Posted on 04/14/2002 4:36:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
This is a LINK to articles since April 21, 2001 about Cuba and the communist threat - CHILDREN'S CODE At this LINK is a LINK to many Elian articles. Below I will post similar articles since the FR format changed and locked posts to this LINK. Please add what you wish to this thread.
Eyes Wide Open--[Excerpts] The Los Angeles kids, chosen for their photographic skills and their ability to work with others, represented the Venice Arts Mecca, a nonprofit organization that brings volunteer artists together with youngsters from low-income families to nurture their creativity in areas ranging from literary arts to photography. They looked. They listened. They photographed. And they took notes for their journals.
…….Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.
……..Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.
…..At the conference exhibit hall, the L.A. kids mounted a photo exhibition showing the underbelly of America. There were bleak images of life on an Indian reservation, of the homeless in Los Angeles. It was an eye-opener to some South Africans, who thought everyone in America was rich. "They were absolutely shocked," said Lynn Warshafsky, executive director of Venice Arts Mecca.
In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said.
……..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes." [End Excerpts]
Instead, she spent five days sitting in a Havana prison cell, choking down watery soup and brown rice, wondering how her beach adventure had turned into every tourist's worst nightmare.
"They held me for five days while they investigated the case and they didn't let me call a lawyer," Ms. Ross said from her Ottawa home. "It was an undignified way to be treated over essentially a bureaucratic mix-up. When you're in Cuba you have no rights whatsoever."
She also said she was manhandled by her jailors and suffered bruising and scrapes. But worst of all was the psychological trauma. "This is what a police state is like."
………………………….Ms. Ross says the experience saddened her as she realized how terrorized Cubans are. "They are so scared of the government and are scared to talk to you. One of the guards apologized for treating us harshly, saying he would lose his job if he didn't." She said she is speaking out now because she wants the half million Canadian tourists who visit the Caribbean island every year to be aware of the country's dark underbelly. "Canadian tourists don't see what is going on in Cuba because they're only taken to the resorts. They don't see the reality," she said.***
Venezuelan information minister Andres Izarra was even forced to issue an apology to the press after accusing them Tuesday morning of reporting false ''rumors'' of the Castro visit.
Describing the energy summit as ''an historic encounter,'' Castro said he had decided to attend at the last minute, after feeling ``embarrassment that it might seem I wasn't coming because I had too much work.''
He added: ``Everything else is secondary -- for me, Venezuela and the Venezuelans come first, which also means the struggle for my country, the Caribbean [and] the peoples of Latin America.''
The visit is unpopular with anti-Chávez groups, who have accused Cuba of interference in local affairs.
They are particularly incensed at the recent choice of Castro as patron of a class of Venezuelan officer-graduates.
Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere, already provides more than 80,000 barrels a day to Cuba and large quantities to other Caribbean nations under highly advantageous financial terms.
The Chávez aid has helped Cuba continue to recover from its economic collapse following the end of Soviet subsidies in the early 1990s.
Chávez said the two-day summit would ''deepen'' the energy relationship with the Caribbean by setting up an ''energy arc'' that would help protect member nations from the ''squandering'' of resources by rich countries. …………***
An amendment seeking to overturn limits on Cuban-Americans' family travel to Cuba was defeated 211-208 -- the first time such an initiative was beaten back in a congressional vote. A similar amendment, also submitted by Florida Democrat Jim Davis, was approved last year on a 225-174 vote.
Both opponents and supporters of the sanctions credited the turnaround on a determined lobbying drive by Cuban-American lawmakers and the entreaties made by dissidents in the communist-ruled island such as Martha Beatriz Roque, who recently addressed the Congress members on a phone link from Havana.
Two other amendments -- all three were part of a spending bill for the treasury, housing and transportation departments -- were shot down by lopsided margins.
A proposal to ease restrictions on U.S. student travel to Cuba, presented by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., was defeated 233-187. Last year it was so heavily backed that it passed by a simple voice vote.
And an amendment that would have completely lifted the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, submitted by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., was rejected on a 250-169 vote.
Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, a Republican and always one of the strongest critics of the U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba, withdrew several amendments after the defeat of the Davis initiative.
Miami Republicans Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hailed the votes as ''historic'' in a joint statement.
''The solid defeat of these amendments sends a definitive message of support for the president's Cuba policy,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. .................***
Viva el Cuba Libre bump!
Bump!!
CARACAS - Venezuelans' support for Fidel Castro's model of government and the installation of socialism here has been growing, two recent polls show, although a majority remains critical of the Cuban system.
