Posted on 12/11/2006 10:43:51 AM PST by The Bronze Titan
HAVANA - Celebrated American writer Gore Vidal slammed the four-decade-long U.S. trade embargo against Cuba on Sunday, saying during a visit to the island that he hopes recent changes in U.S. politics will help end the sanctions.
"I've never been here before and it's a fascinating country," Vidal said, touring Old Havana. He arrived late Sunday and is scheduled to return to the United States on Thursday.
Vidal said the United States is "undergoing tremendous political change," referring to growing opposition to the war in Iraq and the Democratic Party's return to control of both houses of Congress in November midterm elections.
"After more than 40 years, the embargo is ridiculous," said Vidal, who himself ran for Congress and who regularly raises funds for Democratic candidates.
The United States imposed economic and commercial sanctions against Cuba in 1961 after the CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs was defeated. Last month, for the 15th straight year, the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to urge Washington to lift the embargo.
Vidal is to visit museums, a ballet school and other cultural centers during his stay. He also will meet with Culture Minister Abel Prieto and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, among other officials.
American filmmaker Saul Landau, who has produced four documentaries about Cuban President Fidel Castro, was among those in Vidal's small delegation.
Landau said it was unlikely that the group would meet with the ailing 80-year-old leader who ceded power to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, earlier this year while he recovers from intestinal surgery.
Vidal, also 80, published his first novel at the age of 21 and has had a prolific career as a playwright, essayist, scriptwriter and novelist.
He recently published his memoirs, "Point to Point Navigation," and a paperback book called "Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta."
Dr. Darsi Ferrer, in the center of the picture wearing a blue t-shirt, was also attacked by the mob.
Some of the criminal thugs who were organized by the Castro regime to attack the dissidents.
A dissident, Carlos Rios, scuffles with a group of fascist thugs organized by the Castro regime, while trying to conduct a peaceful demonstration in Havana on December 10, 2006
Another leftist scumbag pays homage to the fossilized regime in Cuba..... Gore Vidal loves any anti-American hater as long as they are depraved leftists...... hey leftie morons, the embargo shouldn't matter, if communism were worth a damn you could build the people's paradise easily without any trade with the USA.... why exactly do all these commie morons think that being parasitic on the USA is so essential to realizing "the good life" for communists????
Thanks for the counterpoint post. Very powerful.
Especially fascinating for Vidal are those 11 year old boys who are always for sale, I bet.
Hey, Gore, Castro doesn't like gays and sends them to asymlums where they are lobotomized - and probably forced to rad Myra Breckenridge.
Americans should remember this and file to put a bunch of non-binding referendums on their states' 2008 ballots including "Should the US kick out the UN?"
Gore Vidal.... no pederast like an old pederast!
anyone remember Laugh In?
I remember his exchange with Buckley. I note that as the exact moment when political commentary on TV began to devolve into rude, shouting morons.
what a tool.
I anxiously await the brilliant statements of experts like Gore Vidal. Who the heck is Gore Vidal?
"(snort) Mr Veedle...Mr Veedle...."
The AP is garbage.
Isn't GV the guyt who made a porno film and tried to pass it off as history?
Caligula.
Cuba is a decaying Communist dictatorship. What does Vidal admire, the moral and political squalor?
There was a time in this country when political discussion was treated with the respect due serious issues. Now it's one step removed from professional wrestling. And it started with the Gore Buckley exchange.
I always thought he was a pig. Nothing has changed my mind
Vidal isn't a thinker, but a polemicist. His reputation and significance has more to do with style than with substance, more with insults than with arguments.
The fact that he's not a deep thinker makes him very good at argument if discussion can be kept on the level of insults and insinuations, though.
As we used to say in high school, "What a mo!"
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