Changes in Cuba

Alan Gross’ release is not convenient for some people in U.S.

2011-11-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

By M. H. Lagarde

Cuban extreme right, based in U.S., takes advantage of every opportunity to hinder any attempt to improve U.S. relations with the Caribbean island. This group does everything to maintain an environment of bilateral tension and confrontation. Therefore, they benefit in the political and the economic field. It has happened in the last 50 years.
The American Jewish community is now suffering this situation. This community is concerned about giving humanitarian solution to the American contractor Alan Gross, arrested and condemned to 15-year imprisonment for carrying out actions against Cuba’s national security and integrity.
During the first vigil organized by this community before the Cuban diplomatic mission to United Nations to ask for Gross’ release, the presence of Cuban-born individuals became evident. Some of them have a large, known experience and links with violent and terrorist actions against Cuba. Images and reports of the vigil broadcasted by different press outlets showed “hidden” in the crowd people like José A. Gutierrez Solana —secretary of Union of Cuban Former Political Prisoners, North Zone, and closed friend of self-confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and Senator Bob Menéndez—, boasts about his participation in the bombings of shopping, recreational centers, and other public places in Cuba unrelated to military targets and facilities. Solana, after migrating to U.S., has aided in the organization and financing of violent actions promoted by Posada Carriles and other notorious terrorists who call themselves “fighters for the freedom of Cuba.”
It is significant the presence of these terrorists in a Jewish vigil. The leaders of such community have repeatedly stated the mainly humanitarian purposes of these actions and their positions against any kind of politicization on the subject. It would be foolish to think that these terrorists could be interested in the solution of Alan Gross’ case. Indeed, it would also deprive them of one of the issues used to justify and keeps the status quo in the bilateral relation between Cuba and U.S.
The same happens with Cuban-born legislators like Representative Ileana Ross and Senators Marcos Rubio and Robert Menéndez, who are carrying out threatens and pressures against the State Department and the White House to hinder any possible dialogue and negotiation with Cuba that could lead to a humanitarian solution in Gross’ situation.
In recent days, Sen. Mark Rubio, also known as one of the prodigal sons of ultraconservative Tea Party movement, sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which he threatened to veto Roberta Jacobson’s confirmation by the Senate as a new U.S. head of diplomacy for Latin America, until Clinton explains whether there have been negotiations with Havana on the contractor’s issue, and that the Administration publicly commits not to negotiate any agreement to secure Alan Gross’ release.
The absurd pressures of these Congressmen and Senators from Florida and New Jersey, and the policy toward Cuba they defend, far from helping to find solutions, strain the environment to find a solution to this problem.

Cubasi Translation Staff

Harper can't ignore Cuba

2011-08-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

By Peter McKenna, Ottawa Citizen

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits powerhouse Brazil and the tiny Central American country of Costa Rica - which shares a bilateral free trade agreement with us - he shies away from the less ideologically acceptable countries of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

But at a time when Harper claims to be pursuing an invigorated policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), he is ignoring Canada's natural advantages in Cuba - one of the region's most important countries. Needless to say, this doesn't make any foreign policy sense.
Significantly, Canadian-Cuban relations during the Harper years have suffered and now appear to be locked in a diplomatic holding pattern. To an outside observer, it looks as if a neo-conservative ideology, supported by lethargy in the Pearson Building in Ottawa, has taken the place of pragmatism and common sense.
Put simply, official Canadian policy toward Cuba is now curiously mimicking the failed U.S. approach of the former George W. Bush presidency - precisely when the Barack Obama administration is initiating a more moderate and more practical Cuba policy.
To begin, the prime minister and the mandarinate seem unaware of Cuba's importance in the region. For example, there are more than 30,000 Cuban health professionals now working throughout the Americas (more than all of the G8 countries combined). Additionally, Cuba is the elected leader of the 118-nation Non-Aligned Movement, was elected to the UN Human Rights Council with the support of 135 nations (five more than Canada), and was elected to be a member of the Rio Group of nations at a Latin American and Caribbean summit (to which Canada and the United States were conspicuously not invited).
As a symbol of its international support, the October 2010 UN General Assembly vote condemning the U.S. trade embargo (187-2) spoke volumes about Cuba's international legitimacy and world standing.
Cuba, in sum, punches far above its international weight class. It has full diplomatic relations with almost every country in the Americas, and has hosted a slew of presidential visits over the last two years. Even Mexico's foreign secretary found time to visit Havana in 2010. Why then has Canada not even sent its foreign affairs minister to visit Cuba in more than a decade?
We should also remember that Canada has an enviable position in Cuba: two-way trade exceeds $1.5 billion, more than 900,000 Canadian tourists visit annually, Toronto-based Sherritt International is the largest single foreign investor in the country, and Ottawa has had a long and storied relationship with the island.
Most Cubans recall fondly that the only countries in the Western hemisphere not to break diplomatic ties with Cuba in the early 1960s were Canada and Mexico. And, no less important, the Cubans respect us enormously - as is symbolized by the two million Cubans who participate annually in the Terry Fox run. Yet the Harper government has consistently ignored that goodwill and neglected the bilateral relationship's huge potential.

