Comandantes Ernesto Sori Marin and William Morgan, an American, were among the thousands who were shot.
And more than fifty years after the above photo was taken, Castro and his gang of murderers continue to send to the firing squad, those Cubans who oppose his betrayal of the Revolution.
Why is the entire World blind to a half century of Castro's Crimes?
The Lady's in White
Here is a full article with the play by play
Posted by on June 11, 2013
Sonia Garro has been rotting in a Cuban political prison since March of last year for no other crime other than speaking out against the dictatorial Castro regime. Sonia is a courageous black woman whose horrific plight could have been helped by just a mention of support and recognition by an influential fellow black woman, Beyonce, during her vacation in Cuba. But alas, Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z instead chose to lend their support to the apartheid dictatorship of the Castro brothers.
Lady in White and political prisoner Sonia Garro
suffering from further health problems
Sonia Garro, a member of the Ladies in White, and her husband Ramon Alejandro Munoz, president of the Independent Afro-Cuban Foundation, have been held in prison since March of 2012 after a violent arrest by the political police days before Pope Benedict’s visit to the island. The dictatorships’ authorities have not carried out a trial for either of the dissidents and they have been subjected to various inhumane treatments.
Most recently, the digital newspaper “Diario de Cuba” published an update on Garro’s health condition, which has worsened due to the fact that she was confined to a punishment cell for 10 days.
Opposition groups, individuals and members of the Ladies in White continuously demand the release of Garro and Munoz, but they are also in need of international solidarity.
Here’s the report by ‘Diario de Cuba’, in English (My Translation):
——-
Sonia Garro’s health worsens after spending 10 days in a punishment cell
The health of political prisoner Sonia Garro, who has been in prison without a trial for 1 year and 3 months, has worsened after the authorities of the Guatao Women’s Prison sent her to a punishment cell for 10 days, according to a denouncement made to “Diario de Cuba” by Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White.
According to Soler, two common female prisoners – used by the jailers as “provokers” to cause incidents- tried to involve Garro in a “riot” where several of the prisoners burned mattresses and left 18 injured in another Detachment.
Seeing that this did not yield the desired results, they tried to involve Garro, who was watching television at the time, trying to make her become angry by offending her. They demanded that she change the channel and that she sign a paper with slogans against the government.
Soler said that Garro, a member of the Ladies in White, asked one of the jailers to intervene, but this person simply responded “solve the problem on your own”.
read more here
Ways to helphttp://www.fhrcuba.org/category/news/
TED TALKS: Power Shift on Netflix
From politics in the United States to the dawn of the Arab Spring, powers are shifting around the world. Explore the ideas of statecraft through these presentations on diplomacy, border conflicts, U.S. elections, extremist groups and more.
Here is more on this topic from in the words of Yoani Sanchez
http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2011/11/yoani-sanchez-speaks-to-al-jazeeras.html?m=1
Here is more on this topic from in the words of Yoani Sanchez
http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2011/11/yoani-sanchez-speaks-to-al-jazeeras.html?m=1
The Cuban Spring is Almost Here
The Cuban Spring is Almost Here
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
By Vanessa Garcia in The Huffington Post:
As someone who writes about ABCs (American Born Cubans), Cuba, and Cuban-Americans, people often ask me the following question: "If it's so bad in Cuba, why don't Cubans revolt?" Why don't the people inside the island pour out into the street and lift their fists into the air, burn effigies, call out for freedom?
Images of the Arab Spring, blooming across our multi-media screens, have brought this question further to the forefront in recent years.
In the past, others have tried to answer this question by claiming that Cuba is too insulated to revolt. That not enough information seeps into the island to empower its people. Another answer is that hungry generations have been more busy figuring out how to eat than how to dethrone the government that was responsible for their stomach's growl.
But there's more. My response is as follows: If you are asking this question -- if you are sitting back, chewing a stick of gum, and asking yourself why Cubans don't act, then you're not paying close enough attention.
There is an uprising surging from Cuba -- voices coming up from cyberspace, like that of dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, who since 2007 has been clacking away at her computer, sending messages across continents and nations, one byte at a time. For years she has been saying, in her blog Generation Y: This is Cuba -- when we rise up, they jail us; when we strike against injustice, they let us die of hunger. As they let prisoner of conscience, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, die during a hunger strike while imprisoned in 2010.
