Free Republic

Havana, Cuba - Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar Monday for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government. Bruno Rodriguez spent an hour and a half lambasting Obama's behavior in Copenhagen, telling a news conference, "at this summit, there was only imperial, arrogant Obama, who does not listen, who imposes his positions and even threatens developing countries." He called the summit "a fallacy, a farce" and said Washington used back-room deals and strong-arm tactics to foist on the world a...

Veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday dismissed US President Barack Obama's trip to UN climate change talks in Copenhagen as a "show," and complained that the world's poor will shoulder the burden of any summit agreement. Castro's opinion article, titled "The Moment of Truth," also criticizes the "fascist methods" used by Danish police to put down protesting environmental activists. "It is already evident that a great catastrophe threatens our species," wrote Castro, 82. Perhaps the worst part of the summit "is blind selfishness of a rich and privileged minority that intents to impose the bulk of the necessary sacrifices...

Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro has accused the US of plotting to overthrow left-wing governments in Latin America. The "friendly smile" of US President Barack Obama could not be trusted, Mr Castro said in remarks read out at a summit of leftist leaders in Havana. His comments were echoed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other regional leaders at the meeting. Fidel Castro's remarks suggest hopes for a thaw in US-Cuba ties may be waning, correspondents say.

Fidel Castro says Obama's smile can't be trustedMon Dec 14, 2009 7:31pm EST HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned on Monday that President Barack Obama's "kindly smile" could not be trusted, saying Washington was plotting against leftist Latin American governments including Venezuela's. Castro, 83, who ran Cuba for nearly 50 years before poor health led him to hand the presidency to his younger brother Raul last year, initially welcomed Obama's election but has been increasingly critical. In a letter read by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a gathering of leftist leaders in Havana, Castro said the United...

Documentary peeks at Fidel Castro's human side Dec 10 05:12 PM US/Eastern By WILL WEISSERTAssociated Press Writer HAVANA (AP) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson took him to church for the first time in 27 years. Home run legend Hank Aaron asked him for autographed baseballs. Literary great Gabriel Garcia Marquez gave him a copy of "Dracula" that kept him up all night reading and smuggled ingredients into the country so he could make baklava. An international cast of luminaries who traveled to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro, as well as top members of his government and military, talk...

A few days ago, President Barack Obama made it clear ``to every man, woman and child who lives under the dark cloud of tyranny, that America will speak out on behalf of their human rights.'' Speaking out against tyrants, international resolutions and sanctions are often used as diplomacy tools. Sanctions are not uncommon when dealing with tyrants, as we have seen in the discussions weighing what to do about North Korea and Iran. The United States levied sanctions against Libya after its terrorists downed a PAM AM flight over Scotland in 1996; the world imposed sanctions on the white supremacist...

HAVANA: Fidel Castro is calling President Barack Obama's accepting of the Nobel Peace Prize a "cynical act," given that he is sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. The 83-year-old former Cuban leader initially applauded Obama's selection, but he has backed off that recently. In a column on a government website on Wednesday, Castro wrote: "Why did Obama accept the Nobel Peace Prize when he had already decided to take the war in Afghanistan to its ultimate limit?" Castro said Obama "was not obligated to commit a cynical act" by accepting the prize. He said Obama's Dec. 1 speech during...

<p>What an odd hat. In fact, it is identical to the one Castro wears from color to style...</p> <p>I understand that the Castro hat is a common 'fashion' symbol for many women lately. Is Palin intentionally wearing a Castro hat for some point or is her fashion skills that mediocre? I've only seen teenage girls wear those things.</p>

Venezuela's currency fell sharply against the dollar in black market trading Thursday, reaching a two-month low as worries over bank nationalizations prompted Venezuelans to trade in their bolivars for greenbacks. President Hugo Chavez ordered the seizure of four small banks over the past week, and on Thursday said they would be nationalized. The day before, he threatened more bank seizures, leading to a run on some banks as people started guessing which ones might be targeted. The specter of a liquidity squeeze hitting the country's smaller banks is starting to appear, fueling dollar demand. In afternoon trading in Caracas, the...

Cuba began its biggest military maneuvers in five years on Thursday, saying they were needed to prepare for a possible invasion by the United States. Despite a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations and assurances last week by President Barack Obama that the United States has no intention of invading the island 90 miles from Florida, Cuba's state-run press quoted military leaders as saying there "exists a real possibility of a military aggression against Cuba." The war games, which are being called "Bastion 2009," also will get the military ready to deal with social unrest the United States may try to foment...

