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.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
"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.
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."
Friday, February 15, 2013
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.”
Thursday, February 14, 2013
"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.
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.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Le entregan el pasaporte a Berta Soler
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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.
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. 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.
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Email your comments to revelandocuba@gmail.com.
Friday, February 08, 2013
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.
Saturday, February 02, 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?
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 | Associated Press – Wed, Jan 30, 2013
"The long lethargy of bureaucracy in (hashtag)Cuba," she tweeted. "'The passport isn't ready yet, come back next week,' they tell me."
Cuba contends that it does not hold any political prisoners.
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.
By | 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.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
CHILE: Por eso Cuba ha sufrido 54 a~nos de totalitarismo
Sesenta jefes de estado, elegidos democraticamente por sus pueblos, acuden a una reunion regional donde se va a nombrar presidente de esta organizacion (CELAC) a un asesino y ladron que lidera la dictadura totalitaria mas longeva del mundo...
DA VERGUENZA COMO ESTOS DIGNATARIOS, CON SU PRESENCIA, Y SILENCIO, SE BURLAN DE LA JUSTICIA Y DE LA LIBERTAD QUE ELLOS PROMUEVEN Y DISFRUTAN EN SUS PROPIOS PAISES Y QUE LE HA SIDO NEGADA AL PUEBLO DE CUBA POR MAS DE CINCO DECADAS !
LAIDA A. CARRO
Human Rights Defender
Coalition of Cuban-American Women
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Damas de Blanco celebran Te Literario bajo violencia policial.
Published on Jan 22, 2013
La Habana, 22 de Enero.- En el día de ayer, 21 de enero, 42 mujeres miembros del movimiento Damas de Blanco Laura Pollán, participaron en su actividad del Te Literario número 116; esta vez, dedicado a la figura del líder afroamericano Martin Luther King.
El régimen movilizó sus fuerzas represivas, y organizó un mitin de repudio en el que participaron militares uniformadas de la Policía Nacional, las Fuerzas Armadas y el Ministerio del Interior; además de las paramilitares Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida, que esta vez se hicieron acompañar por niños y adolescentes.
El acto intimidatorio contra el movimiento civil pacífico, mostró su acostumbrada violencia a través de amenazas agresivas y cantos que incitaban al linchamiento. Más información en www.cihpress.com
El régimen movilizó sus fuerzas represivas, y organizó un mitin de repudio en el que participaron militares uniformadas de la Policía Nacional, las Fuerzas Armadas y el Ministerio del Interior; además de las paramilitares Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida, que esta vez se hicieron acompañar por niños y adolescentes.
El acto intimidatorio contra el movimiento civil pacífico, mostró su acostumbrada violencia a través de amenazas agresivas y cantos que incitaban al linchamiento. Más información en www.cihpress.com
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez
Director de Hablemos Press
Santa Marta 394 Apto 3 e/t Subirana y Franco, La Habana. Tel: 879 93 31 o Móvil: 5 319 69 27.
E-mail:robersm2007@gmail.com pagina donde pueden encontrarnos www.cihpress.com o http://cubanheroes.blogspot.com y síguenos en Twitter @HablemosPress.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Huge Costs Confront Cubans Who Seek To Travel Under New ‘Migration Law’ Going Into Effect Today
From The New York Sun:
The cost of a Cuban passport obtained in Cuba, however, has doubled. The fees are even more exorbitant given the average monthly salary in Cuba is around $19 (455 pesos). Previously, a passport in Cuba, issued for six years, cost the equivalent of $55 with required extensions every two years for $20. Beginning today, it rises to $100, representing 5.3 months of wages or 44% of the entire average annual peso salary. Extensions every two years will cost $20, or over one month of salary.
These fees are prohibitive to the average citizen. In Cuba’s centrally planned socialist economy, access to hard currency is almost exclusive to members of the ruling elite and those working in the small foreign sector. Most citizens cannot and will not be able to obtain a passport or travel overseas without financial assistance from family or friends abroad.
In the United States, a comparable passport fee would be $19,836.84. In relative terms, U.S. citizens would have to pay the government approximately $20,000 to obtain a passport, then pay an additional $4,000 every two years plus renew on year six, again paying $20,000. Currently, U.S. passports for adults are valid for ten years and cost $165 the first time, $110 for renewals.
Cuba’s new law keeps in place the usual impediments to leaving the country. Article 216 of the Penal Code penalizes leaving “without complying with the legal requirements” with one to three years of prison and high fees. The political police — that is, the ministry of the interior — will continue deciding who travels, just issuing at its discretion passports instead of exit permits. Passports will only be issued to those who meet all requirements of the new law and may be denied among others “for reasons of public interest,” “defense and national security,” or to “preserve human capital.” Strict restrictions remain for doctors and healthcare workers, high-performing athletes, professionals, government officials, military officers, and those with official information or considered “vital” to the state.
That some will soon pay less is welcome, but overall, the regime will likely collect much more while preserving the same level of control. Compliant citizens will be able to travel abroad for less money and aggravation if granted a passport. They may even work overseas and stay abroad for up to 24 months — up from 11 — before being designated an émigré, having all property confiscated and restricted from returning (if allowed back, only for a maximum of 90 days). Passport validation every two years may be denied for all the reasons listed above plus any "reason of public interest defined by the authorities." Accustomed to exploiting its citizens, the totalitarian state designed this clever extortion to keep obedient serfs replenishing its coffers.
Some were quick to laud these essentially procedural changes. But congratulating the Castro dynasty for this gimmick reeks of battered wife syndrome ¾ the victim, intent on escaping more blows, remains subservient, focused on placating the abuser rather than standing up to the abuse.