Zapata Tamayo was imprisoned, according to Amnesty International, "solely for having peacefully exercised [his] rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly."
Meanwhile, Berta Soler, who leads the Ladies in White -- a group that has been protesting against the imprisonment of their loved ones since 2003's Black Spring -- continues to march.
During 2003's Black Spring, the Castro regime arrested 75 human rights activists, journalists, writers, and librarians for threatening the "territorial integrity of the state." Since then, and on every Sunday, the Ladies in White rally down Fifth Avenue in Havana, making their presence and demands known, despite harassment and threats. They want their husbands free; they fight for the same rights their friends, lovers, and husbands were jailed for -- what the Varela Project demanded: democratic and constitutional reform for Cuba.
The Varela Project, launched in the late '90s by Oswaldo Payá, proposed freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free elections, free enterprise, and the release of political prisoners. Payá died last year in a car accident -- an accident that his daughter, Rosa Maria Payá, has bravely claimed was no accident at all.
"Today," she said to the UN in March of this year, "we urge the United Nations to launch an independent investigation into the death of my father. The truth is essential..." In her speech, she implicated the Cuban government in the murder of her father. She ended her speech by asking: "When will the people of Cuba finally enjoy basic democracy and fundamental freedoms?"
These women, Sanchez, Soler, and Payá, write, march, speak, and protest. They have traveled outside of Cuba and have, as best they could, tried to spread the word that Cuba and Cubans are ready for change.
These women are, in short, the representatives of a rising up from silence. This may not be the kind of revolution we've seen from the Arab Spring, not yet, and perhaps (though of this we cannot be sure) not ever, nor is it the kind of revolution that got Cuba in trouble to begin with -- not the green-fatigued cry of their forefathers.
This is a revolution of pens, sharp as their wits; of wills, strong as their desire for justice and democracy; of voices and words that beg for change. This is Civil Disobedience. If 2003's Black Spring was a wilted one, left to rot enclosed in cells, un-watered, then 2013's spring, ten years later, is a stronger spring -- the nearly full-grown bloom of a long, hard, and labored planting and irrigation season.
The Cuban Spring is almost here. Now all we have to do is listen closely and respond.
As someone who writes about ABCs (American Born Cubans), Cuba, and Cuban-Americans, people often ask me the following question: "If it's so bad in Cuba, why don't Cubans revolt?" Why don't the people inside the island pour out into the street and lift their fists into the air, burn effigies, call out for freedom?
Images of the Arab Spring, blooming across our multi-media screens, have brought this question further to the forefront in recent years.
In the past, others have tried to answer this question by claiming that Cuba is too insulated to revolt. That not enough information seeps into the island to empower its people. Another answer is that hungry generations have been more busy figuring out how to eat than how to dethrone the government that was responsible for their stomach's growl.
But there's more. My response is as follows: If you are asking this question -- if you are sitting back, chewing a stick of gum, and asking yourself why Cubans don't act, then you're not paying close enough attention.
There is an uprising surging from Cuba -- voices coming up from cyberspace, like that of dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, who since 2007 has been clacking away at her computer, sending messages across continents and nations, one byte at a time. For years she has been saying, in her blog Generation Y: This is Cuba -- when we rise up, they jail us; when we strike against injustice, they let us die of hunger. As they let prisoner of conscience, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, die during a hunger strike while imprisoned in 2010.
Zapata Tamayo was imprisoned, according to Amnesty International, "solely for having peacefully exercised [his] rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly."
Meanwhile, Berta Soler, who leads the Ladies in White -- a group that has been protesting against the imprisonment of their loved ones since 2003's Black Spring -- continues to march.
During 2003's Black Spring, the Castro regime arrested 75 human rights activists, journalists, writers, and librarians for threatening the "territorial integrity of the state." Since then, and on every Sunday, the Ladies in White rally down Fifth Avenue in Havana, making their presence and demands known, despite harassment and threats. They want their husbands free; they fight for the same rights their friends, lovers, and husbands were jailed for -- what the Varela Project demanded: democratic and constitutional reform for Cuba.