Curiously, the Obama White House is moving to tap whatever potential exists. To be sure, U.S. food exports to Cuba have increased to more than $710 million U.S. in 2010, and have already surpassed Canadian exports to the island. Obama himself has also moved to improve the terms of travel for Cuban-Americans, increased the number of U.S. airports offering charter flights to Cuba, and permitted cash remittances to Cuba to increase markedly.
The Canadian government's approach to Cuba, by comparison, is out of sync. The Harper government is spurning our natural advantages, needlessly sharpening its rhetoric, and pursuing a (failed) policy similar to that of the former Bush administration - all at a time when the Obama presidency is looking to change the tenor of U.S.-Cuba relations. Regrettably, Ottawa doesn't seem to be aware of what is happening on the Cuba file. More important, if the Harper government does not revitalize our engagement policy with the Cubans, Canada faces the very real prospect of jeopardizing its long-standing bilateral advantages and ceding those to the United States and others (including the Chinese).
Finally, the key to Canada actually opening the door to the wider hemisphere is clearly not through Costa Rica, but by fostering closer relations with Havana. But if we fail to cultivate closer ties with the Cubans, our vaunted "Americas Strategy" is necessarily doomed to failure.
Peter McKenna is professor of political studies at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown and the co-author of Canada-Cuba Relations: the Other Good Neighbor Policy.

The Cuban Five and the US Supreme Court

2011-08-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

By Arnold August

Talking about Supreme Court, how about a little history. On June 15, 2009 the US Supreme Court announced its decision to reject the request for a revision of the Cuban Five case. This demand for a review was carried out by millions of people from all walks of life around the world, a record number of “Friends of the Court” petitions and thousands of personalities and elected officials from every continent. Many of these pleas also came from within the USA itself.
The US brags about its political systems as being based on the separation of powers between the Executive (President and Vice-President), the Legislature and the Judiciary and a resulting built-in checks and balances system. This is supposedly a superior form of democracy based on checks and balances to avoid abuse of power by one or the other of the three branches forming the US government. In the US Constitution Article II Section 2 states that the US president has “the power to grant reprieves and pardons...” Every indication is that President Obama, far from using his constitutional powers to free the Cuban Five, made it clear to the Supreme Court judges that they should rule against revision.
This has obviously been a political case right from day one. It is even further revealed by the Supreme Court’s decision and the shameless refusal of the judges to publicly explain to the world the basis of their ruling. Of course the judges are not obliged to divulge it according to the American legal system. However, in a case such as this one which the whole world and many governments are watching, a public explanation was necessary. We are perhaps witnessing one of the greatest ironies in the current international political scene. The Cuban Five are cruelly and politically persecuted for their peaceful anti-terrorist motivations and activities. The reason? They are acting on behalf of and supporting the Cuban government. One of the main charges that Washington levies against Cuba is lack of democracy, that it is does not, amongst other characteristics exhibit a political system similar to the American one which would include checks and balances. The Cuban system is in fact one unified revolutionary peoples’ political power, from the top down and from the bottom up including the judiciary, each enjoying its own respective fields of competence. The relationship and inter-action of all the different Cuban state levels between themselves including the judiciary and all of these institutions in turn with the citizens, is a feature of the Cuban type of democracy. There is no need to get into a debate as to whether the Cuban system is more democratic than the American model. However, if one takes into account this latest Supreme Court episode of US democracy in action on the one hand and my direct experience and study of the Cuban political system on the other hand, Cuba has no “democracy” lessons to take at all from the USA.

Gross: What Happened Between March and August?

2011-08-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

by Arnold August

On August fifth it was announced that the fifteen-year sentence arising out of the March fourth Provincial Court trial against Alan Gross, a US AID contractor, was upheld by the Cuban Supreme Court. The American citizen appealed the decision of the Provincial Court in Cuba's highest level of the judiciary on June 22, the result of which was made public on August fifth.

Regarding this issue, since March fourth to date the international media, especially based in Miami, Washington and Madrid, are concentrating on Havana, the Gross trials and legal challenges.

For those who may be puzzled by the Supreme Court decision, it would be useful to examine briefly what has happened in the United States — not Cuba — between March fourth to date in order to perhaps shed some light onto the Supreme Court's confirmation of the lower court's resolution. In this five-month period, the Obama Administration has on many occasions repeated its policy of interfering in the internal affairs of Cuba under the guise of "democracy promotion". For example, the Congress has recently ratified once again the decision to spend 20$ million in the next year explicitly dedicated to subversion in Cuba, including the type of activities that Gross had carried out and for which he has been arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced. On many occasions the Obama Administration in collaboration with their mercenaries on and off the island did not reduce, but rather reinforced, their provocative activities against the sovereignty of Cuba, one of the legal principles violated by Gross as a US agent contractor.

