Photo sourcePosted on 09/27/2005 3:57:44 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Corporal Cason wears a pink robe and with a swing of his magic wand -- poof! -- the cartoon character converts one of Cuba's free medical clinics into a private hospital adorned with Mastercard logos.
The character in the comic strip Transition Man is the Cuban government's answer to James C. Cason, the outgoing top U.S. diplomat in Havana and thorn in Fidel Castro's side since his arrival there in 2002.
''Dictatorships are not good at humor,'' Cason said during a recent speech at the University of Miami. ``The cartoons inadvertently reminded all Cubans that a transition is inevitable, exposed the regime's scare tactics and converted me into an icon of dissent.''
In Cason's score book, that was another win for himself.
This month he ends a three-year tenure at the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, a period noted by high-profile publicity efforts that he says helped make household names in Cuba of not just Cason but also political prisoners.
Using Christmas decorations and other props with political twists, Cason made himself the most outspoken U.S. diplomat to ever hold the post.
He met often with dissidents, had them over to his house and boosted their Internet exposure.
`PROVOCATIONS'
Cuba says he was a rude subversive who tried to foment a counterrevolution. When 75 dissidents were arrested and sentenced to lengthy jail terms in 2003, the Cuban government blamed Cason for their arrests.
''No one can deny that the chief of the Interests Section arrived with instructions to carry out provocations of all kinds against Cuba,'' Castro said in a 2003 government TV show.
``I must recognize nevertheless that he has fulfilled the instructions of the Department of State with absolute seriousness, efficiency, rapidity, decisiveness.''
Cason is a career foreign service officer who speaks four languages -- and is learning Guaraní, an indigenous language, for his upcoming posting as ambassador in Paraguay.
He has served in 15 countries over 37 years.
He's no stranger to controversy. Early in his career, he was tossed out of Uruguay when his negotiations for the release of political prisoners held by a dictatorship were deemed to be interference in the nation's internal affairs.
And he caused a stir from the start of his assignment to Havana when he inquired about bringing along his 24-foot fishing boat.
Soon after his arrival -- without the boat -- he took on a role no Interests Section chief had before when he personally intervened in an airplane hijacking, telling the hijacker of a Cubana Airlines flight that he would be unwelcome in U.S. territory. His intervention didn't help: The plane took off, landing in Key West, and the hijacker was sentenced to 22 years in a U.S. federal prison.
Cuban officials took notice of Cason's high-profile approach and even had the official Granma newspaper publish some of his writings on the dangers of illegal migration attempts to the United States aboard homemade vessels.
But they fumed over his meetings with dissidents and prisoners. Cuba soon ordered him to stay in Havana.
''He has traveled the island, meeting with dissidents and repeatedly showing rude behavior,'' government intelligence analyst Manuel Hevia said of the U.S. diplomat when the move was announced. ``His actions are provocative . . . and his language offensive.''
POLITICAL DISPLAYS
Cason kept at it.
He used the front entrance of the Interests Section as the setting for political displays that irked the Castro government. He posted a large ''75'' along with the Christmas display last year, in reminder of the 75 jailed dissidents.
During a diplomatic reception, Cason displayed a replica of the tiny prison cell where dissident physician Oscar Biscet was being held. And late last year, he buried a time capsule in the garden of his Havana residence to be opened the day Castro's government collapses.
''I discovered that symbols were the most compelling means of conveying the repressive nature of the Castro regime,'' Cason said. ``In Cuba, certain symbols are readily understood.''
Castro countered with his own symbols: An enormous billboard of photos from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was posted just outside the Interests Section.
Cason said his exhibits caught the attention of the international media and were filtered back into Cuba through photos, Internet sites, contraband satellite dishes and the U.S. government's TV Martí.
Suddenly, he said, the most uninformed Cubans knew there were 75 new political prisoners in Cuba.
Cason insists he developed his own ideas to tweak Castro's nose. But it's clear that he had the backing of the Bush administration, which has steadily tried to tighten U.S. sanctions on Cuba.
