Cuban parliament postpones first regular session after opposition delivered reform petitions

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | July 2, 2002

[PJ-Comix]

HAVANA - The National Assembly on Tuesday postponed its first regular session since organizers of a reform petition delivered more than 11,000 signatures to the unicameral parliament seeking a referendum.

A short note on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma said only that the regular parliamentary session scheduled for Friday had been "suspended until a future date." It gave no further explanation and did not set a new date.

The National Assembly had not announced an agenda for the meeting, but it also has not responded publicly to the petitions that organizers of the so-called Varela Project delivered on May 10.

The parliament held an intense three-day special session last week to examine and later approve a proposal to enshrine Cuba's socialist system in the constitution as "irrevocable."

Varela Project organizers saw that move as the government's answer to their petition drive seeking a referendum that would ask voters if they favored civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral reforms and an amnesty for political prisoners.

Organizers of the official pro-socialism effort said they were responding to U.S. President George W. Bush ( news - web sites)'s May 20 speeches promising he would not ease American travel to and trade with the communist country until Fidel Castro ( news - web sites)'s government holds multiparty elections and undertakes other reforms.

After turning in their signatures, Cuba's government support groups held a petition drive of their own. In just three days they gathered more than 8 million signatures they said represented more than 99 percent of legal voters in favor of the constitutional change.

[PJ-Comix]

This is BIG news out of Cuba. The Varela Project is actually the biggest news out of Cuba this year but you wouldn't know if from viewing CNN even though they have a news bureau down there. Although the Varela Project has been mentioned many times by AP in recent weeks, the only mention of it by CNN was in a story about Jimmy Carter's speech in Cuba in the middle of May.

The parliament held an intense three-day special session last week to examine and later approve a proposal to enshrine Cuba's socialist system in the constitution as "irrevocable."

The vote on this was 559 to 0 by the rubberstamp National Assembly. This was also covered by several news outlets but NOT CNN. Why? Because merely to report the bare facts of this farce is to condemn the Cuban regime. So what does CNN do? They merely ignored all stories on this topic even though it is the MOST IMPORTANT story out of Cuba this year. Check out this related THREAD on how CNN is actively spiking IMPORTANT stories in Cuba.

Lucia Newman (CNN "reporter" in Cuba)! Quit being so mesmerized by Castro's zipper and start REPORTING on the enormous events now going on in Cuba!

[Notforprophet]

There you go again...

[PJ-Comix]

I was going to mention that there was a Freeper who got on my case for "daring" to call the Cuban National Assembly a rubberstamp for Castro by voting 559 to 0 to make Communism irrevocable but didn't want to embarrass you again. However since you are here....Do you care to explain how that ridiculous vote was NOT an action of a rubberstamp body? The last time we tangled on this you did not back up your case with FACTS.

[PJ-Comix]

Please forgive me for quoting you word for word but here are your exact words:

Look, while I wholeheartedly agree that Cuba is under the yoke of a totalitarian Communist dictator, I disagree that their assembly is equivalent to Stalin's Politburo. A good degree of the membership of the Assembly ARE democratically elected.

Democratically elected? With only one party? Do you care to tell us how this is possible? And if they are "democratically elected" this must mean that the Cubans down there just love communism since their "democratically elected" representatives just voted 559 to 0 to make communism "irrevocable."

[PJ-Comix]

No Jeb Bushes were rubberstamped in the making of this post.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

.

[PJ-Comix]

CNN is the only American Network with a beaureau in Cuba but they don't even report the most important news coming out of Cuba if it conflicts with their idolatry of Castro. This is but an example.

[PJ-Comix]

If you want to find out why CNN refuses to cover the Varela Project or even report on that amazing 559 to 0 vote by the rubberstamp Cuban National Assembly, check out this VIDEO of MRC's Rich Noyes on Fox & Friends from May 14, 2002 which demonstates how CNN is nothing but a propaganda front for Castro.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

thanks for the link

[Republic]

FYI

Thanks for this post-PJ. Interesting and exciting and discouraging all at the same time...this article shows how deeply entrenched that horror of a man and his pathetic communistic system is.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

CNN = Communist News Network.

'Nuf said.

[goldstategop]

Fidel suspended his rubber stamp parliament because he was afraid he'd lose a REAL referendum guaranteeing basic freedoms and protecting private property rights on the island. And no I don't mean the phony vote held the other week to enshrine Communism in the Cuban Constitution. Fidel is afraid of democracy or else he'd tackle the Varela Project honestly. If Fidel thinks people back the Communist Party and socialism as he claims they do, let him submit to the challenge of a free election.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Doesn't the National Assembly, Castro's rubberstamp, only meet each year for a few days anyway? What's to discuss when you live under oppession?

[pariah]

As proof of public support for President-for-life Fidel Castro's socialist policies, thousands of hand-picked members of the Young Pioneers staged a 'spontaneous' rally in his support, chanting "Long live El Presidente", and "Shoes are for sissies".

[PJ-Comix]

I just checked the CNN website and there is still ZIP-NADA on its website. Significant events are now happening in Cuba but because it doesn't fit into the CNN script of how popular Castro is down there, they choose to toss all news that veers from that script, no matter how significant, down the memory hole. What Lucia Newman does down there is report on very TINY and relatively insignificant slices of Cuban life such as somebody playing a guitar or something like that so as to be able to claim that she is reporting while ignoring the important news. This is like reporting on news of the popularity of a certain German beer in Berlin in 1933 while failing to report on the Reichstag Fire.

BTW, the spiritual heir of Lucia Newman is Walter Duranty.

[1Old Pro]

It seems CNN is short for many things, from Clintoon News Network to Castro News Network, to Communist News Network. If you hadn't reported their news blackout I would have never known since I stopped watching CNN as soon as I got FOX.

[dfwgator]

One of these days the crowds will turn on Castro just as they did with Ceaucescu.

[PJ-Comix]

One of these days the crowds will turn on Castro just as they did with Ceaucescu.

And meanwhile Lucia Newman will be reporting a tidbit about a new rum drink ever so popular with the Cubans.

[summer]

:)