"Juan Clark, Cuba scholar and Bay of Pigs vet, dies"

From the Miami Herald:

By Juan O. Tamayo

jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Juan Clark fought for a democratic Cuba as a paratrooper in the Bay of Pigs invasion and then in academia, by chronicling the lies of the Castro revolution and the stories of waves of exiles arriving on U.S shores.
Clark, professor emeritus of sociology at Miami Dade College, died Wednesday at the age of 74, said his brother, Jose Benito Clark, a member of the infiltration teams sent ahead to prepare the way for the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Just two years ago, Clark had smiled as he recalled how his group of Brigade 2506 fighters, hungry after hiding for four days in the swamps near the site of the disastrously failed CIA-backed invasion, had captured a small pig.
To avoid the noise of a gunshot, another brigade member strangled the animal while muttering, "Forgive me, God! Look what Fidel Castro has driven me to do!” Clark recalled in an interview for a report marking the 50th anniversary of the 1961 invasion.
“Juan was one of the most prominent members of the paratrooper units, very beloved by all and a very intelligent man,” said former brigade president Felix Rodriguez. “He was a great companion, a great friend and an eternal fighter for the freedom of Cuba.”
“This is a day of great sorrow for Miami Dade College,” said MDC President Eduardo Padrón. Clark “defended his principles, first with gun in hand and later with the power of the word and an unbreakable civic commitment.”
Clark’s greatest contribution to the struggle over Cuba may well have been his Spanish-language book, Cuba, mito y realidad: Testimonios de un pueblo, published in 1990. Through personal stories, he chronicled the myths and realities of life in Cuba.
While Fidel Castro cultivated the myth of a Robin Hood revolution dedicated to helping the poor in Cuba and abroad in the early 60s, Clark noted that the Cuban security apparatus was keeping about 60,000 peaceful political opponents in prison. Comparing the populations of Cuba and the United States at the time, that would have amounted to at least 1,410,000 American political prisoners, he wrote in the book.
Clark parachuted into Cuba several miles inland from the beach landings at the Bay of Pigs and was a member of a mortar crew that helped block the advance of Castro’s troops until they ran out of ammunition and were forced to retreat.
Eventually captured along with 1,173 other brigade members, he spent about 20 months in Havana prisons until Castro was paid the $53 million ransom that he demanded and freed most of the invaders.
Cubans on the island would never again pose a challenge to Castro, Clark told The Miami Herald for the 50th anniversary report.
“This castrated the spirit of rebellion”’ against Castro in Cuba, he said.
When he returned to the United States, he enrolled at the University of Florida to study sociology and later was the first academic to detail the waves of Cubans that went into exile in the United States and other countries.
He also wrote two books on the Catholic Church in Cuba, and last year was responsible for a chapter in a new book, Cubans: An Epic Journey, on the struggles to free Cub a.
“Juan was a great spokesman for the brigade. He was a well-educated man who could intelligently explain why the Bay of Pigs invasion happened, why it failed and why it mattered — and as a professor, he often explained it to the younger generation,” said Julio Gonzalez Rebull, a fellow brigade veteran.
And as recently as Monday, he told The Miami Herald he did not believe Cuban President Raúl Castro’s promise that he would leave power in five years.
“I think many people were eager to see the end of the system and unfortunately that hasn’t happened,” Clark said.
A Miami-Dade police spokesman said Thursday that Clark’s death is being treated as a suicide.
He is survived by his widow, Clara de Leon, and sons Juan and Jose Alberto Clark. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/27/3257941/online-head.html#storylink=cpy

CUBA - BRASIL: YOANI Y "BRASILEAKS" PROCASTRISTA

Por Armando Valladares, Miami (FL), 25 de febrero de 2013, 05:01 PM. El artículo puede ser difundido y publicado en cualquier medio, sin necesidad de autorización previa.

La reciente visita a Brasil de la joven bloguera cubana Yoani Sánchez dejó al descubierto una especie de "BrasiLeaks", o sea, un conjunto de informaciones confidenciales escandalosamente procastristas en el seno de ese gran país sudamericano.

A esas informaciones confidenciales las destapó el semanario Veja, días antes de la llegada de la bloguera al Brasil, en reportaje titulado "El dossier de la vergüenza" (20 de febrero de 2013). Veja reveló que desde la Embajada cubana en Brasilia se estaba coordinando la agresión de matonescas "brigadas de respuesta rápida" que actuarían contra Yoani a cada paso de su visita a ese país; "brigadas" fanáticamente procastristas, integradas por militantes de grupos de izquierda, inclusive del gobernante Partido de los Trabajadores (PT).

Por una sintomática coincidencia, en una de las reuniones en la embajada cubana estaba presente Ricardo Poppi Martins, especialista en "ciberguerra" y asesor directo del ministro secretario general de la Presidencia de Brasil, Gilberto Carvalho. También por coincidencia, Poppi acababa de llegar de Cuba, con gastos pagados por el gobierno brasileño, donde se dedicó a trasmitir sus conocimientos de "ciberguerra" a equipos de propaganda del régimen cubano, peritos en destruir moralmente a opositores cubanos. La revelación de la existencia de ese "BrasiLeaks" dejó en una incómoda posición al gobierno brasileño, cuyos portavoces se vieron obligados a reconocer que Poppi recibió de manos del embajador cubano Carlos Zamora Rodríguez un dossier con informaciones contra Yoani, pero alegaron que el dossier había sido destruido por el funcionario gubernamental.