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has launched a "Spotlight on Spending" series to highlight items in his Control Spending Now Act, which includes 40 items that, the senator says, will reduce the government deficit by more than half a trillion dollars. The first provision featured by Feingold's press office is Radio Marti, launched in 1983 to broadcast 24 hours of programming designed to undermine the Castro regime. TV Marti debuted in 1990. Both are operated by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting under the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Feingold's office cites Radio and TV Marti as wasteful, among other reasons, because their...

Nearly 50 years after a botched US-directed invasion of Cuba, the communist nation said Saturday it is holding a military exercise next week to boost preparedness against any future US attack. "It is a necessity of the first order given the political-military situation that now defines relations between Cuba and the empire," Major General Leonardo Andollo warned, referring to the United States. He told the official Granma newspaper that the "Bastion-2009" exercises will "raise the deterrent capacity to prevent a military confrontation, under the principle that there is no better way to win a war than by avoiding it."

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is inviting his mentor Fidel Castro to visit Venezuela during the coming months. Chavez read aloud a letter to the 83-year-old former Cuban leader during a televised speech Saturday night, saying "Venezuela awaits you." Chavez proposed that Castro visit at some point between now and April, during a congress of his socialist party. The 83-year-old Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing a series of emergency intestinal surgeries in July 2006.

HAVANA – Think you're obsessed with President Barack Obama and the many challenges he faces at home and abroad? Well, you're not alone. Fidel Castro appears to have a fascination with the American leader that would make Obama Girl jealous, writing obsessively not only about his politics, but of his youth and vigor. And unlike with past American heads-of-state — he slammed President George W. Bush as a genocidal drunk — Castro seems to genuinely like the fresh face in Washington. Since handing over the Cuban presidency to his brother in February 2008, the 83-year-old has continued to publish his...

Think you're obsessed with President Barack Obama and the many challenges he faces at home and abroad? Well, you're not alone. Fidel Castro appears to have a fascination with the American leader that would make Obama Girl jealous, writing obsessively not only about his politics, but of his youth and vigor.

HAVANA — Fidel Castro has found something to sneeze at in Washington's decision to ease visits by Cuban-Americans to his island: He says more Americans mean more swine flu. The 83-year-old ex-president wrote in state-controlled newspapers on Saturday that many of Cuba's early cases of the virus were visitors from the United States and he used the occasion to take a jab at the U.S. embargo. "We had the strange case where the United States on one hand authorized more trips for a large number of people carrying the virus, and on the other prohibited us from obtaining equipment and...

Fidel Castro has found something to sneeze at in Washington's decision to ease visits by Cuban-Americans to his island: He says more Americans mean more swine flu. The 83-year-old ex-president wrote in state-controlled newspapers on Saturday that many of Cuba's early cases of the virus were visitors from the United States and he used the occasion to take a jab at the U.S. embargo. "We had the strange case where the United States on one hand authorized more trips for a large number of people carrying the virus, and on the other prohibited us from obtaining equipment and medicine to...

Samuel Johnson once remarked that seeing a dog walking badly using only its hind legs would not be surprising. What would be surprising, he said, was seeing a dog walking on its hind legs in the first place. Similarly, coming upon a poorly developed story on the Marxist network Democracy Now! having anything to say which would reflect unfavorably on a fellow Marxist would not be a surprise. The surprise would come with the realization that the story was run at all.

One of Fidel Castro's sisters says in a memoir released Monday that she collaborated with the CIA against her brother, starting shortly after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. Juanita Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned. In a Spanish-language memoir published by Santillana USA and co-written by journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961. By then, her house had already become a sanctuary...

A sister of Cuba's former long-time leader, Fidel Castro, has admitted spying for the CIA in the 1960s. Juanita Castro, who now lives in Miami, said she had gathered sensitive information for the US for three years. In her memoirs, she said she had fallen out with Fidel and her other brother Raul - Cuba's current president - over the killing of their opponents. Ms Castro, 76, said she had helped to warn and hide Cuban dissidents before finally fleeing the island in 1964. There has been no immediate reaction from the US or Cuban governments.

MADRID - U.S. President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuba a message about reform when he met Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, the newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. Six days after their meeting on October 13 at the White House, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the Caribbean island and met President Raul Castro. "Have (Moratinos) tell the Cuban authorities we understand that change can't happen overnight, but down the road, when we look back at this time, it should be clear that now is when those changes began," Obama told Zapatero, according...