The Varela Project, launched in the late '90s by Oswaldo Payá, proposed freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free elections, free enterprise, and the release of political prisoners. Payá died last year in a car accident -- an accident that his daughter, Rosa Maria Payá, has bravely claimed was no accident at all.
"Today," she said to the UN in March of this year, "we urge the United Nations to launch an independent investigation into the death of my father. The truth is essential..." In her speech, she implicated the Cuban government in the murder of her father. She ended her speech by asking: "When will the people of Cuba finally enjoy basic democracy and fundamental freedoms?"
These women, Sanchez, Soler, and Payá, write, march, speak, and protest. They have traveled outside of Cuba and have, as best they could, tried to spread the word that Cuba and Cubans are ready for change.
These women are, in short, the representatives of a rising up from silence. This may not be the kind of revolution we've seen from the Arab Spring, not yet, and perhaps (though of this we cannot be sure) not ever, nor is it the kind of revolution that got Cuba in trouble to begin with -- not the green-fatigued cry of their forefathers.
This is a revolution of pens, sharp as their wits; of wills, strong as their desire for justice and democracy; of voices and words that beg for change. This is Civil Disobedience. If 2003's Black Spring was a wilted one, left to rot enclosed in cells, un-watered, then 2013's spring, ten years later, is a stronger spring -- the nearly full-grown bloom of a long, hard, and labored planting and irrigation season.
The Cuban Spring is almost here. Now all we have to do is listen closely and respond.
A list of things you can do to help- Translating Cuba
The path for channeling this aid is directly to each blogger. Write a message to the email that appears in the blogs published from within Cuba—see the list of links in my sidebar—and organize, without intermediaries, this type of solidarity. The slogan of this help movement could well be: “Oxygen for the Cuban blogosphere!”
- Link to the blogs and place them on the search engines or platforms where they can have greater visibility. Each person who reads us, protects us, so we need to strengthen the shield formed by readers and commentators.
- Spread the contents of the blogs, especially to the interior of Cuba. This can be done by sending our posts to friends and relatives on the Island, to share with them the opinions that come from right here, but which are not disclosed in the official media.
- Invite alternative bloggers to participate in events, whether virtual or real. This can be done through voice recordings, home made videos or telephone calls that help spread their opinions.
- Lend a hand in the administration of blogs, especially to those bloggers who have very limited access to the Internet. For this you only need the will to collaborate, a minimal understanding of WordPress or Blogger.com and the honesty to not add or change any content that has been authorized by the author of the site.
- Avoid the cult of personality of a single emblematic blogger and take the alternative blogosphere as a phenomenon in which a growing number of Cubans are participating. Don’t repeat in the virtual world the adoration of individuals that does so much damage in the real world.
- Buy cards for accessing the internet in public places. Remember that many of us are obligated to play the high prices in the cybercafés or the hotels to access the net. So if you’re a tourist visiting the island, collaborate with us to acquire a few hours of connection in these places.
- Every kind of information media is helpful to us, from the tiny flash drives to the most sophisticated external hard drives. A great number of the bloggers I know distribute their texts to the interior of the Island on these storage devices.
- Mobile phones and economic aid to open and maintain accounts. I have been in the position where I frequently post by sending text messages to people outside Cuba who later put my texts on the net. So providing a blogger a cell phone is a way to open a parallel path to the traditional Internet access.
- Laptops or any kind of accessory to build a PC. My experience tells me that an old laptop brought to the island and given to a possible blogger can be the spark for the emergence of a new opinion. Look in your office or your house for everything that’s been scrapped but that might be useful for assembling a computer, and add it to your suitcase when you are vacationing in Cuba. And please, don’t even think of sending it by mail.
- Software both free and licensed. Especially those programs that are used to process images, audio, and video and that optimize internet connection time. I want to remind you that we cannot buy these programs in any store or purchase them through online transactions.
- Digital cameras and video recorders, especially the little Flip camcorder that lets us discretely film situations in our everyday lives.
- Digital recorders for interviews and telephone recorders to capture the voices of those who call from the provinces to dictate their texts. An example of this is the blog of the political prisoner Pablo Pacheco, whose texts are read over the telephone.