''This is not one wild ambassador doing whatever he wants,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of UM's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies. ``This was administration policy. . . . He's been made a national hero in Cuba.''
Some of his actions were considered undiplomatic showmanship. ''I found it undignified,'' said Peter Hakim, president of the InterAmerican Dialogue, a Washington think tank. ``It was almost as if he was trying to carry out shows in the media, rather than seriously help the dissidents.''
Cason was not dissuaded.
The prison-cell display now sits in the consular section of the Interests Section, where more than 60,000 visitors a year will see it. Visa seekers get free access to several Internet kiosks there and 100 daily copies of El Nuevo Herald, The Herald's Spanish-language sister paper.
WORK WILL GO ON
Those projects and more, Cason told the UM audience, will continue under his replacement, Michael Parmly, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
''Promoting democracy in Cuba is not a sprint, but an ongoing relay race,'' Cason said.
``I've lost 40 pounds and I'm feeling a bit out of breath, but Michael is about to pick up the baton and race right past me.''
''I plead with Castro and his government to immediately take their hands off the independent librarians and release all those librarians in prison, and to send them back into Cuban culture to inform the people.'' Among the books destroyed through the years by Castro's arsonists have been volumes on Martin Luther King Jr., the U.S. Constitution and even a book by the late José Martí, who organized, and was killed in, the Cuban people's struggle for independence. .....***
Good going guy!! Castro sucks. I wonder when he will just die and leave everyone alone already.
It can't be soon enough.
Fidel is NOT the problem right now - the #1 problem with Cuba is jimmie (da commie bastard) carter!
Actually, when Fidel dies, his brother RAUL will take over unless there is another brave soul who will remove him first.
You thought Che Guevarra was bad? Raul was the one who was directing him. There are a few other extreme communists in the hierarchy in Cuba that must be eliminated before Cuba can be a nice country again.
Fidel started out on the right foot when he defeated the American backed dictator Batista back in 1959. He cleaned out all the whorehouses, gambling centers, and other vile businesses that were run by the kennedys, the rockefellers, and a whole passel of armerican north-east liberals and their mafia strongarms.
After he took over, the above americans expected to be allowed back in and resume their whorehouses, gambling centers, and other drug & alcohol businesses - Castro told them NO! They demanded $$reparation$ - he told them to stick it!
Then the embargo began - NOT as the US propagandizes that the embargo is to free the Cuban people - it began as pure and simple BLACKMAIL by the American northeast political-elite. The Soviets were quick to come over and offer Castro money and food for his people IF he let Russia operate there. The rest is history.
Hasn't anyone ever thought WHY Cuba is the ONLY country that has ever been embargoed by the USA this way? Think of the total abject misery the US govt has bestowed on the Cuban people - WHY? All because of the socio-politcal northeast elite were mad and wanted to PROVE their power.
Before you flame - think seriously about WHY the USA does this ONLY to Cuba.
With all due respect, I believe you are incorrect in your assertion that Castro started out on the right foot. He was communist from the start. The government in Cuba now is the government he envisioned from the beginning. It is obvious communism doesn't work - whether it eliminates whorehouses or not.
America doesn't sanction communism and has a policy to eliminate this natural enemy of free-thinking humans. Cuba sits ninety miles off our shores, that is why we sanction it. The climate, terrain, size and location of Cuba preclude it ever becoming a huge food or industrial producing cooperative. It just isn't the USSR.
Cuba never had the right kinds of resources that would make communism work. Such a system requires a large infrastructure with the ability to maintain large populations at least for a time. In the Soviet Union, there were large wheat farms, large factories, large natural resources to make it appear to sort of work for a while. Cuba has none of these. It's strength is it's potential to leverage it's natural beauty, beaches and Caribbean location into commercial enterprises that attract tourist dollars, as some other Caribbean nations have successfully done. If it chooses not to do this, why should America be blamed for not forking over cash to remedy Cuba's problems?