Havana's man in Europe is returning from Cuba with a simple request: For his EU partners to drop their focus on human rights. After a two-day visit with the Cuban government, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will press his Continental counterparts to scrap their 1996 "Common Position" on Cuba in order to fully normalize ties with Raul Castro's dictatorship. .. "Consider Mr. Moratinos a trend-setter in the age of Obama, as the U.S. president's own overtures to Castro (not to mention to Iran, Burma and now Sudan) follow a distinctly Moratinian philosophy. This holds that engaging dictators will yield...

Come for the Disaster Preparedness Lecture, Stay for the Totalitarianism   [Mark Hemingway] It was in the web briefing yetserday, but my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I finally read "New Orleans mayor learns about disaster response in Cuba." So one day after President Obama is in the Big Easy, Mayor Ray Nagin heads off to Cuba to learn about disaster preparedness? What does the Cuban government possibly have to teach us? Here's the Cuban disaster preparedness plan in a nutshell: Kill off the private economy for 50 years so that when a hurricane comes you don't have...

Is the Central Intelligence Agency covering up some dark secret about the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Probably not. But you would not know it from the C.I.A.’s behavior. For six years, the agency has fought in federal court to keep secret hundreds of documents from 1963, when an anti-Castro Cuban group it paid clashed publicly with the soon-to-be assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The C.I.A. says it is only protecting legitimate secrets. But because of the agency’s history of stonewalling assassination inquiries, even researchers with no use for conspiracy thinking question its stance. The files in question, some released under...

To: US State Department & United Nations IN SUPPORT OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF HONDURAS. We the citizens of the world, lovers of liberty and democracy, concerned about the isolation and impoverishment which is being imposed upon the Republic of Honduras by; the United Nations, the OAS, the UNASUR, the EU, and the U.S, hereby set forth our intend, individually and organizationally, to demonstrate our support of the government of the Republic of Honduras, presided by Roberto Micheletti together with all the legitimate and constitutional bodies of said government. We strongly support the current government’s efforts to safeguard the constitution...

Chavez, Castro, the public and the MSM are missing is the big picture. Winning the Nobel, the UN declaring ‘MAJOR DISCREPANCIES’ in the Afghan election & Obama delaying the additional troops decision is all by design. Obama applied for the Nobel Piece Prize and was told he would win, back on Feb. 1st. Fully aware of the date of the Nobel Piece Prize announcement he would delay any decision on Afghanistan. He will then use the UN declaration, winning the Nobel and his hatred for America to back out of Afghanistan or do little as possible (I hope I am...

Former Cuban leader says award is a "positive measure" Former Cuban Leader Fidel Castro celebrated President Obama's controversial Nobel Peace Prize win early Saturday, saying the commander in chief's honor was a "positive measure" that was intended to criticize past U.S. leaders -- not Obama's achievements in particular. Castro wrote in a column for Cuban media that he didn't generally agree with the Nobel Committee's decisions but that their choice on Obama was one he could throw his support behind. "I'm obligated to recognize that in this instance it was, in my judgment, a positive measure," he wrote. The former...

The United States and Cuba are taking baby steps toward each other. Since President Obama called for a ``new beginning,'' his administration has allowed unlimited family travel and remittances, resumed migration talks, proposed direct-mail service and given its blessing to the concert by Colombian pop star Juanes. In the past 10 months, the State Department issued 5,500 more visas for Cubans to visit the United States than in the same period before October 2008. When news leaked that Bisa Williams, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, had traveled to Cuba, eyebrows were raised. Over six days,...

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch - but for years the majority of Cubans have been given free meals at state-run workplace canteens. But in a bid to balance the budget, the Cuban authorities are about to abolish the scheme. This week, four government ministries closed all their free lunchrooms across the country. Instead, workers are being given an extra 15 pesos (70 cents) a day to buy their own meals. If this trial is successful, then all such workplace canteens could be abolished. Monthly ration card It is a small tentative start to what...

Trade: Colombia got another brushoff Tuesday, when Commerce Secretary Gary Locke pronounced its free trade pact dead for the year because Washington is too busy with health care. Why doesn't Cuba ever hear that? Speaking at the sidelines of a conference in Chile, Locke told Dow Jones: "It's pretty doubtful that the pact will be ratified this year, although the Obama administration is pushing forward with Colombia, Korea and Panama." Yeah, sure. Pushing and pushing, it's all we've heard about from this crew. But the only visible moves on trade have a string of protectionist measures to make Big Labor...