While Obama visited Chile on March 21, 2011, not long after the original trial and sentencing of Gross, the US President spoke about the need to defend "democracy and human rights within our borders [USA and Chile], let us recommit to defending them across our hemisphere.... And yes, that includes the people of Cuba."

How do readers think that the Cuban government and judiciary had taken this? By adding insult to injury, Obama stated in an interview to a Chilean newspaper as a prelude to his visit to Santiago de Chile that "The Chilean experience, and more particularly its successful transition to democracy and its sustained, growing economy, is a model for the region and the world."

When the news was released on August fifth regarding the Cuban Supreme Court decision, it was the same day that those of us who follow the news through Telesúr and other alternative media were able to bear witness to how the Chilean police violently attacked the students and professors demanding education, economic and political rights. There were according to official sources 874 arrests and hundreds wounded. Is this the example that Obama meant of Chile being a model of democracy and economic development for Cuba? The scenes of Chilean state brutality resembled more the emblematic steps (Escalinata) of the University of Havana before the January 1, 1959 Triumph of the Revolution, when the US-backed Batista dictatorship unleashed their forces so many times against the youth, professors and workers. Many students were killed in these assaults in Havana, but so far at the time of writing in any case, there has been no deaths in Chile during the course of the current confrontations.

Despite the demands to Obama from around the world declared by Nobel Prize winners, individual parliamentarians, parliaments and personalities for the release of the Cuban Five, what has Obama done between March fourth and today? He has done nothing, and we are heading into a most crucial period for the soon-to-be concluded Habeus Corpus process for Gerardo Hernández Nodelo, with nothing yet positive in sight at this time. The Cuban Five are imprisoned since 1998 because they attempted to curb US-backed terrorist interference in the internal affairs of Cuba.

Given all these provocations and repeated confirmations from the White House and the US Congress that they have every intention to continue their program of attempting to subvert Cuba's constitutional order, how else can the Cuban government and judicial authorities react? They have no choice but to make it clear that they will continue to defend their sovereignty as it is the right of every country to do so, big or small.

Alan Gross and his family should blame their own government for their predicament. The White House got him into it in the first place. By carrying out the same policies against Cuba since March fourth to date, it has given no reason for the Cuban judiciary to decide otherwise.

U.S.A. manipulates “defection” of Cuban dentists

2011-07-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

By M. H. Lagarde

Hundreds of Cuban dentists, invited to defect by the U.S. government from medical missions that bring health to thousands of people worldwide, suffer the same fate of many other “refugee” doctors in that country. After reaching U.S. soil, where they are "welcomed", supposedly because of their professional expertise, they can not pursue their occupation.
According to a libelous article in Miami mafia’s El Nuevo Herald, about 200 dentists who have defected from Cuban internationalist missions can not revalidate their degrees in the U.S. because the Cuban authorities refuse to send the academic records, said Julio Alfonso, CEO of Solidarity without Borders (SSF).
“Solidarity-man” Alfonso says now that the Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE), a Wisconsin organization that provides professional certification, will only accept academic records submitted by Cuba, something recruiters never told dentists.
"These dentists are facing an ironical situation," Alfonso criticized in the SSF office in Hialeah. "They defected from the missions to qualify for the U.S. visa program for medical personnel, but once they enter the United States they face reality as it actually is because they can not revalidate their degrees."
What is the real irony? That of Cuba opposed to the shameless brain drain and defamation of its health system organized by the U.S. intelligence services, or that of the U.S. government closing the doors to emigration to the rest of the world while inciting defection of Cuban doctors and dentists based on an unrecognized professional competence.
Now, Cuban cheated doctors and dentists are struggling to make a living in Miami. Such is the case of Dasha Frías —a dentist graduated from the Higher Dentistry Institute of Medical Sciences in Villa Clara— who after defecting from a mission in the state of Anzoategui, northeastern Venezuela in 2009, came to Miami and is currently working as a cashier at the Miccosukee Casino.

