The tyranny of Castro's regime - Playing Carter for a fool, once again -*** During his visit to Cuba, Mr. Carter publicized the Varela Project during his speech to the Cuban people and even met with Mr. Palacios. Mr. Castro's actions contradict Mr. Carter's assertions about Cuba. And accordingly, Mr. Carter should either retract his previous words or issue a new statement expressing his outrage over Mr. Castro's actions. Otherwise Mr. Palacios and his band of visionaries will continue to sit in jail cells for promoting freedom and ask themselves, "Mr. Carter, where is the outrage? Where is the outrage, you fool?" ***
Cuba Says It Can Survive Ban on U.S. Remittances *** HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba reacted angrily on Friday to a report the Bush administration was considering suspending family remittances by Cuban-Americans and said its socialist economy would survive the blow. The cash remittances from relatives in the United States, now estimated to total as much as $1 billion a year, are a vital source of income for many Cubans coping with economic hardship in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The New York Times reported on Thursday the Bush administration was studying a series of steps to punish the Cuban government for a recent crackdown on dissidents.
"More than four decades of revolution have demonstrated that are (sic) country is capable of facing any threat and defeating sinister plans of all kinds," a Cuban government statement said. "The punished will be many families ... and, what is worse, many elderly people who depend on theses remittances," said the statement, published on the front page of the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma. ***