- Books about citizen journalism, manuals and programs and every kind of documentation that can help us to better understand the blogger phenomenon.
This is an amazing online project with wonderful resources and ways to help.
Update: As of 14 January 2011, the White House has announced that any American may send remittances to a Cuban, even if they are not related to each other. The limit is $500 per quarter. If you are interested in helping the bloggers in this way, you can find their emails on their individual sites and contact them about where you might send a remittance. Some of them have PayPal accounts.
Testimonies of more dissidents attacked with machetes in Cuba (Video and Audio)
http://pedazosdelaislaen.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/testimonies-of-more-dissidents-attacked-with-machetes-in-cuba-video-and-audio/
Goart Cruz Zamora
Recently, we saw the results of a machete attack against Werlando Leyva Batista, a member of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), at the hands of a State Security collaborator in the province of Holguin. Leyva Batista suffered injuries on one of his hands and legs. Thanks to the solidarity of a number of Holguin activists, images came out straight from Cuba confirming the news.
Just days later, another 2 dissidents were victims of similar machete attacks, all of which have been orchestrated in one way or another by State Security.
Goart Cruz Zamora was one of the victims.
Zamora is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and is the secretary of the group for the “Harold Cepero” cell in Altamira, Santiago de Cuba. On June 19th, he was attacked with a machete by Julio Cesar Limonta Nunez, who had been acting as a dissident but apparently had lent himself to the manipulations of State Security, according to declarations by Goart in a video published on the YouTube channel of UNPACU:
Goart assures that the aim of the attack, which occurred in his home, was to cut off his head. The dissident managed to dodge the initial swing of the machete but the blade sliced parts of his shoulder and a hand.
“I told Julio Cesar that ideas can’t be destroyed that way, and that he was not going to triumph being manipulated by the political police“, said the victim in the video, who adds that the aggressor quickly fled after the assault. Goart signals an agent named Frank as the main culprit of the manipulation.
–
Another dissident who was attacked by a machete is Orlando Lazaro Gomez Hernandez, a member of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba and of theOrlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front in Camaguey.
Gomez Hernandez provided a testimony to the station “Radio Republica”, where he recounts how on the week of June 21st when he stepped out of his house with a sign with messages in solidarity with hunger striker Luis Enrique Santos Caballero, he was intercepted by the local president of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). This functionary, named Julio, was wielding a machete.
“The president of the CDR ran out of his home with a machete and started to attack me with it. He cut part of my right hand and also struck me on my back…other collaborators of his came out and as I fell to the ground they began to kick me”, recounts Gomez.
Luckily, the 3 activists mentioned in this post are alive to tell the story, but given the rise in violence against dissidents on the island, the next victim may not be so fortunate.
Whether it be in the Eastern region, in the center or in West of the country, the lives of freedom defenders are more at risk each day, all the while the dictatorship project an image of changes and reforms to the rest of the world.
Re- envisioning The Great Hero's
"What's wrong with my Che T-shirt?
I feel like such a rebel when I carry a large banner with his face on it at human rights protest…."
Here are the real heroes of the revolution:
Great work by the Egyptian activists in Tahrir Square. Watch the full length documentary in this post.
Hope this inspires you to participate in any way you can. Here is the trailer.
The Square movie is a documentary about the Egyptian revolution behind the headlines. Follow a group of activists in Tahrir Square, risking their lives to build a new society of conscience.
A film by Jehane Noujaim - director of Control Room, Startup.com, Egypt We Are Watching You, Rafea Solar Mama, and more.
Noujaim Films
Director: Jehane Noujaim
Screenwriter: Jehane Noujaim
Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Ahmed Hassan, Aida Kashef, Magdy Ashour, Ragia Omran, Ramy Essam, Aida El Kashef, Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi
WINNER 2013 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary
WINNER 2013 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award
Follow The Square on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSquareFilm
Like The Square on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TheSquareFilm
POSTED BY: fahima safi
On Youtube
The Square movie is a documentary about the Egyptian revolution behind the headlines. Follow a group of activists in Tahrir Square, risking their lives to build a new society of conscience.
A film by Jehane Noujaim - director of Control Room, Startup.com, Egypt We Are Watching You, Rafea Solar Mama, and more.