The PADF against Cuba: Another Link of the Swindle to North American Taxpayers

2011-04-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

By: M. H. Lagarde

According with a series of accusations that for several weeks broadcast Cuban television under the title Cuba’s Reasons, besides the Pontis Foundation, other organizations, and NGOs working as covers for the CIA afford to waste the money of North American taxpayers in the fruitless attempt of driving a change in the Island in favor of the interests of Washington’s government.
One of those “institutions” is the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF), an organization where the CIA, the North American government, and large capitals hold hands when financing the counterrevolution in Cuba, especially through the USAID.
Several investigators assure that the PADF PADF, "created in the United States back in 1962 through a unique cooperation agreement between the Organization of American States (OAS) and the private sector", receives funds from an extensive list of institutions, organizations, and monopolizing companies among which appear the USAID, the World Bank, Chevron Corporation, Citigroup, The Hampshire Foundation, and Phillip Morris International.
According to the website Cuba Money Project the PADF has been benefited more than once by the funds the USAID dedicates to finance the so-called Cuban dissidence.
In year 2007, of a total of 13.3 million dollars distributed by the USAID, the PADF signed a contract for 2.3 million dollars to support the domestic counterrevolution in Cuba; and in the 2009, from an assigned budget of 15 620 000 million dollars, the PADF received 3 million dollars through the signing of two contracts for similar destabilizing purposes in Cuba. One of them, of 2 million dollars and the other of a million dollars.

AGENT MARC WACHTENHEIN

In the case of Cuba, the organization that in 2009 also participated in the legitimizing of the “elections” of the golpists government imposed by the United States in Honduras, has acted through agents like the Peruvian-North American Marc Wachtenheim.
The former director of the Initiative of Development for Cuba of this foundation, Marc Wachtenheim has had an ample participation in carrying out actions against the Cuban revolution and in several occasions has visited Cuba with the objective of facilitating and assuring the delivery of material and financial support to members of the domestic counterrevolution, as well as to obtain information on different aspects of the Cuban reality.
Violating the very North American laws established by the criminal blockade that for half century the United States imposes to the Island, Wachtenheim visited Cuba five times between 2002 and 2009, and in four of those opportunities he used a tourist visa.
In June 2002, the former PADF employee justified his arrival to Cuba coming from Jamaica as individual tourism. Something similar he did in February 2004 and five years later, in February 2009 and November of that same year, always coming from Mexico.
Among the main goals of this character were facilitating the Cuban counterrevolution state-of-the-art technology like blackberries, laptops, Bgan, and other technological devices, dedicated to be used in subversive actions against the Cuban Revolution.
According with the accusation made by the Cuban writer Raul Capote, recruited by the CIA but, in reality a double agent of the Cuban State Security, in the chapter of Cuba’s Reasons “Creating a Leader”, the equipment introduced in Cuba by Marc Wachtenhein’s emissaries was aimed at carrying out espionage tasks in favor of the U.S. government.

THE BUSINESS OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

After resigning, due to financial problems, his position at the PADF, Marc Wachtenheim, currently presiding over the Center for Advancement of Freedom and Democracy, organization created by him and that supposedly holds similar objectives to those of PADF: “to promote freedom and democracy in Latin America”, which, as everybody knows, equals to oppose every last existing movement in the region that doesn't respond to the North American interests, as it’s the case of the progressive governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Cuba.
The methods used by the former PADF employee, in his supposed crusade in favor of “freedom and democracy”, leaves no doubts of his relationship with intelligence services like the CIA. Likewise, almost no one doubts anymore that foundations like Pontis from the Czech Republic, the PADF or the very Center for Advancement of Freedom and Democracy wastes at full hands, in the futile attempt of overthrowing the Cuban Revolution, the money of North American taxpayers.
As recently affirmed by the influential chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, John Kerry, on the last 20 million dollars budgeted by the USAID to promote the democracy in Cuba: “There is no evidence that the 'programs of promotion of the democracy' that cost American taxpayers so far more than 150 million dollars, help the Cuban people".

PONTIS Foundation and the swindling of American taxpayers in Cuba

2011-03-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

The PONTIS man in Cuba, the mercenary and cheater Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez (far right) with Lowell Dale Lawton USIS Second Political-Economic Secretary. (Photo: Aday del Sol)
By M. H. Lagarde

From 1960, when U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered that it was necessary to hide the U.S. "hands" from the attacks against Cuba, until the "Report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" , also known as the Bush Plan, which states that it must be increased: "direct efforts with governments of third countries willing to develop a strong and pro-active policy to support civil society in Cuba, including the "opposition" and develop a policy framework for assistance to "post-dictatorship" Cuba, eleven U.S.administrations have used NGOs, mainly from European countries, as a cover for the its intelligence work.
The strategy of throwing bombs and hiding the hands, used by the United States against Cuba for half a century, intends mainly, despite of covering U.S. participation, to expand covert channels through which the U.S. may promote opposition groups and so they try to give an image that the condemnation against the revolution is not only a matter of Washington but a claim of the international community.
Much of the NGOs, using American taxpayer money for subversion in the Island, are located in former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, which, in payment for their lackey roles, expect imperial support to fit into the European politico-military framework (EU and NATO).
As recently denounced in the documentary broadcasted by the Cuban television, "Reasons of Cuba: Well Paid Lies", among the NGO resided in third countries that receive money from the USAID, or from organizations masquerading the CIA - like the Freedom House and the NED - to carry out anti-Cuban actions outstand the Slovak PONTIS Foundation which develops subversive projects in countries like Belarus, and Cuba. Since its appearance after the fall of the socialist field, and in the context of the so-called Colors Revolutions, PONTIS has established close relationships with North American institutions to promote actions of "changes of régime in countries with tyrannical governments" in those countries that refuse to be subordinated to the world dictatorship led by the North American government.
In Cuba's specific case, PONTIS has collaborated with other NGO from East Europe like People in Need and People in Peril, also Slovak, as well as with the International Committee for the Democracy in Cuba, an organization created and financed by the Republican International Institute (RII) presides over John McCain.
Both the RII and the USAID are the main contributors of PONTIS. Only between October 2008 and September 2009, the Slovak foundation received 108 million dollars dedicated to offer help to the internal counterrevolution in Cuba.