Cuanto más el gobierno brasileño trataba de explicar lo acontecido, más dudas creaba entre periodistas y entre miembros del Parlamento, que anunciaron la convocación del canciller, del ministro secretario general de la Presidencia y del propio embajador cubano. En cuatro días, la secretaría general de la Presidencia dio tres explicaciones, tratando de tranquilizar y de superar el comprometedor episodio. El canciller Antonio Patriota dijo que no sabía nada de nada. Y las autoridades del gobernante Partido de los Trabajadores cerraron la boca.

Lo concreto es que bastó que Yoani pusiera sus pies en el territorio brasileño para que el plan de la embajada cubana, favorecido por el gobierno brasileño, comenzara a ser ejecutado con brutalidad en cada local donde la visitante aparecía, llegando los matones en varias oportunidades casi a la agresión física.

Esa tentativa de amordazar a la bloguera no le impidió de denunciar que en el caso del Brasil, especialmente durante los gobiernos Lula y Dilma, ha habido "omisión" y "silencio" en lo que respecta a "las violaciones de derechos humanos que se cometen en Cuba"; y que faltó "dureza" de parte de la diplomacia brasileña para defender los derechos de los cubanos indefensos. La bloguera solicitó "una posición más firme" de las autoridades brasileñas, y constató que existe un "silencio" similar en los gobiernos de "toda América Latina", que servilmente tratan de "no incomodar" al régimen cubano. Yoani hizo finalmente un llamado al gobierno y al pueblo brasileño, así como a los gobiernos latinoamericanos, a "denunciar lo que ocurre en la isla" de una vez por todas, inclusive, a "apelar a los organismos internacionales".

Este talvez haya sido el mensaje más directo, importante, dramático y medular de Yoani Sánchez en Brasil. En realidad, el silencio cómplice de las cancillerías y gobiernos continentales es talvez la causa de la prolongación, durante décadas, de la cruel y sanguinaria dictadura castrista.

Hace exactamente un año, en febrero de 2012, tuve ocasión de abordar este tema del silencio del gobierno brasileño, en artículo "Yoani, compasión y Pilatos", coincidiendo con el viaje de la presidenta Dilma Rousseff a La Habana y con una prohibición del régimen para que Yoani Sánchez viajara en ese momento a Brasil. En la ocasión afirmé que desde el punto de vista de los derechos humanos, el viaje a Cuba de la presidenta del Brasil constituyó un desastre inimaginable para el pueblo cubano y para sus esperanzas de libertad; y que ese viaje podría ser inscrito en el libro negro de las vergüenzas de nuestro tiempo y de nuestro continente. Con su silencio total sobre la violación sistemática de los derechos de Dios y de los hombres en la isla-cárcel desde hace más de cincuenta años, la presidenta de la mayor potencia de América Latina y una de las mayores potencias del mundo, dio implícitamente luz verde para que el régimen continuase persiguiendo impunemente a los opositores, matándolos de sed en las prisiones, reprimiendo a las Damas de Blanco y manteniendo prisioneros a 11 millones de cubanos.

Pero ahora con Yoani no se trató sólo de un silencio cómplice, en sí mismo muy grave, sino que se fue más lejos, permitiendo al gobierno cubano una operación de intimidación, agresión y denigración de Yoani en el propio territorio brasileño.

La lucidez demostrada por Yoani en su análisis sobre la desastrosa política externa brasileña y latinoamericana hacia el régimen cubano, también brilló en las primeras respuestas a las preguntas que los periodistas le fueron haciendo, machaconamente, sobre el denominado embargo económico estadounidense. Al comienzo de su visita a Brasil, en declaraciones publicadas por el periódico O Estado de S. Paulo, Yoani dijo que el régimen cubano, si quiere relaciones con los Estados Unidos, primero debe democratizarse: "En esa normalización de relaciones, no se puede olvidar el tema de los derechos humanos. No se puede dejar de lado una lista de requisitos necesarios que la isla debe cumplir para poder establecer relaciones no solamente con los Estados Unidos, sino con muchos otros países".

De esa manera, Yoani dio un argumento decisivo que toca en el centro del problema cubano, y que muchas veces he tenido oportunidad de analizar: la causa real y primera del problema cubano es el embargo interno que el propio régimen de La Habana aplica desde hace más de medio siglo contra el pueblo cubano; y el denominado embargo externo no es sino un efecto. Hay algunos que solamente critican el efecto, pero hacen silencio absoluto con relación a la causa del problema, que es lo principal y lo que debería ser especialmente enfocado.

Llama la atención el hecho de que en Brasil, en los días siguientes a la presentación de un argumento de tanto sentido común, que contribuye a desmontar la campaña-pretexto castrista contra el embargo estadounidense, Yoani cambió su posición y pasó a afirmar, como lo hizo en el Parlamento brasileño, que ella desea "que termine el embargo, para ver cómo el Gobierno cubano va a explicar su propio fracaso"; como si el régimen cubano no pudiera continuar inventando pretextos para justificar sus crímenes y calamidades.

Pareciera entonces que en su visita a Brasil la joven bloguera cambió de rumbo, de un día para otro, en lo que respecta a su argumentación sobre el embargo. Lo concreto es que uno de los "padrinos" de la visita de Yoani a Brasil, el senador Eduardo Suplicy, del gobernante Partido de los Trabajadores, señaló en la tribuna del Senado su esperanza de que la posición de Yoani contra el embargo estadounidense, por la relevancia internacional que estaba adquiriendo la figura de la joven bloguera, podría repercutir en la propia política externa de los Estados Unidos, transformándose en un "paso importante" para el fin del embargo a Cuba.