A senior American diplomat has held high-level talks with the Cuban government in Havana, state department officials are reported to have said. The talks between the two nations were the first of their kind in years, the Associated Press news agency reports. State department official Bisa Williams held the unannounced talks with Cuba's deputy foreign minister during a visit to Cuba earlier this month, AP says. A US trade embargo on Cuba remains, but there are signs relations are easing. Earlier this month, Ms Williams, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was part of a US...

Fidel Castro's Cuba Full Of His Offspring After Years Of Womanising By El Commandante Fidel Castro, Cuba's long-standing dictator, has fathered at least 10 children by a string of women, according to a new book. Philip Hart 26 Sep 2009 The Cuban leader with female admirers in New York, 1959 [Pic in URL] Fidel Castro is renowned in Cuba for his verbosity and longevity. But his long-suffering compatriots know little about another sphere where El Commandante has proved prolific - his private life. Discussing his womanising ways is strictly taboo on the Caribbean communist outpost, even on an island where...

El Libro Sensacional! Castro's Sis Dishes on Bro in New Book Exiled sister will publish book about brother Fidel Castro The world will soon get a rare glimpse into the life of one of the most controversial political figures of the past half century when the sister of Fidel Castro publishes her tell-all book next month. Juanita Castro has lived in Miami since 1964, when she fled her native Cuba, and now her book, Fidel y Raul, Mis Hermanos (Fidel and Raul, My Brothers) will finally hit store shelves on Oct. 26,according to the Miami Herald. The 432-page Spanish language...

Pink Flamingo confidant and friend Sally Vee has very good friends in Honduras. She received the following email this afternoon from her friend Fernando who lives in Honduras. “There is a rumor going on that they want the UN to send peace keeping troops to Honduras. It is going to be a bloodbath. The people of Honduras will rather die that have that guy back in power. Honduras is not Haiti. They will fight any foreign army…no matter what. Please let anyone know about this.�

The AP Reports from Havana, Cuba: —  Obama's anti-American agenda or a call for action on climate change and his admission that capitalist nations have a particular responsibility to lead has received strong praise from his communist ally — U.S. nemesis and mass murderer Fidel Castro.

The former Cuban leader on Wednesday called the American president's speech at the United Nations "brave" and said no other American head of state would have had the courage to make similar remarks. In a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, Obama acknowledged that the United States had been slow to act on climate change, but said Washington was now prepared to be a full partner as the world confronts the threat.

HAVANA, Sept. 20 -- Rock-and-roll diplomacy came to the communist isle on a smoldering afternoon, as hundreds of thousands of Cubans filled the Plaza of the Revolution on Sunday and sang along to a dozen international musical acts led by the Colombian singer and peace activist Juanes. The free "Peace without Borders" concert was criticized by hard-line Cuban exiles in Miami as a propaganda coup for the Castro brothers, and that it might have been. But for thousands of young Cubans, it was a rare treat to hear Latin music stars such as Olga Tanon of Puerto Rico and Miguel...

Jose Obdilio Duran's '57 Chevy has holes in its mottled floor, a passenger window that can't be rolled up and no inside panels on its doors. But the 71-year-old retiree wants to put the old car to work — applying for one of the first taxi licenses this communist country has granted in a decade. About 60 would-be taxi drivers lined up early Friday at a Transport Ministry office in central Havana to fill out forms for permission to use their own cars as taxis — a rare dose of the free market on an island whose economy is dominated...

Rev. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, the president of the United Nations General Assembly, bestows official hero status on Bolivian President Evo Morales, the first president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. David Kopel at The Volokh Conspiracy shares the good news: Morales is officially "the maximum exponent and paradigm of love for Mother Earth." Castro is "World Hero of Solidarity." The late Nyerere is "World Hero of Social Justice." General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann said, "What we want to do is present these three people to the world and say that they embody virtues and values worth...

Visiting Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo (L) shakes hands with Fidel Castro, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, in Havana on Thursday.

State Dept. awards 30 grants, but students stuck on islandCuban students who were supposed to travel to the States to study courtesy of U.S.-funded scholarships have been denied visa requests by the Castro regime, reported the Miami Herald. A total of about 30 students from the island were to be part of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs scholarship program, which is available to students around the world who are interested in studying at an American university. Agricultural science, business management, and journalism were just a few of the fields students were encouraged to explore at...