Supposedly the money of the North American taxpayers facilitated by the RII and the USAID will help to overthrow the Cuban Revolution through supporting actions to counterrevolutionary prisoners, to facilitate the secret entrance to the Island of materials to train in Cuba the mercenaries in what they call "periods of transition", to offer them material and technical support to the domestic counterrevolution, especially the "political prisoners" and encourage support actions to the so-called "dissident" in East Europe.
According to some investigators, one of the main interests of the USAID is to use PONTIS Foundation as a promoter in Cuba of the so-called "color revolutions" and counts for that with characters of the moral class of Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez who, according to IRI's program that subventions PONTIS, is the leader of a counterrevolutionary organization called Liberal Unity of the Republic of Cuba that gathers a group of 17 organizations.

The deceit of such an assertion -those organizations only exist in the head of cheater Francisco Chaviano-, gives a clear idea about the real destination
that the IRI and the USAID make of the US taxpayer's money. As Jonathan Farrar, current Chief of Mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, wrote in one of the cables recently revealed by Wikileaks:

"That said, we see very little evidence that the mainline dissident organizations have much resonance among ordinary Cubans. Informal polls we have carried out among visa and refugee applicants have shown virtually no awareness of dissident personalities or agendas. Judging from the reactions we have heard from our dissident contacts, the most painful accusation made by the commentators was that the dissidents are old and out of touch. (...)
Many of the leaders of the dissident movement are indeed comparatively old. Long-time dissidents XXXXXXXXXXXX are in their 60s. Others such as Francisco Chaviano and wife Ana Aguililla, Rene Gomez Manzano and Oswaldo Paya are well into their 50s. (...) "When we ask opposition leaders about their programs, we do not see platforms designed to appeal to a broad cross section of Cuban society. Rather, their greatest effort is directed at obtaining enough resources to keep the main organizers and their key supporters living from day to day".

Not even water is as clear.

WATCH VIDEO WHERE THE PONTIS MAN IN CUBA GETS INTO A CLASH WITH ANOTHER MERCENARY BECAUSE
OF MONEY.

Cuban Blogger brutally repressed in Miami

2010-10-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Although we could not have even clear references to what really happened, the images above, hanged by Miami police in an official site of Miami Dade, illustrate very well the consequences of exercising freedom of speech in Miami.
During a recent trip to Cuba Varela, who edits a blog in Miami where he defends the Cuban Revolution, reported in "Cambios en Cuba" he was receiving threats from right-wing elements of that city.
The Miami mafia blogosphere is already gloating with the images and celebrates the brutal beating of a man who has done nothing but say what he feels and thinks in a city and a country where dissent is really a crime punishable by aberrations such as this. We wonder now what the Miami headlines and other countries’ would say before this abominable action, knowing in advance the answer "silence and manipulation."
On that occasion, in a videotaped interview, Varela made it clear that the mafia was manipulating his family to use as a weapon of pressure against him and that he had received emails which warned him that if he returned to Miami, he would be imprisoned.
Apparently, according to these pictures, worthy of an anthology of porn and violence that show how human rights are respected in the U.S., his enemies have succeeded to silence, at least for a while, the blogger Varela.
We will be aware of Varela’s situation and continue to denounce the torture and threats that he is subjected.