El régimen cubano, para mantener en pie su campaña-pretexto, trata de ocultar que los Estados Unidos son uno de los principales socios comerciales de Cuba, a la que vende carne de res, pollo, ganado en pie, frutas, leche, equipos médicos, remedios y hasta la tinta para imprimir el Granma. Cuba puede comprar todos los alimentos y remedios que desee, con la única condición de que pague al contado.

Yo no podría dejar de mencionar, junto con la anterior salvedad sobre el embargo interno del régimen (la causa del problema) y el embargo externo estadounidense (un efecto del problema causado por el régimen), las lamentables declaraciones de la joven bloguera cuando pidió, en el Parlamento brasileño, la libertad de los cinco espías cubanos que fueron detenidos, juzgados y condenados en los Estados Unidos por su participación en el asesinato de cuatro jóvenes cubanos desterrados indefensos. Las fuertes críticas suscitadas entre opositores de la isla, como Martha Beatriz Roque y Oscar Elías Biscet, y en el destierro cubano de Miami, hicieron que Yoani trasmitiera una rectificación, alegando básicamente que se valió de una ironía. Lamentablemente, una herida ha quedado abierta, y su visita a Miami podrá verse empañada por esas declaraciones desafortunadas.

No obstante, en todos estos años, las denuncias de la joven bloguera Yoani Sánchez han sido positivas para mostrar el verdadero rostro la tiranía castrista. Su voz de alerta sobre los silencios y complicidades latinoamericanos con relación al régimen de La Habana es una prueba de esa contribución a la causa de la libertad de Cuba.

Armando Valladares, escritor, pintor y poeta. Pasó 22 años en las cárceles políticas de Cuba. Es autor del best-seller "Contra toda esperanza", donde narra el horror de las prisiones castristas. Fue embajador de los Estados Unidos ante la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la ONU bajo las administraciones Reagan y Bush. Recibió la Medalla Presidencial del Ciudadano y el Superior Award del Departamento de Estado. Ha escrito numerosos artículos sobre la colaboración eclesiástica con el comunismo cubano y sobre la "ostpolitik" vaticana hacia Cuba



H/T to Joseito for this!

"I have the right to retire, don't you think?"

 

 

 

 

"I have the right to retire, don't you think?"-Raul Castro

 

 

 

"WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE FREE!"-All Cubans

"CUBA" Amenazas a los Payá: "Hija de puta, te vamos a matar"

Click here for source.



Cuba representa para mi? Los años de mi primera infancia donde me formé y aprendí a crecer. Desde la toma castrista, Cuba representa tristeza, injusticia y lamento.Yo no es que esté indignado sino que vivo indignado, no solo por la total ausencia de libertades que existe en mi patria sino por la impunidad más absoluta de la tiranía cubana en cuanto a los métodos que usa para aplastar a todo aquel a quien se opone a su régimen dictatorial    

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Click here for source.


"Hija de puta, te vamos a matar".

Esta es la amenaza telefónica que recibió hoy en su casa Ofelia Acevedo, viuda del disidente Oswaldo Payá, según ha denunciado su hija, Rosa María Payá, hoy en Twitter.

 

Rosa María Payá A. @RosaMariaPaya

"hija d puta te vamos a matar", ha sido la amenaza telefonica q hicieron a casa mientras mi madre despedia a mi hermano mayor en aeropuerto

Miami: Misa de Aniversario - 17 años

Celebración Eucarística

por

Carlos, Armando, Mario & Pablo

Domingo 24 de febrero del 2013

3:00 p.m.

St. John the Apostle Catholic Church

475 East Fourth Street

Hialeah, Florida

 

Armando, Carlos, Mario y Pablo conducían una misión humanitaria de búsqueda y rescate el 24 de febrero del 1996. Sus pequeñas naves fueron derribadas por aviones MiGs de la Fuerza Aérea Cubana en aguas internacionales del Estrecho de la Florida

What you talking about Willis?

"We have returned to the Venezuelan fatherland. Thank you, my God! Thank you, my beloved people!” Chávez tweeted. “We will continue the treatment here." -----What you talking about Willis? I know it sucks that he has to deal with cancer and it must be very hard , but with that being said.......He has not been seen since December 10th, 2012, the photograph that was released the other day is very susceptible, since he supposedly has a surgical tube in his trachea? To further the inconsistency, we have chavez whisked away from Cuba and Papa Fidel, and in the dark mist of night arrived in Venezuela without any fanfare or notice? Even stranger was at the military hospital where the dictator is staying well-wishers were corralled behind a police barrier across the street from the well fortified hospital.

Yoani Sánchez being harassed by commie thugs in Brazil

Yoani Sanchez coming to Freedom Tower in Miami on April 1st

From the Miami Herald:

Famed Cuban dissident and blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was allowed to leave the island this week, will visit Miami on April 1.
Sánchez will speak at the historic Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns the tower.
Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.
Sánchez’s visit to the Freedom Tower is significant because the 1925 building is well-known to Cuban exiles as the place where many of them were processed upon their arrival in the U.S.
Sánchez’s ability to travel outside Cuba this week was seen as a test of a new Cuba law that eliminates the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. Cuban authorities can still deny travel in cases of defense and “national security,” among other reasons, and some dissidents continue to face restrictions.
Still, the exit permit’s demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raúl Castro’s ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society.
In her first days of travel, Sánchez was heckled by Cuban government sympathizers. She plans to travel several cities during an 80-day tour of Latin America, Europe and the U.S.
Brazil’s most influential magazine, Veja, published a story this weekend alleging that Cuban diplomats were working with Brazilian leftists to organize protests against Sánchez during her stops in the country, where she is expected to stay for a week.
“That doesn’t surprise me; it’s part of an information war,” she told the Salvador-based A Tarde newspaper. “Obviously I don’t like it, but I understand that facing this siege is part of my profession.”
After Brazil, Sánchez plans several stops in the U.S. with appearances at universities in New York, visits to Google and Twitter offices and now a stop in Miami.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