Noujaim Films
Director: Jehane Noujaim
Screenwriter: Jehane Noujaim
Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Ahmed Hassan, Aida Kashef, Magdy Ashour, Ragia Omran, Ramy Essam, Aida El Kashef, Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi
WINNER 2013 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary
WINNER 2013 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award
Follow The Square on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSquareFilm
Like The Square on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TheSquareFilm
POSTED BY: fahima safi
On Youtube
Published on Jan 19, 2014
Tahrir Square Story Of Egypt Revolution
I have posted the full length documentary here. Enjoy!
How to help by recharging their phones
All the companies I have heard of that provide these types of services
 |
Here are the two I can personally recommend |
Here are the directions for another site:
- Go to http://turecarga.com/
- Where it says “Elija su operador” (choose your provider), choose
Cubacel-CCom. - Choose an amount you would like to add.
- Put in the phone number of the person whose phone you would like to recharge. Put in the whole number, but with no “+” sign and no spaces.
- Put in YOUR OWN EMAIL (for the confirmation).
- Check the “Acepto” box and then click on RECARGAR.
- Follow the instructions on the next screen to add your credit card number and wait for confirmation by email.
Web Paqs
New technology allows Cubans in Cuba access to websites banned by the Castro regime
Sept. 25 - Since September of 2012, we have been working in collaboration with the webmaster of the blog La Singularidad Cuba (The Cuba Singularity) to help young Cubans to break the Internet blockade imposed by the Castro brothers.
I have always thought that the worst enemy of a totalitarian regime is the Internet, together with the new technologies that have been developed in the last few years.
Therealcuba.com together with the blog La Singularidad Cuba is making available weekly updates to an “Offline Web Package for Cubans” available for download.
The packages contain various high demand websites banned in Cuba.
They can be downloaded by any person in any country that has free Internet access, decompressed and copied into USB flash drives, cell phone's internal memory, SD cards for cell phones, DVDs or any other type of electronic media.
If you want to cooperate in this project but don't know or cannot download the packages yourself to send it to contacts in Cuba, you can help by donating to this project to help purchase the DVDs, flash memory, SD cards for cell phones and with the cost of sending them to Cuba on a weekly basis.
DONATE FUNDS NOW
Sept. 25 - Since September of 2012, we have been working in collaboration with the webmaster of the blog La Singularidad Cuba (The Cuba Singularity) to help young Cubans to break the Internet blockade imposed by the Castro brothers.
I have always thought that the worst enemy of a totalitarian regime is the Internet, together with the new technologies that have been developed in the last few years.
Therealcuba.com together with the blog La Singularidad Cuba is making available weekly updates to an “Offline Web Package for Cubans” available for download.
The packages contain various high demand websites banned in Cuba.
They can be downloaded by any person in any country that has free Internet access, decompressed and copied into USB flash drives, cell phone's internal memory, SD cards for cell phones, DVDs or any other type of electronic media.
If you want to cooperate in this project but don't know or cannot download the packages yourself to send it to contacts in Cuba, you can help by donating to this project to help purchase the DVDs, flash memory, SD cards for cell phones and with the cost of sending them to Cuba on a weekly basis.
DONATE FUNDS NOW
Europe to launch talks to upgrade relations with Cuba
Europe to launch talks to upgrade relations with Cuba
EXCLUSIVE: EU tries to position itself for future transition in Cuba
Madrid - The European Union will agree next month to deepen relations with Cuba in its most significant overture to the communist island since the bloc lifted diplomatic sanctions in 2008, people close to the matter told Reuters. Foreign ministers from the EU’s 28 countries will give the go-ahead on Feb. 10 to launch talks with Havana on a special cooperation accord to increase trade, investment and dialogue on human rights. The pact could be agreed by the end of 2015. “Cuba wants capital and the European Union wants influence,” said one person involved in the talks who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. “This cooperation could serve as a prelude to much more.” Two other people with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters that a consensus had been reached in Brussels to give momentum to Cuba’s market-oriented reforms under President Raul Castro and to position European companies for any transition to a more capitalist economy there in the longer term.