We All are our Commander in Chief

2010-07-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

By: M. H. Lagarde

The best repercussion in Fidel's recent appearances in public can be found in the Cuban counterrevolutionary blogs. Hatred, sometimes, for his straight honesty is far more eloquent than the praise or acclamation.
Some, who had predicted like Internet prophets the last and penultimate days, now are pulling their hair, dusting and rewriting the editorials kept for the last day, to somehow justify the ridicule of their predictions.
The issue, and thus has been demonstrated the recent activity deployed by Fidel, doesn't look as actions of penultimate days, but rather, of penultimate years. What’s left to find out is how many. Prophecies don’t seem to work on Fidel Castro. The title of a book written 20 years ago will make people burst into laughter; the title announced Fidel Castro's Final Hour.
Those who since 2006 until today have bet, from Europe or the United States, for the biological solution as relief of their frustrations are wrong. Solutions don't fall from the sky they are built with reason, courage, and effort.
The coward Platt followers who have spent 50 years waiting and encouraging the North American invasion to Cuba, are the same who today await that Fidel's death be the stone throw that finally brings down, once again, into the hands of the empire, the ripe fruit.
One of their big problems is actually that they have never believed in Fidel who more than once has insisted in that men are mortal; however, their ideas can be immortal.
The real problem is not how many years until Fidel dies, which for it has been seen these last days, it seems that he is immortal. The "solution" lies in knowing when his legacy will die and then the problem won't be of years, neither decades, it will be of centuries.

Guillermo Fariñas, a Life Saved by Cuban Medicine

2010-07-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Interview with Dr. Armando Caballero, chief of the Intensive Care Unit at the Arnaldo Milián University Hospital in Santa Clara, on the health condition of patient Guillermo Fariñas

By Deisy Francis Mexidor

Science, humanism, professionalism and the most advanced and costliest treatments have been used to save the life of patient Guillermo Fariñas. Science because sophisticated treatments have been applied in his case; humanism and professionalism because giving back health to human beings is the top aspiration of the prestigious specialists who are caring for him; and the most advanced and costliest treatments because the Cuban government has spared no effort to ensure this person the latest generation medications, the same used in other well-known healthcare centers, many of which must be bought from other countries.
On March 11, Fariñas was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Arnaldo Milian University Hospital in the city of Santa Clara. The voluntary fasting he started more than 120 days ago has now become a threat to his life.
To inquire about his health, we traveled to the healthcare center in the central Cuban province and interviewed Dr. Armando Caballero, chief of the Intensive Care Services in the hospital.

First, we wanted to hear from this experienced Second Degree Specialist and founder of that special unit, how is it possible for a person to survive four months of fasting.

“Everybody is asking that,” he said, “because a person can’t live that long without nourishment; but that is not the case of Fariñas.”

Dr. Caballero explains that “this patient refuses to take food orally. He has been in this situation for 125 days, since he says he had spent two weeks in his house without eating before he was admitted to our services, where he has spent 110 days. On admission to the hospital, he showed some physical deterioration. He was conscious and he agreed that we provide him parenteral nourishment, that is, intravenously.

The patient is receiving amino acids that make up the proteins required by the body. He is also provided lipids, vitamins and minerals, “everything necessary in a balanced diet for any human being,” the doctor says. Then he adds that “Fariñas’ weight was 63 kg when he was admitted to our services, and at this moment it moves between 67 and 69 kilograms. He has recovered body weight during his hospital stay and this is due precisely to the parenteral nourishment he is receiving.”

How compromised is the patient’s health at this moment?

Parenteral nourishment requires that certain (osmolar) nutrients of high molecular weight pass through the central ducts of the human body. I mean, you need to catheterize major veins of the upper part of the body such as the subclavians and the internal jugulars, which can be hazardous and lead to complications, particularly when hyperosmolar nutrients, like amino acids and hypertonic dextrose, must pass through these catheters.

The risk of blood infections increases as time passes and the patients continue receiving this kind of nourishment. The tendency is for contamination and infection with bacteria and fungi or they develop other complications like we see in this patient now.

But, are these complications related to medical procedures or the care provided to this patient?

Absolutely not. These complications are a common occurrence in patients receiving this kind of nourishment. For example, in the 110 days that Fariñas has been our patient, we have had to change the catheter ten times. During his 251 days of fasting in 2006 –when he was also treated in our unit— he required 37 catheters. In my 37 years of experience in intensive care services, I never had another patient who required this procedure so many times.

In this case, four timely-detected infections were successfully treated with the corresponding medications for the type of staphylococcus that develops in the blood. In very instance, the germ was immediately isolated and efficiently combated with antibiotics and other specific measures.

But, from last week, the patient has developed another complication, which is not only an infection but something more serious. This time it’s thrombus phlebitis of the jugular-subclavian component in the neck veins. This thrombus or clot is very dangerous because it could detach and move toward the heart and from there to the lungs giving rise to a deadly pulmonary thromboembolism.

Such health condition is a relatively common occurrence in the hospitals and one of the causes of sudden death, when the thrombi are large. But sometimes they do not detach and can be dissolved with antibiotics and anti-clotting medications like we are applying to this patient. This time again, we have isolated the germ that caused the phlebitis of the central veins, which in this case is associated to the presence of the venous thrombus in the jugular-subclavian segment.