Read more Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops. Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make Sánchez is currently Famed Cuban dissident and blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was allowed to leave the island this week, will visit Miami on April 1.Sánchez will speak at the historic Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns the tower.
Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.
Sánchez’s visit to the Freedom Tower is significant because the 1925 building is well-known to Cuban exiles as the place where many of them were processed upon their arrival in the U.S.
Sánchez’s ability to travel outside Cuba this week was seen as a test of a new Cuba law that eliminates the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. Cuban authorities can still deny travel in cases of defense and “national security,” among other reasons, and some dissidents continue to face restrictions.
Still, the exit permit’s demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raúl Castro’s ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society.
In her first days of travel, Sánchez was heckled by Cuban government sympathizers. She plans to travel several cities during an 80-day tour of Latin America, Europe and the U.S.
Brazil’s most influential magazine, Veja, published a story this weekend alleging that Cuban diplomats were working with Brazilian leftists to organize protests against Sánchez during her stops in the country, where she is expected to stay for a week.
“That doesn’t surprise me; it’s part of an information war,” she told the Salvador-based A Tarde newspaper. “Obviously I don’t like it, but I understand that facing this siege is part of my profession.”
After Brazil, Sánchez plans several stops in the U.S. with appearances Famed Cuban dissident and blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was allowed to leave the island this week, will visit Miami on April 1.Sánchez will speak at the historic Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns the tower.
Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.
Sánchez’s visit to the Freedom Tower is significant because the 1925 building is well-known to Cuban exiles as the place where many of them were processed upon their arrival in the U.S.
Sánchez’s ability to travel outside Cuba this week was seen as a test of a new Cuba law that eliminates the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. Cuban authorities can still deny travel in cases of defense and “national security,” among other reasons, and some dissidents continue to face restrictions.
Still, the exit permit’s demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raúl Castro’s ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society.
In her first days of travel, Sánchez was heckled by Cuban government sympathizers. She plans to travel several cities during an 80-day tour of Latin America, Europe and the U.S.
Brazil’s most influential magazine, Veja, published a story this weekend alleging that Cuban diplomats were working with Brazilian leftists to organize protests against Sánchez during her stops in the country, where she is expected to stay for a week.
“That doesn’t surprise me; it’s part of an information war,” she told the Salvador-based A Tarde newspaper. “Obviously I don’t like it, but I understand that facing this siege is part of my profession.”
After Brazil, Sánchez plans several stops in the U.S. with appearances Famed Cuban dissident and blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was allowed to leave the island this week, will visit Miami on April 1.Sánchez will speak at the historic Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns the tower.
Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.
Sánchez’s visit to the Freedom Tower is significant because the 1925 building is well-known to Cuban exiles as the place where many of them were processed upon their arrival in the U.S.
Sánchez’s ability to travel outside Cuba this week was seen as a test of a new Cuba law that eliminates the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. Cuban authorities can still deny travel in cases of defense and “national security,” among other reasons, and some dissidents continue to face restrictions.
Still, the exit permit’s demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raúl Castro’s ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society.
In her first days of travel, Sánchez was heckled by Cuban government sympathizers. She plans to travel several cities during an 80-day tour of Latin America, Europe and the U.S.
Brazil’s most influential magazine, Veja, published a story this weekend alleging that Cuban diplomats were working with Brazilian leftists to organize protests against Sánchez during her stops in the country, where she is expected to stay for a week.
“That doesn’t surprise me; it’s part of an information war,” she told the Salvador-based A Tarde newspaper. “Obviously I don’t like it, but I understand that facing this siege is part of my profession.”
After Brazil, Sánchez plans several stops in the U.S. with appearances at universities in New York, visits to Google and Twitter offices and now a stop in Miami.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

at universities in New York, visits to Google and Twitter offices and now a stop in Miami.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

at universities in New York, visits to Google and Twitter offices and now a stop in Miami.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

stops.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

Read Sánchez will speak at the historic Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns Sánchez will speak at the historic Sánchez will speak Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

at the historic Freedom Tower, Sánchez is currently on tour in Brazil as is expect to make stops.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. Sánchez will speak at the historic Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns the tower

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

The college owns the tower.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College announced on Tuesday. The college owns the tower.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

the tower.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/19/3242804/famed-cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez.html#storylink=cpy

"Yoani Sánchez arriba a Brasil en medio de manifestaciones"

These photos from El Nuevo Herald.

