Cuba - communist intellectuals ask for end to criticism

Miami Herald ^ | April 20, 2003 | Herald wire services

[Cincinatus' Wife]

HAVANA -A group of world-renowned Cuban intellectuals released a letter to their colleagues around the world Saturday, asking them to stop criticizing harsh measures recently employed here.

Titled Message from Havana to our friends in faraway places, the letter was published Saturday in the Communist Party daily Granma.

Signed by 27 of Cuba's best-known cultural figures, the letter describes the ''surprise and pain'' felt when liberal intellectuals around the world criticized Cuba for its crackdown on dissidents and the executions of three ferry hijackers.

The Cuban letter blamed ''the distance, the disinformation and the traumas of failed socialist experiences'' on the recent criticism from people it has counted on for support.

The declarations ''are being used in the great campaign trying to isolate us and prepare the stage for military aggression by the United States against Cuba,'' the letter read.

The critics have included Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, who praised a statement in which Portuguese Nobel Literature Prize laureate José Saramago said Cuba ``has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, cheated my dreams.''

However, noted Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer sent a message last week expressing ''solidarity with the struggle'' of the Cuban leader as the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva passed a resolution calling for a U.N. rights monitor to visit the island.

Among those who signed the letter in Granma were prima ballerina Alicia Alonso, pianist Chucho Valdés, composers Cintio Vitier and Leo Brouwer, and singers Omara Portuondo and Silvio Rodríguez.

Antonio Jorge, a Cuba expert at Florida International University, said he was not surprised by the letter.

''All these people who signed this letter are long-time loyalists of Fidel Castro,'' said Jorge, who teaches economics and international relations. ``These people are almost state functionaries, who are totally committed to the goals and values of the Communist Party in Cuba.''

[Cincinatus' Wife]

''This is as far as I go'' - Disgusted by executions, Castro ally cuts ties to Cuba*** In a bitter criticism of the executions carried out last week in Cuba, José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer considered Fidel Castro's best friend among European intellectuals, broke with the regime Monday. ''This is as far as I go,'' Saramago wrote in a short but powerful essay printed in Spain's leading newspaper, El País, as the European Union, various countries and organizations around the world continued to offer public repudiations.

Killing three men by firing squad at dawn Friday for trying to spirit a ferry boat is unacceptable -- especially since the would-be hijackers didn't hurt anybody, wrote Saramago, a communist. ``Cuba has won no heroic victory by executing these three men, but it has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, robbed me of illusions.''***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S. ready in case of major exodus from Cuba *** Coast Guard cutters operating off South Florida's shores have picked up fewer Cuban migrants in the first three months of the year than Haitians and Dominicans combined. But the absence of large numbers of Cuban migrants headed for South Florida may be the calm before the storm. A wave of repression in Cuba in recent weeks has been so alarming that U.S. officials have begun to wonder whether Cuba may unleash a new Mariel-style exodus -- a typical Cuban response in times of crisis.

American officials are so worried that they have already quietly advised Cuba not to attempt any such action. But if a new exodus occurs, officials say they will activate a classified federal contingency plan designed to deal with migrant surges. Operation Distant Shore would trigger a dramatic escalation in the number of Coast Guard and other military vessels patrolling the Florida Straits -- a veritable floating wall designed to interdict as many migrants as possible at sea.

…………………. Greenhill, a research fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, said the circumstances of the current Cuban crisis should be monitored closely for signs of a possible new exodus. ''I would say that the situation bears close watching,'' he said. But he added that Castro might think twice before sanctioning a new exodus. ''I don't think it's impossible we could see another outflow,'' Greenhill said, ``but if I were Castro, I'd think long and hard about launching an engineered migration this time around, given the prevailing environment in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and Iraq. The world looks different today than it did in 1965, 1980 and 1994.''***

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Here is a partial list of some of their "friends":

Socialism in America's Congress: A Primer (Vanity)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/895421/posts

[goldstategop]

Sounds like a petition Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon should gladly second!

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Along with Tom Daschle, Nancy Pelosi, Jim McDermott, Charles Rangel, John Kerry, Robert Byrd, Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, David Bonier, Pete Stark, Jimmy Carter, Hans Blix, France, Germany, Russia, Jean Chretien, Vicente Fox, Turkey, Jordan, Ramsey Clark, Scott Ritter, Peter Arnett, Eason Jordan, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, CNN, BBC, CBS, ABC, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Tim Robbins, the Dixie Chicks, Susan Sarandon, Jeneane Garafalo, Martin Sheen, Michael Moore, Ed Asner, Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte, Mike Ferrell, Richard Gere, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Prof. Nicholas De Genova, A.N.S.W.E.R. and, of course, the irrelevant United Nations.

[JoJo Gunn]

This article is bogus. "Intellectuals" don't actually exist, except in the shared fantasies of snobs in a regressive animal state.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

In Cuba, as in all communist states, some are more equal than others.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This article is bogus. "Intellectuals" don't actually exist, except in the shared fantasies of snobs in a regressive animal state.

They don't exist because they are killed or driven off in order that the "classless" society of one mind can be maintained.

[solzhenitsyn]

"The Cuban letter blamed 'the distance, the disinformation and the traumas of failed socialist experiences' on the recent criticism from people it has counted on for support."

"The traumas of failed socialist experiences ... ". What wonderful self-parody!

[Tom Bombadil]

the letter describes the ''surprise and pain'' felt when liberal intellectuals around the world criticized Cuba for its crackdown on dissidents and the executions of three ferry hijackers.

Castro must love them for this.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I know. I couldn't believe it when I read it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The LIBERALS in Congress and the lobbiests who want to have us underwrite sales to Cuba sure do.

[ChadGore]

Re :'the traumas of failed socialist experiences'

It's this kind of "communism is a good thing(tm)" and all it needs is our taxdollars that lead to the failed CCC (Clintons Cash for Commies) policy in North Korea.

CCC failed badly because it was based on a flawed premise.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[StriperSniper]

criticism from people it has counted on for support.

Bingo!

[ChiMark]

Is'nt it ironic that supporters of Marxist regimes are called intellectuals or students. These poor "intellectuals" cannot stand to be criticised. Awww gee
!