From last Sunday until today we have seen a slight improvement although we can’t say for sure that a more serious complication has been averted. No one can say here or anywhere in the world whether or not that thrombus will detach.

We have all the necessary medications. Last Saturday, when the complication was detected and the pathology confirmed with cutting-edge technology, we discuss collectively the diagnosis and treatment.

Is this the limit of what medicine can do in trying to save the life of this patient?

This is an extreme situation, mostly at this point. Since our patient-doctor relations are very good, we have discussed with him at length about abandoning his voluntary fasting and starting to take food orally in order to recover the energy he needs to fight the temperature caused by the infection.

It’s almost impossible to feed him through another catheter because new complications could arise when one is already developing. In his case, taking food is a crucial element in his fight for life.

What could happen if Fariñas insists on this behavior?

We feel that his condition could worsen, particularly the nutritional aspect, although until now we have been able to keep him stable despite his refusal to take nourishment orally.

And, what if he decided to eat?

The patient is perfectly prepared to take food orally. There is no contraindication in this regard. Simply his wish could be a major medical factor in the solution of his health condition.

What is the established medical procedure to deal with a patient who has decided not to ingest food?

As I said before, in my 37 years of experience in intensive care I have seen almost 20,000 patients, but Fariñas is the only one I’ve had here twice for voluntarily refusing to take food orally for a long period of time. This is not common. I’ve seen many patients in this unit; I’ve even treated persons who had tried to commit suicide for a certain reason, but at the end most want to live. That is what the doctors in this ward are asking Fariñas: that he helps us to save his life.

As to your question, there are no rules, but there is medical ethics. And, one of its basic principles is autonomy, that is, not to apply any procedure without the patient’s consent. We abide by that principle.

Fariñas is a patient who is conscious of his situation. He is not disoriented, he is in full command of his mental faculties, therefore, it is his right to accept or not, of his own volition, the application of any medical procedure. In my view, it is the wrong right a person has to kill him or herself. I have said to Fariñas that he is acting against his own physical integrity.

A doctor’s mission is to save lives; however, in a case like this we must respect the patient’s will. We can’t go against his will unless he is unconscious and his close family approves.

Could you offer more details about the care provided to Guillermo Fariñas?

This person, like every other patient here, is privileged. He is accompanied by a relative around the clock. He has a TV set where he is watching the Football World Cup, which he likes. He also has a direct telephone line, the same as every other patient in this ward. Beyond what medicine can do, these amenities are important to the spirituality of the patient.

The intensive care services are expensive worldwide. Thanks to our healthcare system, Fariñas, like every other Cuban who requires these services, is not paying a penny.

I’ve had the opportunity of working in other countries, both in underdeveloped and developed nations. I spent one and a half year in France and I could see how costly it is to keep a patient in an intensive care unit. It’s very expensive.

And, what can you tell me about the medical expertise, the equipment available and the additional tests he has had?

At this moment, the entire team of the intensive care unit is available to him. These are ten specialist doctors, half of them Second Degree Specialists in Intensive and Emergency Medicine. They are all working with Fariñas. Every day we meet and discuss his case, his condition and evolution, what to do and what may be needed in order to get it.

You have just said “what may be needed in order to get it,” and I ask you, to get it where, in this country or in other countries?

Here and in other countries. We have bought medicines for this and other cases because many medicines we need to buy from other countries.

For instance, all of the parenteral nutrients that Fariñas receives –amino acids, lipids, vitamins and trace elements—are coming from Europe. Cuba buys them not only for this patient but for other Cubans who need it. However, Fariñas is the only one that requires them because he refuses to eat.

Do you have an idea of how much the treatment provided to this patient is costing the country?

It’s practically impossible to compare the costs in Cuba with any other place. Cuban medicine is perhaps the cheapest in the world and probably the most efficient because healthcare services are not designed for profit.

What I can tell you for sure is that, in any developed country, one day in an intensive care unit costs no less than $1,300, and this does not include complementary tests and medicines. In this case, we are talking of 110 days in the unit and over 300 lab tests.

For example, we check this patient’s glycemia almost on a daily basis; 96 tests until today.

We have already treated him for four serious bacterial vascular infections which have required such antibiotics as vancomicyn, ciprofloxacin, gentamicyn and rocephyn. We have practiced 66 ionograms to measure electrolytes in blood and correct any imbalance. We calculate his 24-hours urea almost every day to assess the nitrogen used by his body and ensure an adequate balance.

We constantly monitor his system to prevent imbalances. This is what has enabled Fariñas to have a rather acceptable nutritional condition after 125 days of fasting, although the danger persists because this is not physiological, eating is.

This patient has had electrocardiograms, X-rays, ultrasounds, and multi-slice tomographies. We have conducted all the necessary studies.

You said before that the doctor-patient relation has been good. How would you describe the doctor-family relation?