"Yoani Sanchez, Cuban Dissident Blogger, Arrives In Brazil"

From the Huffington Post:


FEIRA DE SANTANA, Brazil — Cuba's most recognizable dissident landed in Brazil Monday, cheered by supporters and hounded by protesters on her first stop of a three-month global tour and her first trip abroad in nearly a decade after being blocked 20 times from leaving the communist-run island.
Yoani Sanchez was beaming when she arrived in the northeastern cities of Recife and then Salvador in Bahia state, basking in the fame brought by her influential blog and her columns in the Spanish daily El Pais and the Brazilian newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.
Sanchez was surrounded by supporters and journalists as she walked through the airport in Salvador, but at one point, protesters, some wrapped in Cuban flags, threw photocopied replicas of U.S. dollar bills at her. One protester got close enough to pull her hair.
A small group of pro-Cuba protesters held up signs that read "Yoani Sanchez is financed by the CIA" and "Down with the American blockade of Cuba, Yoani Sanchez is a persona non grata in Bahia."
Cuban authorities consider the small community of outspoken dissidents on the island to be traitorous "mercenaries" who accept foreign money to try to undermine the government.
"This is something you don't see in my country," Sanchez said, motioning toward the protesters. She called the protest a "shower of democracy and pluralism."
"I wish we had freedom like this in my country," she added.
Sanchez's Brazil trip was paid through online donations – the Brazilian director of a documentary she appeared in launched the fundraising campaign. The city government of Feira de Santana, where the film is being screened Monday, paid for her accommodation.
Ted Henken, a professor of Latin American studies at New York's Baruch College who studies social media and civil society in Cuba, is closely involved in arranging Sanchez's U.S. meetings and appearances. He said in an emailed response that the U.S. government "has not contributed one penny to her trip." He said the bulk of the money for the U.S. leg of Sanchez's trip is being funded by universities she'll visit.

"She is not being paid for her appearance by any of these institutions partly because – irony – the embargo prevents it. A small per diem is all that's allowed apart from covering travel and lodging costs," Henken said.
Sanchez's ability to leave her homeland was seen as a test of a new Cuba law, announced in October, that eliminates the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. Cuban authorities can still deny travel in cases of defense and "national security," among other reasons, and some dissidents continue to face restrictions.
Still, the exit permit's demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raul Castro's ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society.
Taking effect Jan. 14, the law ended the much-loathed exit visa requirement, which was routinely withheld from dissidents, doctors, military officers and others individuals considered to be politically sensitive. The reform also simplified other bureaucratic procedures that had made overseas travel complicated for Cubans.
Several Cuban dissidents have already traveled or received passports under the new law. But passports have been denied to at least two government opponents, one who had a criminal sentence pending against him and another who said she was turned down for alleging belonging to "counterrevolutionary groups."
Brazil's most influential magazine, Veja, published a story this weekend alleging that Cuban diplomats were working with Brazilian leftists to organize protests against Sanchez during her stops in the country, where she is expected to stay for a week.
"That doesn't surprise me, it's part of an information war," she told the Salvador-based A Tarde newspaper. "Obviously I don't like it, but I understand that facing this siege is part of my profession."
Cuba's Embassy in Brasilia had no comment on Sanchez's trip. The office of Brazil's president didn't respond to requests for comment.
From Salvador, Sanchez traveled to the nearby city of Feira de Santana to participate in the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba, which she appears in.
Sanchez's tour includes several stops in the United States, with appearances at universities in New York and other academic programs, visits to Google and Twitter offices and time with family in Florida.
She'll also travel to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, with potential trips to Argentina and Chile in the works.
On Twitter, Sanchez wrote of her trip that "the minutes are as intense as hours. Everything is beautiful!"
On her blog, Sanchez wrote of fellow Cubans offering support in Havana as she boarded her flight and of Venezuelans on the plane who befriended her but asked that she not put their photos online, to avoid trouble with their own socialist government.
After a layover in Panama, Sanchez began the longest leg of her initial journey. Once in the air heading toward Brazil, she wrote, she felt a "sense of physical and mental decompression. As if I had been submerged for too long without being able to breathe, and now managed to take a gulp of air."
"So far everything is going well," she ended the blog entry. "Brazil has given me the gift of diversity and affection, the possibility to appreciate and tell of so many astonishments."

South Beach's W Hotel

 

 

 

Yes, South Beach's W Hotel removed the large photograph of an image resembling that of Che. Yes, it's because of those pesky and over the top Cuban exiles. Nevermind that this so called "hip" revolutionary killed THOUSANDS of Cubans.  What don't I leave you with these "feel" good quotes from Che:

 

 

 

"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary...These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the The Wall! (El Paredón)" --Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

 

 

"The black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving, which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself, even independently of his own individual aspirations."

 

 

 

“We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.”

 

 

“Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier in an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary.”

 

 

 

 “A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the The Wall!” The Wall is a reference to the wall where Che’s enemies stood before his firing squads.

 

 

 

“I am not Christ or a philanthropist, old lady, I am all the contrary of a Christ … I fight for the things I believe in, with all the weapons at my disposal and try to leave the other man dead so that I don’t get nailed to a cross or any other place.”

 

 

“If any person has a good word for the previous government that is good enough for me to have him shot.”

 

 

“In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.”

"Agresion a estudiantes en embajada cubana en Caracas"

"Yoani Sánchez to begin foreign tour in March"

From the Miami Herald:

By JUAN CARLOS CHÁVEZ

jcchavez@elnuevoherald.com

Yoani Sánchez, the dissident Cuban blogger who has developed an international following, will begin a series of foreign trips and presentations March 9.
Sánchez, who had repeatedly been denied an exit visa under Cuba’s old travel regime, begins her travels with a trip to the Mexican state of Puebla where she will participate in a forum on the situation inside Cuba and her efforts to combat censorship. It’s part of the Inter American Press Association’s biannual meeting.
In November 2012, Sánchez was named regional vice president for Cuba for the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
At the end of January, Sánchez received her passport as part of a migratory reform that Cuba instituted Jan. 14. An exit visa and letter of invitation are no longer required for Cubans to travel abroad, but they need to request their passports and, if necessary, obtain entry visas for the countries they want to visit. The new law permits trips abroad of up to 24 months — with the possibility of an extension.
In the past, the Cuban government has not allowed Sánchez to leave the island to pick up dozens of prizes she has been awarded from prestigious institutions in the United States, Latin America and Europe.
Several days ago Sánchez said she may travel to Spain where she received, in absentia, the Ortega and Gasset Prize for digital journalism in 2008, and to Germany. Other possible destinations are Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland where she lived from 2002 to 2004.
The blogger will be in New York March 15-17 for a forum entitled “The Revolution Recodified: Digital Culture and the Public Sphere in Cuba,’’ which is sponsored by a group of cultural and academic institutions, according to the website CaféFuerte. Her U.S. trip also includes a press conference at New York University on March 15, various seminars hosted by academic institutions, a two-day trip to Washington and a private meeting with her sister who lives in South Florida.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/14/3235276/yoani-sanchez-to-begin-foreign.html#storylink=cpy

Lightning Strikes St Peter's Basilica as Pope Resigns

Le entregan el pasaporte a Berta Soler

Yoani Sánchez @yoanisanchez #Cuba Le entregan el pasaporte a Berta Soler de las @DamasdBlanco y ahora a buscar el #Premio #Sajarov !!! :) 09:52 AM - 08 Feb 13

Where's Waldo.....I mean Hugo?

Read this in a very low whisper......no...no...even lower. Where's Hugo?
Even the dictator appeared at the "ONE PARTY" rigged vote several days ago
in Cuba

REVELANDO CUBA CON DR. ÓSCAR ELÍAS BISCET

El Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet y la Fundación Lawton de Derechos Humanos se enorgullecen en presentar el segundo episodio del programa Revelando Cuba. Este programa les brinda a los televidentes información sobre el contexto y análisis de eventos e historias de la Cuba de adentro y del mundo entero. En este episodio, el Dr. Biscet se pasea por la vida y cuestiona la trágica muerte de Oswaldo Payá, quien era un defensor de los derechos humanos y la democracia. Luego, Biscet visita un hospital de La Habana y descubre el estado decadente que se encuentra este centro de salud.

El Dr. Biscet pide a sus espectadores apoyar en la distribución de su programa, tanto dentro como fuera de Cuba. Los episodios pueden ser vistos en el canal de YouTube llamado Revelando Cuba, y también pueden ser descargados para su distribución.

Canal Revelando Cuba

Revelando Cuba (descargar -Â goo.gl/pJnnV)

Por favor suscríbase a nuestro canal de YouTube. Envíenos sus comentarios a la dirección de correo electrónico: revelandocuba@gmail.com.




Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights are proud to present the second episode of the program Revelando Cuba (Revealing Cuba.) Revelando Cuba provides in-depth context and analysis of stories from within Cuba and around the world. In this episode, six months after the death of Oswaldo Paya, Dr. Biscet looks back on his life and discusses the tragic death of the human rights and democracy advocate. He then visits a Havana hospital and uncovers the critical state of decay at this health care facility.

Dr. Biscet encourages viewers to support the distribution of this program, both within Cuba and beyond. All episodes can be viewed on the Revelando Cuba YouTube channel and downloaded for distribution in Cuba.

Revelando Cuba Channel

Revelando Cuba ( Download - goo.gl/pJnnV )

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Email your comments to revelandocuba@gmail.com.

 

Nota de Prensa de la Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU)

Nota de Prensa FANTU-UNPACU

Queremos informar a la a toda la nación cubana y a la opinión pública internacional que los máximos dirigentes del Foro Antitotalitario Unido “Juan Wilfredo Soto García” (FANTU) y de la Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU) sostuvimos dos reuniones de trabajo en La Habana, los días 23 y 28 de enero del año 2013, para materializar una integración muy necesaria en el momento histórico que vive nuestra Patria, con la fusión entre nuestras dos entidades contestatarias que actúan dentro de Cuba.

De esas reuniones, donde cada uno de presentes planteó hacer total dejación de sus respectivos cargos y le solicitó a sus homólogos ser un soldado más dentro de la nueva organización en ciernes de la oposición no violenta nacional y después de las pláticas de trabajo ya referidas, finalmente se acordó:

1ro: Crear a la mayor brevedad posible una única organización opositora, pacifista y civilista que integre a las respectivas membrecías del FANTU, entidad que posee militantes en las provincias de Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus y Ciego de Ávila con la UNPACU, agrupación que posee miembros en las provincias de Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Granma, Las Tunas, Camagüey y La Habana.

2do: Que esta organización opositora tendrá como divisa no poseer un líder político único, sino que su liderazgo será colegiado, como manera práctica de combatir el caudillismo, un fenómeno que ha conspirado en los ámbitos político y social desde las guerras de independencia en el pasado Siglo XIX y aún hoy lo sufrimos.

3ro: Que los cargos, estructura, órganos de dirección, reglamento y denominación de la nueva entidad se dará a conocer a la mayor brevedad, pues en estos momentos se están discutiendo varias propuestas con las respectivas membrecías, pero ya en la praxis estamos trabajando juntos y el espíritu es el de juntarnos para la democratización definitiva de Cuba.

4to: Que esta nueva organización contestataria al régimen castrista estará abierta a todos los cubanos, que consideren que la unidad y la colegiación de criterios políticos es el único modo de vencer al totalitarismo que padece nuestra Patria, hace 54 largos años.

 

Sin más, por la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba.

 

Firmamos por orden alfabético:

Guillermo Fariñas Hernández. Portavoz del FANTU.

José Daniel Ferrer García. Coordinador General de la UNPACU.