The polls suggest that President Hugo Chávez, Castro's closest ally, is succeeding in shifting public opinion toward the left as he pushes his ''revolution'' among a population that historically identified more with the values of Miami than Havana.
Chávez, whose own approval rates are running at over 70 percent, makes frequent pro-Cuba speeches, and more than 20,000 Cuban medical personnel and sports instructors work in poor neighborhoods here.
A poll released last weekend by the Caracas-based Datanálisis company showed 11.6 percent approved using Castro's Cuba as a model for Venezuela, while 63.2 percent said they were opposed.
The percentage of pro-Cuban sentiment represented a significant increase. In July 2002, in response to the same question, only 3 percent expressed support and more than 91 percent were opposed. As recently as this January, the support was under 6 percent.
Another nationwide poll, carried out by Seijas & Asociados in late May and early June, showed that about 48 percent of respondents preferred a socialist over a capitalist system, with less than 26 percent preferring the latter.
After years of denying that his ''Bolivarian revolution'' -- named after independence hero Simón Bolívar -- was socialist, Chávez now openly calls himself a socialist and attacks what he calls the ''perversions'' of capitalism.
Datanálisis director Luis Vicente León warned, however, that the various poll results must be analyzed ''with tweezers'' and do not necessarily mean that Venezuelans want a Cuban-styled system in their country.
Venezuelans, León said, associate the Cuban system not with socialism but with communism, which the majority abhors. ''There remains a very high level of rejection of extreme models such as communism,'' he said.
''Chávez has not succeeded with his discourse in diminishing people's association of capitalism with well-being and development,'' León told The Herald. ``Nor has the opposition succeeded in demonizing socialism by reference to Chávez's relationship with Fidel.''
Venezuela and Cuba recently agreed to increase by the end of the year the number of Cuban medical personnel here to 30,000. The Information Ministry has reported that more than 9,000 Venezuelans have been treated in Cuba for everything from cataracts to heart disease. ………………………..***
Castro's strong words on the 52nd anniversary of the start of his revolution came on the heels of a new roundup of more than 50 dissidents who tried to participate in two separate protests this month.
Most of the would-be protesters were released after clashes with government supporters, but as many as 16 remain behind bars, including six charged with ``public disorder.''
Castro, whose speech was broadcast on Cuban television and radio, specifically named the Assembly to Promote Civil Society. That group's leader, Martha Beatriz Roque, who was released from custody over the weekend, has publicly stated that dissidents across the island were ready to take to the streets to bring international attention to their plight.
………. Heat, misery and popular discontent are a dangerous brew. Cuba's dissidents are growing bolder while the Cuban government has primed its forces to repress them. Castro only wants to hold on to power, and he will go to any lengths to do so. His top echelon may continue to follow him out of fear or greed. Whatever the motive, they will be remembered as accomplices in crimes against humanity……***
Hugo and Fidel bring the news[Full text] The concept of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez teaming up to create a regional television news network in Latin America takes some getting used to and maybe a stiff drink.
Cuba hasn't seen any semblance of freedom of the press or freedom of expression since the early 1960s, and Castro last year rounded up a group of 75 independent journalists and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 28 years.
Chavez hasn't gone that far but has enacted ominous laws that penalize media outlets that "offend or show disrespect for the president" or propagate information that might "cause panic or anxiety" among the people. More recently he decreed that half the music aired on radio must be of Venezuelan origin. Ciao, Britney Spears.
Yet, on Sunday, Telesur, a new regional Latin American television network modeled after the wildly successful al-Jazeera makes its debut from studios in Caracas. Venezuela, flush with money from the boom in oil prices, will bankroll 51 percent of the initial $20 million investment. The governments of Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina will provide other funding.
For those wondering about the editorial independence of Telesur, suffice it to say Venezuela's minister of communications will do double duty as the station's president. According to the BBC Monitoring World Media, some of Telesur's trial programming on June 3 included segments of the "International Forum against Terrorism and for Peace and Truth" from the Havana Convention Center. Ratings were not available, but that sounds about as riveting as vintage Soviet TV serials about tractor manufacturing.
Telesur, Spanish for "TeleSouth," may yet prove skeptics wrong and become a reputable and independent regional news outlet. That would be good for Latin America, which relies on foreign networks for its news, including CNN, from Atlanta, and a chain based in Spain.
There is a need for a network with an indigenous Latin focus. Telesur takes that mission literally: One correspondent will be Ati Kiwa, an Arahuaco Indian from Colombia, who will appear dressed in the tribe's regalia. Her visage will be a sharp departure from many of the Caucasian, blond news readers on Latin TV, who look like they were FedExed from Idaho.