While the initial impact of a cooperation agreement will be limited, the symbolism is huge for the EU, whose ties with Cuba had been strained since it imposed sanctions in 2003 in response to Havana’s arrest of 75 dissidents. Although the EU lifted those sanctions in 2008, the normalisation of relations has been tortuous because of resistance from Poland and the Czech Republic due to their own communist past. Havana has rejected the EU’s “common position” on Cuba that the bloc adopted in 1996 to promote human rights and democracy. Furthermore, the United States, Cuba’s long-time foe that has kept an embargo against the Caribbean island since 1962, had exerted pressure on Brussels to try to isolate Havana. Washington has not sought to block the EU’s latest efforts, people close to the talks said, while Poland and the Czech Republic now back a deal with Cuba.
TRANSITION
In a sign of impatience with the status quo, the Netherlands sent its foreign minister to Havana in January. This first such trip by the Dutch since the 1959 Cuban Revolution broke with EU policy to limit high-level visits. Spain, the former colonial power in Latin America and the Caribbean, has also been pushing for a change of approach since ailing, long-time Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed power to his younger brother Raul in 2008. Some EU countries see the 1996 “common position” policy as outdated because 18 EU governments have bilateral agreements with Cuba outside the common position, making it hard for the bloc to speak with one voice. Still, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo has been adamant that the “common position” will remain for the time being while the European Commission, the EU executive, negotiates the cooperation pact. “If Europe wants to have a presence when there’s a transition in Cuba, the EU has to start working now. It’s right to start dialogue now so that Europe isn’t absent when a transition happens,” said Carlos Malamud, head of Latin American research at the Real Instituto Elcano, a think-tank in Madrid. A cooperation pact, which the EU has used as a tool in the past to strengthen relations with Central America and Asia, is not likely to increase trade greatly because Cuba sells very little to Europe. Besides cigars and rum, Cuba’s exports are not of huge interest to the EU, but Brussels believes developing business ties is the best way to press for change in Cuba.
The European Union is Cuba’s biggest foreign investor and Cuba’s second biggest trading partner after Venezuela, and a third of the tourists to the island every year come from the EU. Cuba recently opened a Chinese-style special economic zone and is preparing a new foreign investment law. It is seeking foreign investment at its port facilities in Mariel Bay to take advantage of the expansion of thePanama Canal.
In a sign of impatience with the status quo, the Netherlands sent its foreign minister to Havana in January. This first such trip by the Dutch since the 1959 Cuban Revolution broke with EU policy to limit high-level visits. Spain, the former colonial power in Latin America and the Caribbean, has also been pushing for a change of approach since ailing, long-time Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed power to his younger brother Raul in 2008. Some EU countries see the 1996 “common position” policy as outdated because 18 EU governments have bilateral agreements with Cuba outside the common position, making it hard for the bloc to speak with one voice. Still, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo has been adamant that the “common position” will remain for the time being while the European Commission, the EU executive, negotiates the cooperation pact. “If Europe wants to have a presence when there’s a transition in Cuba, the EU has to start working now. It’s right to start dialogue now so that Europe isn’t absent when a transition happens,” said Carlos Malamud, head of Latin American research at the Real Instituto Elcano, a think-tank in Madrid. A cooperation pact, which the EU has used as a tool in the past to strengthen relations with Central America and Asia, is not likely to increase trade greatly because Cuba sells very little to Europe. Besides cigars and rum, Cuba’s exports are not of huge interest to the EU, but Brussels believes developing business ties is the best way to press for change in Cuba.
The European Union is Cuba’s biggest foreign investor and Cuba’s second biggest trading partner after Venezuela, and a third of the tourists to the island every year come from the EU. Cuba recently opened a Chinese-style special economic zone and is preparing a new foreign investment law. It is seeking foreign investment at its port facilities in Mariel Bay to take advantage of the expansion of thePanama Canal.
Rafter found
Dec. 9 - The Coast Guard is leading the search for two Cuban migrants after a homemade raft was discovered Monday in Biscayne Bay seven miles off Key Biscayne.
One person was found dead in the water and another was rescued from the raft, according to the Coast Guard.
A good Samaritan boater discovered the raft and notified the Coast Guard, which is searching along with Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue and Florida Fish and Wildlife officers.