Félix Navarro Rodríguez. Secretario Ejecutivo Nacional del FANTU.

 

 Dado en La Habana, a los 5 días del mes febrero del año 2013.

Was it worth it?

Even after 54 years all you see when it concerns "Cuba," the pontificators are quick to point out "Cuban Exiles" are the source of all Cuba's ills. This is sickening and tears at the heart of every Cuban.

Let's see, who has been in power for the last 54 years? how is it that a country who once was a worldwide leader in sugar production, now for many years has been regulated to import sugar and basically all their food needs(It's a tropical island!!!!!)? Who has jailed, executed, and imprisoned their own people just for the sake of a difference of a opinion?

Those who rule and those who standby by these rulers by their choice of envy, hate, and the destruction of the Cuban soul. You think you can control many things and perceptions, BUT YOU CAN NOT destroy the very fabric of our soul. You can not control what is in our heart and what we think in our minds.

Now for those who pontificate about how things should be done in regards to all things relating to Cuba.....shut the fuc.. up.........Unless you have had  family members lose everything, imprisoned, tortured, executed, or died in the ocean fleeing on raft! Visiting Cuba for one week does not qualify you as an expert on Cuba issues and open season on ALL Cuban exiles. Shaking the hand of a dictator does not just give you all the knowledge , power, or imprint your soul of all things Cuban!!

Now was all that hate and destruction worth trying to destroy a nation and it's people?

"Cuba dissident says passport request denied"

Click here for the article:

By PETER ORSI | Associated Press – Wed, Jan 30, 2013

HAVANA (AP) — A Cuban dissident who was locked up for years in connection with his political activities said Wednesday he has been denied a passport that would have let him go overseas under recently enacted travel reform.

Angel Moya, one of 75 anti-government activists imprisoned in a 2003 crackdown on dissent and later released, said he went to file paperwork and the $50 application fee to request a passport, but a clerk turned him down.

"She told me, after consulting a database, that I was restricted and it couldn't be processed for reasons of public interest," Moya told The Associated Press.

The denial suggests that Cuba intends to exercise a legal clause by which it retains the right to restrict some citizens' right to travel, and casts an element of doubt over the Jan. 14 measure that eliminated the loathed exit visa required of all Cubans seeking to go abroad.

Analysts have called such controls arbitrary and humiliating, though authorities long insisted they were necessary to prevent brain drain. Cuba has routinely denied exit visas for dissidents, who are considered "counterrevolutionaries" in the pay of foreign interests and bent on undermining the communist government.

Moya said the office clerk showed him her computer screen and the file did not contain a specific reason why he was not allowed to apply for the travel document. But the law contains language reserving the right to withhold passports for reasons of national interest and to people with pending legal cases, and he's sure that's affecting his situation.

Moya's release from prison was conditional and technically he's still serving a 20-year sentence for treason that expires in 2023. The rest of the former prisoners from the 2003 crackdown, like a number of other dissidents with legal issues, presumably could be in the same boat.

"Their release is very precarious," said Elizardo Sanchez, who monitors and reports on human rights on the island.

However, other government opponents including frequent hunger striker Guillermo Farinas have explicitly been told they will be allowed to get passports and come and go freely, and some dissident passport requests are being processed.

Moya's wife Berta Soler, a leader of the Ladies in White protest group, said as far as she knows she's still scheduled to pick up hers on Feb. 8.

Blogger Yoani Sanchez, who is not related to Elizardo, also says she has been told she can travel, though on Wednesday she was complaining about a more mundane problem: red tape.
"The long lethargy of bureaucracy in (hashtag)Cuba," she tweeted. "'The passport isn't ready yet, come back next week,' they tell me."

Government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Havana usually avoids mentioning the dissidents at all except to accuse them of being traitorous "mercenaries."

Also Wednesday, Amnesty International formally designated a second prisoner of conscience on the island and urged authorities to free him immediately.

In a statement, the New York-based international human rights monitor said Calixto Martinez was detained for his work reporting for the non-governmental news agency Hablemos Press and has been held without charge since Sept. 16, 2012.

Amnesty said Martinez was arrested at an airport while looking into whether anti-cholera medicine provided by the World Health Organization was being held there. He supposedly took photographs and interviewed people there.

Cuban airports are highly sensitive, well-guarded facilities, and journalists generally are barred from reporting there without special permission.

Last summer's cholera outbreak in eastern Cuba was also a sensitive subject for the island, which relies on tourism as one of its main sources of foreign income. Authorities say that it was contained, and that another outbreak this month in Havana is under control.

Amnesty said Martinez was accused of "disrespect" for authorities, which is a crime in Cuba. The relevant legal statute has commonly been used as justification for the detention of dissidents.
Cuba contends that it does not hold any political prisoners.

When the last of the 75 walked free under a deal brokered by the Catholic Church, Amnesty said at the time that there were no more inmates it recognized as prisoners of conscience, though rights monitors complain that authorities have adopted a tactic of more short-term detentions to harass dissidents and impede their activities.

Cuba has long maintained nearly complete control over the island's media, and Hablemos Press has occupied a murky legal gray area.

"The imprisonment of Calixto Martinez goes to show that authorities in Cuba are far from accepting that journalists have a role to play in society, including by investigating possible wrongdoings," said Guadalupe Marengo, deputy Americas director at Amnesty International.

In a recently released press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Cuba dropped four spots this year to 171st out of 179 countries — ahead of only Vietnam, China, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

There have been some signs of opening, however. In 2011, President Raul Castro urged state media to be bolder with more "objective, constant and critical" reporting.
The Catholic Church is allowed to publish its own independent magazine, Palabra Nueva, bloggers are openly critical of the government and state TV recently began carrying programming from Venezuela-based Telesur news channel.