Leaving from and returning to one’s country is a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and respected by all countries save the worst repressors. Anything less than Cuba’s citizens full exercise of this and all other fundamental freedoms should be forcefully denounced as the abomination it is.
Ms. Werlau is based in New Jersey and is executive director of the non-profit Cuba Archive and board member of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.
H/T to Joseito for this article!
Huge Costs Confront Cubans Who Seek To Travel Under New ‘Migration Law’ Going Into Effect Today
By MARIA WERLAU, Special to the Sun | January 14, 2013
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/huge-costs-confront-cubans-who-seek-to-travel/88153/
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Updates to Cuba’s “Migration Law” introduced to great fanfare last October, go into effect today. But, they are merely a bankrupt dictatorship’s latest scheme to fund its failed economy and confuse world public opinion with so-called “reforms. Soon after seizing power in January 1959, Fidel Castro decreed that Cuba’s citizens would need an exit permit from the revolutionary government. More than half a century later, Cubans are still not free to leave at will.
Among the law’s changes taking effect today, Cubans will only need a valid passport and a visa from the destination country to be allowed out. Until now, those hoping to travel had to submit a letter of invitation, processed for around $200 and, if approved, obtain an exit permit for $165, with requisite extensions for any overseas stay over one month costing $150 each month. That these requirements have been eliminated will save Cubans a minimum of US$321 in fees plus repeated bureaucratic hassles.The cost of a Cuban passport obtained in Cuba, however, has doubled. The fees are even more exorbitant given the average monthly salary in Cuba is around $19 (455 pesos). Previously, a passport in Cuba, issued for six years, cost the equivalent of $55 with required extensions every two years for $20. Beginning today, it rises to $100, representing 5.3 months of wages or 44% of the entire average annual peso salary. Extensions every two years will cost $20, or over one month of salary.
These fees are prohibitive to the average citizen. In Cuba’s centrally planned socialist economy, access to hard currency is almost exclusive to members of the ruling elite and those working in the small foreign sector. Most citizens cannot and will not be able to obtain a passport or travel overseas without financial assistance from family or friends abroad.
In the United States, a comparable passport fee would be $19,836.84. In relative terms, U.S. citizens would have to pay the government approximately $20,000 to obtain a passport, then pay an additional $4,000 every two years plus renew on year six, again paying $20,000. Currently, U.S. passports for adults are valid for ten years and cost $165 the first time, $110 for renewals.
Cuba’s new law keeps in place the usual impediments to leaving the country. Article 216 of the Penal Code penalizes leaving “without complying with the legal requirements” with one to three years of prison and high fees. The political police — that is, the ministry of the interior — will continue deciding who travels, just issuing at its discretion passports instead of exit permits. Passports will only be issued to those who meet all requirements of the new law and may be denied among others “for reasons of public interest,” “defense and national security,” or to “preserve human capital.” Strict restrictions remain for doctors and healthcare workers, high-performing athletes, professionals, government officials, military officers, and those with official information or considered “vital” to the state.
That some will soon pay less is welcome, but overall, the regime will likely collect much more while preserving the same level of control. Compliant citizens will be able to travel abroad for less money and aggravation if granted a passport. They may even work overseas and stay abroad for up to 24 months — up from 11 — before being designated an émigré, having all property confiscated and restricted from returning (if allowed back, only for a maximum of 90 days). Passport validation every two years may be denied for all the reasons listed above plus any "reason of public interest defined by the authorities." Accustomed to exploiting its citizens, the totalitarian state designed this clever extortion to keep obedient serfs replenishing its coffers.
Some were quick to laud these essentially procedural changes. But congratulating the Castro dynasty for this gimmick reeks of battered wife syndrome ¾ the victim, intent on escaping more blows, remains subservient, focused on placating the abuser rather than standing up to the abuse.
Leaving from and returning to one’s country is a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and respected by all countries save the worst repressors. Anything less than Cuba’s citizens full exercise of this and all other fundamental freedoms should be forcefully denounced as the abomination it is.
Ms. Werlau is based in New Jersey and is executive director of the non-profit Cuba Archive and board member of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.
H/T to Joseito for this article!
Las inconsistencias del presidente Martinelli
¿Qué hay por debajo del traje con el que se nos viste el presidente de panamá, Ricardo Alberto Martinelli, para brindar la apariencia de ser un político democrático y responsable, a la altura de su cargo en una nación donde impera el Estado de Derecho? Para mí, hay inconsecuencia con los valores que dice defender, manipulación y contubernio con la raza antioccidental que aupa a los gobernantes de la izquierda ranciosa de Latinoamérica. Hace unos días, el embajador de Panamá ante la OEA, Guillermo Cochez, also su voz en esa importante institución hemisférica, para condenar el evidente golpe a la constitucionalidad que los chavistas materializan en Venezuela, y reclamar la adpción de acciones que contribuyan en favor del respeto a la democracia y el Estado de Derecho en la región. Ese planteamiento que constituye un valiente y firme compromiso con el pueblo venezolano, debió ser aplaudido y apoyado por todos los que se definen partidarios de los valores occidentales. Lejos de recibir una condecoración o un homenaje de manos de Martinelli, el ex embajador lo que tuvo que recoger fueron las maletas, pues su presidente desautorizó sus declaraciones y no conforme lo destituyó del cargo. A los cubanos este suceso lamentable nos sirve en parte de explicación del por qué nuestro pueblo ha recibido tan poca solidaridad, para no ser absoluto, de la casta política latinoamericana, esa misma que ha mantenido las mejores relaciones con el regimen castrista. Nada, que este es el tipo de presidente al que le endilgan en nuestro hemisferio el cartelito de ser de derecha, liberal y democrático. Si así son estos, ¿qué esperar de los de tendencia de izquierda?
Friday, January 18, 2013
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