The survivor, who Miami fire officials said was on the raft for six days, was transferred to a Miami-Dade rescue boat and then to Mercy Hospital. The Coast Guard launched a helicopter and airplane as well as two boat crews from the Miami Beach station.
One person was found dead in the water and another was rescued from the raft, according to the Coast Guard.
A good Samaritan boater discovered the raft and notified the Coast Guard, which is searching along with Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue and Florida Fish and Wildlife officers.
The survivor, who Miami fire officials said was on the raft for six days, was transferred to a Miami-Dade rescue boat and then to Mercy Hospital. The Coast Guard launched a helicopter and airplane as well as two boat crews from the Miami Beach station.
Granma Newspaper Editor Leaves Cuba for Miami
Jan. 18 - A high-ranking editor with the Communist Party newspaper Granma has left Cuba to live in Miami.
Aida Calviac Mora told America TeVe Thursday that she arrived in the U.S. through Mexico and plans to stay.
The former international news page editor criticized the state media monopoly and said there is a "crisis of credibility" in the relationship between the public and the Cuban news media.
She said whenever she approached the paper's directors with new ideas and different perspectives for news coverage she was told "it's not a good time" or "the enemy could use it against us."
Show host Juan Manuel Cao called her one of the most important Granma journalists to leave in recent years.
The 29-year-old journalist joins her husband in Miami, a former Radio Rebelde reporter.
Aida Calviac Mora told America TeVe Thursday that she arrived in the U.S. through Mexico and plans to stay.
The former international news page editor criticized the state media monopoly and said there is a "crisis of credibility" in the relationship between the public and the Cuban news media.
She said whenever she approached the paper's directors with new ideas and different perspectives for news coverage she was told "it's not a good time" or "the enemy could use it against us."
Show host Juan Manuel Cao called her one of the most important Granma journalists to leave in recent years.
The 29-year-old journalist joins her husband in Miami, a former Radio Rebelde reporter.
Cuban lady is brutally attacked by Castro's police for expressing her opinions
Nov. 4 - Anonymous Video Upload from Havana.
Venezuela has a warning: This is the future of Venezuela unless they get rid of Maduro and the other puppets under the control of the Castro brothers.
Hey Urban Outfitters: Che Guevara Was a Murderer and Your Poster Is Not Cool
Hey Urban Outfitters: Che Guevara Was a Murderer and Your Poster Is Not Cool
A friendly reminder from Human Rights Foundation founder Thor Halvorssen to your neighborhood vendor of overpriced rags and tatty studio apartment decor: Posters of Che Guevara are not cool, even when they are on sale for $9.99 (originally $19.99!):
Although Guevara's image has appeared on countless items for consumption over the last few decades as a symbol of change for the better, Guevara's actual record is that of a brutal tyrant who suppressed individual freedom in Cuba and murdered those who challenged his worldview.
That's right, Urban Outfitters. By flacking posters of Che's beardy face, you're encouraging your customers to say: Hey, I like old records, three legged stools, and death!:
From 1959 to 1960, the new government carried out summary executions of at least 1,118 people by firing squad. Guevara himself presided over the notorious La Cabaña prison, where hundreds of the executions took place. For comparison's sake, the Batista regime was responsible for 747 noncombatant deaths between 1952 and 1959. The Cuban revolution under the direction of Guevara also saw the rise of forced labor camps which gave way a few years later to full-scale concentration camps. These were filled with dissidents, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Afro-Cuban priests, and anyone else who had committed "crimes" against the new moral revolution.
Just to be clear, Halvorssen (and Reason) thinks people who want to ban Guevera's smug mug are just as dumb as the wearers themselves. Because freedom of speech! And Urban Outfitters does describe the poster as a "conversation starter." So, conversation started, I guess. Let's see what the beret-clad Cuban has to say for himself:
In a speech in front of the United Nations in 1964, Guevara proudly admitted that "yes, we have executed, we are executing, we will continue to execute." He boasted of murdering Eutimio Guerra, bragging in his diary how he "ended the problem with a .32 caliber pistol, in the right side of his brain."
Plus, rocking some Che isn't exactly an original way to "let out a rebel yell" as Nick Gillespie explains in Reason TV's 2008 video, Killer Chic.
Article from reason.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)