Amnesty has strict criteria for how it designates prisoners of conscience. One requirement is that the person not have a history of violence.

In an email to the AP, Amnesty noted the difficulty of accessing independent information in a tightly guarded society such as Cuba. It acknowledged talking to government opponents and other rights groups, but said it conducted its own investigation to verify the information about Martinez.

He is one of two Cubans who Amnesty considers to be prisoners of conscience, along with Marcos Maiquel Lima Cruz, behind bars since December 2010.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com

Las nuevas referencias del presidente Barack Obama para “Cuba”

Dr. Darsi Ferret

Miami, Florida. 31 de enero de 2013.

Increíble... el presidente Barack Obama declaró en entrevista reciente a la cadena Telemundo, que las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y Cuba pueden cambiar en el decursar de los próximos cuatro años, y aseguró que está abierto a trabajar en ese ambiente de "progreso". No cabe la menor duda de que "Cuba" en las palabras de Obama significa régimen castrista y noparece incluir al pueblo cubano.

Pero revisemos un par de hechos para entender qué hay por detrás de esta actitud del gobernante de EEUU. El principal obstáculo relaciones bilaterales Cuba-USA lo representa la injusta condena a 15 años de prisión que cumple en La Habana el ciudadano estadounidense Alan Gross. Raúl Castro no ha cedido un ápice y se muestra intrasigente en su postura de mantenerlo encarcelado, a pesar de los pedidos de clemencia de la familia del reo, de los reclamos de excarcelación del gobierno americano y de las peticiones de repatriación de importantes personalidades e instituciones internacionales, entre las que destaca el Grupo de Detención Arbitraria del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, que declaró injusta la detención de Gross y sin garantías procesales el juicio en el que fue sancionado.

Recordemos que las medidas de presión adoptadas desde hace años por EEUU contra el régimen castrista tienen por condicionante la exigencia de mejoras en materia de derechos humanos. En la isla lejos de asumirse reformas o aperturas para resolver el irrespeto a las libertades y derechos de los ciudadanos, aumentan la represión y los abusos e injusticias que sufre de modo cotidiano la población.

Cuando se estudian los peligros que afrontan los EEUU en su entorno exterior, se constata que uno de los más preocupantes para esa nación es la amenaza de una posible Cuba inestable, a consecuencia de la caída del régimen y del vacio de poder que se pueda generar. ¿Por qué es tan serio este asunto para los americanos? Porque la pérdida de control del poder en la isla puede desembocar fácilmente en una situación de ingobernabilidad, que empuje a un éxodo masivo con un efecto desestabilizador para la Florida. Además, la isla podría convertirse a escasas 90 millas de USA, en refugio para los grupos que operan el narcotráfico internacional, el tráfico de personas y en base operativa del terrorismo internacional. En resumen, el litoral que colinda entre ambas naciones vecinas pasaría a ser más peligroso e incontrolable que la propia y ya bastante conflictiva frontera de EEUU-México. Este complejo panorama hace que el principal interés del gobierno estadounidense respecto a Cuba no sea la libertad del pueblo cubano, sino la estabilidad interna dentro de la isla.

No es un secreto para nadie que Hugo Chávez no tiene vuelta atrás, está al morir en cualquier momento. Y no debe haber servicio de inteligencia foráneo mejor informado que el de USA sobre esa realidad insuperable del ex caudillo venezolano. También está claro que el chavismo sin Chávez no va a ninguna parte, por muchas jugarretas y maniobras que realicen en función de conservar el poder. Y la tendencia de la remesa multimillonaria, llegada desde Venezuela y que le sirve de sostén a los Castro, es a desaparecer aún antes del desplome del chavismo post-Chávez. O sea, el régimen castrista se tambalea y no tiene alternativa para sobrevivir la pronta debacle venezolana.

Lo que ocultan las palabras del presidente Obama es que constituyen el acomodamiento de lo que puede representar una estrategia de contención concebida para apuntalar al régimen de los Castro, lo que se resolvería garantizándoles vías de financiamiento a través del relajamiento del embargo, sin poner en duda que quizás esta acción de EEUU se complemente con el acuerdo bilateral de un posterior desmonte del castrismo, paulatino y organizado, como salida beneficiosa para ambos gobiernos.

En el escenario internacional, Obama se ha mostrado poco determinado y sin la firmeza de otros ex gobernantes americanos. Este hecho lo muestran las disculpas que ofreció a las naciones islamistas y musulmanas, por las acciones militares protagonizadas por EEUU en diversas naciones, las que han sido dirigidas en defensa de los valores occidentales y no con el propósito de someter pueblos u ocupar territorios. También el mandatario estadounidense mantuvo un bajo perfil y poca firmeza en la respuesta dada a los regímenes derrocados en el Medio Oriente, que mientras se resistían cometieron salvajes masacres contra sus propios pueblos. El caso de mayor inacción de USA es en la guerra civil que aún perdura en Siria luego de más de dos años, y que contabiliza alrededor de 60 mil asesinados y un número incontable de refugiados y desplazados.

El pueblo cubano tiene que estar vigilante y determinado a luchar por la libertad sin ningún tipo de concesión al régimen de los hermanos Castro, y no contar con la ilusión de que será liberado por algún tercero. Debe tener claro de que no es prioridad en la agenda de la Casa Blanca. La única alternativa recommendable es tumbar al regimen castrista, y mientras más rápido mejor. La libertad no se negocia.