"Today we know much more about Chechnya than what's happening on the corner, in Colombia or in Central America, because all the information that the North generates comes into focus about subjects that interest the North," Aram Aharonian, Telesur's director general, told the Los Angeles Times.
Some signs don't bode well. One Chilean contributor defined Telesur as an "anti-neoliberal medium ... critical of the First World's efforts to impose conservatism throughout the continent." Balance and objectivity will have to wait.
Whatever his politics, Aharonian understands one thing: People will vote with their fingers against bad TV. "The only censorship will be by the viewers," he told Newsweek. "If they are not satisfied they'll simply click the remote and change channels." [end]
All the same, Mr Chávez's successes are fragile ones. For one thing, it is hard to see what tangible benefits Venezuelans derive from this diplomacy. Mr Chávez has alienated both of his country's main trading partners, the United States and Colombia. Oil revenues are increasingly being spent without democratic scrutiny. A once-professional diplomatic service has been turned into a branch of the revolution, its dissidents either purged or neutralised. And although the alliance with Cuba has brought new social programmes, their cost and long-term benefits are hard to determine. Despite the oil boom, unemployment officially stands at 11%.
There are also limits to the region's tolerance of chavista expansionism. Only Cuba has signed up for ALBA. The richer Caribbean countries are unenthusiastic about Petrocaribe. Petrosur and Petroandina feature much rhetoric and little action. Cuba apart, no other country shares Mr Chávez's distaste for representative democracy, or his disdain for regional bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
In a setback for Mr Chávez, on July 27th the Inter-American Development Bank, the region's largest official lender, chose as its new president Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to Washington who was discreetly backed by Mr Bush. Mr Moreno easily defeated candidates from Brazil and Venezuela.
Argentine officials have welcomed imports of fuel from Venezuela, and its help in making contacts with China, but they are cooling towards Mr Chávez. Were evidence to emerge of his hand in Bolivia's turmoil, South America would become even warier. Should Lula's troubles deny him a second term, Brazil is likely to move to the centre-right, shifting the regional balance. The death of Mr Castro, who is 78 and frail, would be a body blow to Mr Chávez. So, of course, would a fall in oil prices.
A Summit of the Americas, involving 34 countries (all except Cuba), in Argentina in November should be a pointer to the prevailing diplomatic winds. The United States wants to stop the meeting becoming a platform for Mr Chávez. But if Mr Bush turns up empty-handed (CAFTA apart), Latin Americans will continue to pay court to that generous neighbour in Caracas.***
''The economy is at its worst ever," she said glumly, adding that she cannot afford to feed her 12-year-old son meat most days. A resident of Cabaiguan, a few hours' drive east of Havana, she hitchhikes to Havana to sell farmers' cheese, earning 300 pesos a month (about $12), about average for Cuban salaries.
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a former government economist-turned-dissident who is on medical parole from a 20-year sentence for opposition to the regime, said yesterday that he could not reconcile Castro's prediction of 9 percent growth this year with official data that showed dramatic declines in sugar production to 1908 levels, and a drop in electricity generation that is affecting industry.
The 312 pesos that the average Cuban earns monthly ''is not enough to buy 6 liters of domestically-made soy cooking oil. . . . The ration cards let us buy only one subsidized soap every two months," he said. ''This has created great social divisions."
A recent government report said 43 percent of Cuban homes need repairs, and 500,000 new houses must be built. Last month, officials said 1.7 million Cubans had no running water due to drought.
Candid commentaries in the party newspaper Granma indicate the government is aware of the problems. There are rumors of authorities painting over graffiti mocking Castro's bid to offer subsidized electric rice cookers at a time of power blackouts. In hushed conversations, Cubans grouse about their lot and sarcastically mimic the government's slogan painted on garish billboards: ''Vamos bien" (''We're doing well").
Subsidized oil from Venezuela and credits from China have allowed Castro to alleviate conditions somewhat, two months ago raising retiree pensions to 150 pesos ($6 a month), and giving doctors a raise so that the highest-paid now earn the equivalent of $25 a month. Tuesday night, Castro said he was making available some 14 million subsidized appliances.
But these populist measures may not be enough to satisfy those who say they have lost faith in the system.
''I was born and bred with this revolution," said Mario, 50, a state taxi driver. ''But today, what's to celebrate?