There is also the Cigar industry, unparalleled in the world but somewhat hampered by U.S. sanctions and the lack of a real, free business infrastructure to help it boom. It will remain so as long as it is all state owned.
No nation is entitled to whine that their inadequacies are the result of America refusing to pour our money into a system we don't agree with. We are still waiting for Castro to make Cuba great, as he claims he has. Out option is to deal with a communist state to allow them access to our dollars and I see where we are under no obligation to do that.
The real question to ask is not why American won't just pour money into Cuba, but why is Cuba so poor and such a mess despite all the glories of self sufficient communism.
My wish for Cuba is for the people to be under a free and democratic government, booming commercial development that fills the natives pockets with $$$ (whether it comes from America or wherever) and for Cuba and it's people to fulfill what could be a promise of greatness among the nations.
I don't agree that the lack of prosperity there is somehow America's fault. Castro chose to throw his lot in with the communists. He wasn't forced to do so because America wouldn't give him more money. People who had business interests in Cuba rightfully should have been angry at the nationalizing of their property. What was once an investment with future potential of prosperity for all involved, now no longer exists and all of Cuba suffers from a lack of prosperity.
If Castro's choice to institute this system results in poverty and loss of freedom, it is his fault. Yes, everyone in Cuba is equal now.
I wish the best for Cuba, I really do but again, with all due respect Castro and his forced communist system ARE the island's main problem.
The number one source of misery in Cuba is Fidel Castro, hombre_sincero.
But you know that, don't you?
Communism doesn't work, no matter how many resources a country has.
hombre_sincero, your rhetoric here is indistinguishable from that of Castro himself. You are trying to further the lie that Cuba before Castro was a giant brothel run by the United States.
When you use the term embargo, you either don't know what you're talking about, or you have an agenda.
Wonderful post.
"You are trying to further the lie that Cuba before Castro was a giant brothel run by the United States"
NOT a lie.
And that was NOT the point of what I said either - and you know it.
Why don't you answer the question WHY is Cuba still under embargo even when communist nations who have KILLED TENS of THOUSANDS of Americans are now hailed by our "leaders" as prefered trade partners?
Simple - M O N E Y !
Ask any of the power brokering american families and mafia strongmen ... they STILL want their MONEY and to hell with the Cuban people.
It is a lie, and you are a liar, newbie.
Embargo them too. Works for me.
You are full of 5h!t.
When you use the term embargo, you either don't know what you're talking about, or you have an agenda.
"You are trying to further the lie that Cuba before Castro was a giant brothel run by the United States"
Do you agree with that statement? I challenge you to answer that question with a simple yes or no.
btt
What I think is funnier than hell are the extremist pundits on both sides --- here's is what a leftist wrote about me on one of those FAR left web sites....
"I usually don't bother to send local news items to you folks but this is so typical of how the professional Propaganda Writers work - I just had to pass it on ....... The guy who sent the e-mail below is a Cuban born and raised communist that works day and night for the Bush administration in the internet division of propaganda...."
That made as much sense as you did.
More rants from a rabid baptist democrat --- Somehow I managed to P*ss him off too.
(I only mention Baptist because the writer did)
This is fun!
I serve a Master who will not forgive lies and slander - Cuba was and is a communist country - if a person is born and raised there he is a communist until he/she repents. I have not seen that. I see a person who circulates lies and half truths which are destructive, evil, sinful, ungodly and against what America stands for - which is the antithesis of this person's works - you tell me what he is? You named him - you must know him. Are you as much in favor of bearing false witness and half truths?
You know the oath given in a court of law - THE TRUTH - THE WHOLE TRUTH - AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH?
Lies and half truths will send you to hell (if you're a Baptist) they'll make you rich if your an evangelist - they will put you in office if you're a politician - they will send a great nation to hell if the people don't correct it! That's you! Time to make a decisiopn for eternity! Choose who you will serve - liars or truth.
I consider our relationship finished if you can't see the truth I represent. I will not compromise for political crap!
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