HAVANA -- At an age when most kids play stickball or videogames, Lazarito Castro focuses much of his energy on promoting Cuba’s socialist system, one speech at a time. The studious 14-year-old is not related to President Fidel Castro, but he is one of the comandante’s most passionate young disciples, a member of the Union of Young Communists who is known across Cuba for his fiery, fist-shaking speeches at massive government-organized rallies. Lazarito dreams of becoming a nuclear physicist when he grows up. But for now he sees himself as a soldier on the front lines of the “Battle of...

Aubrey O'Day really put her foot in her mouth this time. The former Danity Kane member dug herself into a hole Monday night in a heated debate on Fox News' "The Sean Hannity Show" when the 25-year-old singer spewed out claims that both Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro were "brilliant" men. "As someone who has met [Castro]... I met him and worked with him while I was in Cuba. I'm not defending his behavior, but in many instances, but I do have to say, I will 100% agree, he's an incredibly brilliant man, he has outlived tons of our Presidents,"...

Diane Watson is a racist Congressional Representative from California’s 33rd District, in Los Angeles. Just over a year ago, she chastised Ward Connerly for his having the nerve to wed a white woman. She’s telling us now that the only opponents of Barack Obama and his move to socialize America are those who object to socialism because, in her words, “[Barack is] the first President who looks like me.” In the same breath, she sings the praises of Marxist murderer Che Guevara and Marxist murderer Fidel Castro (who ousted Che). Hear it for yourself: Fact of the Day: Rep. Diane...

Diane Watson is a racist Congressional Representative from California’s 33rd District, in Los Angeles. Just over a year ago, she chastised Ward Connerly for his having the nerve to wed a white woman. She’s telling us now that the only opponents of Barack Obama and his move to socialize America are those who object to socialism because, in her words, “[Barack is] the first President who looks like me.” In the same breath, she sings the praises of Marxist murderer Che Guevara and Marxist murderer Fidel Castro (who ousted Che). Hear it for yourself: Fact of the Day: Rep. Diane...

Editor’s note: Get the whole story of the Left’s love affair with Castro in Jamie Glazov’s new book, “United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror.” The Left’s romance with tyranny and terror continues. This time it is Democrat Rep. Diane Watson picking up the torch for the fellow travelers, lavishing praise on Fidel Castro. Watson, evidently, is still riding the wave of ecstasy she experienced upon prostrating herself before Castro on her political pilgrimage to the dictator’s slave camp in April, 2009. Now, in a recent town hall meeting on health care, she’s touching base with the...

Earlier this year, I was the only panelist on a Toronto television show who admitted (or rather, boasted) that I had deliberately avoided watching President Obama’s “historic” inaugural address. To the audible gasps of my fellow guests around the table, I explained: “If I wanted to listen to a Marxist professor talk for an hour, I would have gone to college.” For some reason, Obama’s admirers balk when others call his policies “socialist, or “statist” (to employ Mark Levin’s preferred locution) or, as Rush Limbaugh started saying this week, “fascist.” That last term seems unduly incendiary. But how do Obama’s...

Castro: No win against TalibanPublished on: 8/26/2009 HAVANA - Cuba's Fidel Castro is criticising President Barack Obama's stepped-up United States' war in Afghanistan while backing Obama's effort to provide health care coverage for all Americans. The former Cuban president said in an essay published yesterday that he hadn't the slightest doubt that "the racist right" would do anything to stop Obama from succeeding domestically. Castro's remarks appeared on the Cubadebate website, which publishes his frequent essays on global affairs. He formally stepped down as Cuba's president in February 2008 after handing over to his brother Raul. "The strategy of withdrawing...

HAVANA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday. In an unusually conciliatory column in the state-run media, Castro said Obama had inherited many problems from his predecessor, George W. Bush, and was trying to resolve them. But the "powerful extreme right won't be happy with anything that diminishes their prerogatives in the slightest way."

According to recent news reports, Cuba is entering crisis mode: They are running out of toilet paper. Cuba both imports toilet paper and makes its own, but raw materials are hard to come by given the global economic mess. State-run company officials say that importing more toilet paper won’t be an option until the end of the year. However, in order to deal with the harsh economic crisis, the Cuban government cut imports by twenty percent, which reduced the number of goods available in state-run stores. In addition to cutting imports, the government lowered prices on “twenty-four essential goods” like...