''It's a facade, a sham," he said of Castro's discourse about a better future. ''The words are beautiful, but the reality is something else. Like everyone I know, I'm very disillusioned." ***
Caleb McCarry, 43, will serve as the Cuba ''transition coordinator,'' a position mandated by President Bush a year ago to implement measures designed to help bring an end to Fidel Castro's 46-year rule and provide assistance to a subsequent democratic Cuba.
''For nearly 50 years, the regime of Fidel Castro has condemned the people of Cuba to a tragic fate of repression and poverty,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as part of McCarry's introduction, adding that the appointment will ``accelerate the demise of Castro's tyranny.''
Before an audience of Cuban-American legislators, exile leaders and other supporters of U.S.-Cuba policy, McCarry said, ``It is the responsibility of the civilized world to act to see that the Cuban family is reunited under political and economic freedom.''
Speaking on Miami's Radio Mambi, McCarry summed up his appointment with the words he said will soon be shouted from every corner of José Martí's Cuba: ``Viva Cuba libre.''
Many Cuban Americans welcomed McCarry, calling him ''a friend'' of the exile mission to oust Castro.
''He knows our cause well,'' said Horacio García, a director of the Cuban Liberty Council. ``They chose a person with commitment and passion.''
''He's extremely bright and thoroughly knowledgeable on the issue of Cuba,'' said Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami. ``He knows who's who and he knows where we need to go.''
The new post was one of the initiatives in the May 2004 Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba report. Other measures include tightened restrictions on travel and remittances, increased support for the island's dissident movement and additional funding for Radio and TV Martí transmissions.
The appointment follows a new round of arrests in Havana and a stern warning by Castro earlier this week that ''acts of treason'' would not be tolerated. Castro has accused opponents of being paid U.S. ''mercenaries,'' a charge denied by U.S. officials.
McCarry has worked for the House International Relations Committee for eight years after moving from the Washington-based Center for Democracy.
Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, called the choice critical to advance Bush's ``freedom agenda.''
''[McCarry] is going to be the point man on Cuba,'' Noriega said. ***
RTE, the Irish national broadcasters, carried an interview with one of the fugitives, Jim Monaghan. He said all three had returned to Ireland recently, ''and, as you can imagine, a lot of people in a lot of countries had to help us."
Monaghan would not provide details of how the three evaded the international arrest warrant facing them. He insisted he did not consider himself ''on the run" -- and hoped that Ireland would not extradite them to Colombia.
Monaghan, Niall Connolly, and Martin McCauley were arrested in August 2001 as they were trying to board a flight out of Colombia after spending about 18 months with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia's major rebel group known by the acronym FARC.
The men were charged with training rebels to make and deploy IRA-style weaponry, including truck-mounted mortars. They initially were acquitted of all major charges, but were ordered to remain in Colombia pending the government's appeal to a higher court, which in December convicted and imposed 17-year prison sentences on the men. The three immediately disappeared.
Since then, Irish and British media reports have placed all three either in Venezuela or Cuba, where Connolly had been based for several years.
The trio's unexpected reappearance on Irish soil sent shock waves through Northern Ireland's peace process, which has been taking dynamic turns in recent days.
The IRA last week declared that its 1997 cease-fire was permanent and promised to resume disarmament soon, and Britain began dismantling army installations in response.
Spokesmen for the British and Irish governments denied yesterday any advance knowledge of the three men's return....***
This isn't a commercial for Al Jazeera, but that would be a close guess. It's a promotional campaign for a continent wide, pan-American satellite news channel that made its debut on July 24.
Witness Telesur, the brainchild of Cuban communist Fidel Castro and his ideological spawn Hugo Chávez. They say that it was created to both compete with foreign media conglomerates and offer a side of the news that is uniquely Latino. Independent, they say, from any voice but that of the people. The truth, however, is far from their propaganda platforms. Telesur is being funded by the leftist governments in Uruguay, Argentina, and Cuba, with Venezuela alone controlling 51% of the company. It will be housed in Caracas at the headquarters of Venezuela state media, where Chávez regularly opines for hours on end about impending imperialist invasion to the delight of only 2% of the Venezuelan public. …………………***
The news came four days after leftist President Hugo Chávez said he was ending cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, accusing it of ``using the war on drugs as a cover, even to support drug trafficking, [and] to gather intelligence in Venezuela against the government.''
U.S. relations with Chávez have grown increasingly tense amid Washington complaints that he has turned to authoritarian ways and become a destabilizing factor in Latin America. In turn, he has accused the Bush administration of plotting to topple him.
The latest spat could lead the U.S. government to deny its annual recertification, due next month, that Venezuela is collaborating in the U.S. war on drugs. Decertification can mean the loss of U.S. financial assistance. But according to the U.S. embassy, Caracas receives no such aid, leaving Washington without financial leverage against Chávez.
''I was already thinking of decertification as more than likely'' for Venezuela, said John Walsh, a specialist in Andean drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, a liberal think tank.
''It suits interests on both sides, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is decertification,'' he added. ……………..***
Chávez and Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson are expected to sign an accord establishing the PetroCaribe initiative, Venezuela's proposal to supply petroleum to Caribbean countries under favorable financial terms, a Foreign Ministry statement said Monday.
The two leaders will meet in the northern resort town of Montego Bay, the ministry said.
Chávez, who was in Cuba following talks with Fidel Castro, will be joined by Venezuelan Foreign Trade Minister Gustavo Maraquez and Planning and Development Minister Jorge Giodani, the ministry said. …..***
We were talking about Fidel Castro's recurring crackdowns on those remarkably courageous Cubans who keep working to bring democracy to that grim island where dissenters, including independent librarians, are locked in cages, often for 20 or more years. Bradbury knew about the crackdowns, but until I told him, was not aware of Castro's kangaroo courts often ordering the burning of the independent libraries they raid, as in 451.
For example, on April 5, 2003, after Julio Valdés Guevara was sent away, the judge ruled: ''As to the disposition of the photographic negatives, the audio cassette, medicines, books, magazines, pamphlets and the rest of the documents, they are to be destroyed by means of incineration because they lack usefulness.'' Hearing about this, Bradbury authorized me to convey this message from him to Castro: ``I stand against any library or any librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in any way for the books they circulate.
''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.
Whether or not the Cuban dictator ever heard of Bradbury's message to him, Castro is resolute in his repression of his people. As Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) reports: ''In a renewed government crackdown on dissidents in Cuba, authorities arrested at least 57 peaceful democracy and human rights advocates'' between July 13 and July 22. Three of those still imprisoned will be prosecuted under Castro's notorious Law 88, which mandates up to 20 years in prison and possible confiscation of property. .............
Mr. Quiroga charged that Mr. Chavez and Mr. Castro had a "regional plan" to "destabilize" South America.
Mr. Morales lashed back by accusing Mr. Quiroga of "following orders from [President] Bush."
Charges of Venezuelan interference are based in part on a meeting last month in Caracas between Mr. Morales and Mr. Chavez. The talks also were attended by Felipe Quispe, the extremist head of the Pachakutec Indigenous Movement (MIP).
While MAS and MIP cooperated in the sometimes-violent protests that have ousted two Bolivian presidents since 2003, Mr. Quispe and Mr. Morales are rivals for the support of Indian constituencies in the high Andes. Yet, shortly after their return from Venezuela, Mr. Morales named a one-time close aide to Mr. Quispe, Alvaro Garcia Linera, as his running mate.
In accepting the nomination, Mr. Garcia vowed to campaign for full nationalization of Bolivia's oil and gas resources and for a new constitution favored by MAS.
While he recently has become known as a socialist opinion leader and television pundit, Mr. Garcia faces legal charges involving past activity with the terrorist Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army (EGTK).
One of the leading conservative candidates, businessman Samuel Doria Medina, once was kidnapped by the EGTK, which obtained a $5 million ransom negotiated through the London firm Control Risks.
Some of the money is thought to have gone to finance leftist parties in Bolivia, as well as the 1996 armed takeover of the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru, by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.................***
Yet at certain hospitals, such as Cira García in Havana, the shelves were well stocked with drugs and top-of-the-line equipment. Cira García strictly treated foreigners with hard currency and Cuba's ruling elite--doctors' families not included. .....***
The trick, experts said, is to do that and at the same time diminish domestic discontent.
''There's not a lot of economics in this,'' said international economist Jorge Pérez López. ``These are diversionary tactics.'' .........***
…..ROLE OF U.S.
''I cannot think of a single thing they need that they would absolutely only be able to get from us,'' said a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not cleared to speak publicly. 'They can go to a Spanish telephone company . . . which uses Japanese equipment and say, `Help us set up Internet.' That has nothing to do with us.''
The real obstacles, the official added, are internal Cuban policies that prevent ordinary people from getting on the Internet.
Earlier this month, the France-based organization Reporters Without Borders denounced Cuba as one of a dozen nations with the most controlled and least accessible Internet. It lumped Cuba with Iran and Vietnam.
''The Chinese model of encouraging online activity while controlling it is too expensive, so President Fidel Castro has plumped for an easier way -- simply keeping the Internet out of reach of virtually all Cubans,'' the organization said. ………..***
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