I’ve talked to his mother, his wife and an uncle, as well as to some of his friends. There is a good doctor-patient relation that makes practically everything possible but eating. That is our constant request.

In sum, I think Fariñas’ and his family’s relation with the team of doctors and nurses in our services has been good. For as long as he has been here, I have not received any complains about the way he is treated. On the contrary, he always speaks of the professionalism of the doctors and he says he doesn’t want to go anywhere, although he says he has received offers to treat him abroad. However, he says he won’t go because here are the people who have saved his life. He trusts our healthcare services.

How do you describe Guillermo Fariñas’ condition at this moment?

Today, the patient faces a potential danger of dying. It depends on the evolution of that thrombus located in the jugular-subclavian left confluent, for which he is being adequately treated. I wish it dissolved; that would make it one more complication solved by our team of doctors and nurses. We shall continue doing our best to preserve his life.

Yoani Sanchez and The Huffington Post: Another One Bites the Dust

2010-06-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

As the blogger can not longer cheat anyone in Spanish, now she tries in English

By: Ernesto Perez Castillo

After more than a week raving on the heat in Havana, the foreign TV series broadcast by the national television, the Creole cooking - rice and beans and hot dogs - and her adventures in taking rides though she prefers to say "hitchhiking". Everything that sounds English, sounds better for her -, now Yoani Sanchez has finally found a topic with certain matter, according to her way of seeing things, to comment.

Having such topic in her hands, Yoani doesn't go to her blog, not even she publishes anywhere in Spanish, no way. she goes right -well that's obvious, since she has walked on the right-side for some time now, always on the right- to her new launching platform: The Huffington Post.
The topic at hand, which is it? The black tide that every day, and no solution on sight darkens the Mexican Gulf, and is already reaching the Florida beaches? No way. Obama has spoken a lot about that, although in reality he has nothing to say on the issue.
Then it must be about the massacre the Israeli army has just committed off the coasts of Gaza, on May 31, attacking the humanitarian flotilla Free Gaza, with over a dozen dead, and a figure of wounded which must reliable data is that up to five aircrafts were needed to transfer the wounded to Turkey?
No, Yoani hasn't spoken about that either, though she falls closer to Obama on this regard who neither speaks of the topic, and Yoani could be anything, but a fool.
Is it on the Puerto Rican students who went on strike since April 23, in rejection to the increase of the cost of university registration?
No, not that, she studied for free, and she has never contributed with anything to the effort carried out by the state in her education, and she has not even the smallest clue on what a real strike is.
These are the topics she was supposed to approach, if she wanted to be coherent with her demagogic facade of human rights defender, and nature-lover -let's not forget that not long ago she commented in an interview how much peace she received from the little fish she keeps in captivity in her apartment, unluckily for Greenpeace.
The topic, the great topic today, for Yoani Sanchez, is the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, in the West Sea. And where does the blogger comment the matter this time? Well she publishes it in English (Cuban Leaders Strangely Silent on North Korea's Sinking of the Cheonan) under the label of "Exclusive to Huffington Post."
Since the very title, Yoani begins to lie, because though her headline, poorly translated by Google, reads "Cuban leaders strangely silent on North Korea's sinking of the Cheonan" - I use Google translation because I don't have those "friends" who translate for Yoani for "free", as she affirms -, the truth is that the Cuban press has covered the event, and even Fidel commented it in his reflection "The Empire and the War", of June 1, four days earlier Yoani affirmed in The Huffington Post that our press remains silent on this respect.
Not happy with defending the indefensible, Yoani dares even further, and in her article she assures: "In a small note in the official newspaper, Granma, let's its readers know that the ship of South Korea, the Cheonan, sank by a torpedo impact "supposedly" of origin of North Korea. In brief lines there are not mention of the 46 crew members who died."
And that is another lie, another vulgar manipulation, to which Yoani has us accustomed, because the truth is that http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2010/05/21/interna/artic06.html can be read, for example: "PYONGYANG, May 20.-The Government of the Democratic Popular Republic of Korea denied all responsibility in the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan, that took place on March, and caused the death of 46 crew members, highlights ANSA."
And also at http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2010/03/28/interna/artic16.html can be read "BEIJING, March 27 (PL).-The number of missing persons raise to 46 for the sinking of a South Korean warship in the West Sea still attributed to an explosion in stern yet unexplained, while 58 members were rescued."
As it can be seen, and I will only quote these two examples, although there are more, Yoani lies blatantly and treacherously when assuring that Granma doesn't mention the 46 dead caused by the incident. In fact, the headline of the second note was, precisely that: "Adding up to 46 persons missing in shipwreck of South Korean warship."
Unbelievably, although both news were published long before Yoani's article (both in May21 and May 28, respectively), in date as late as June 5 in which she publishes her nonsense, this blogger remains unaware of it because she wants to be that way. Granma has reported the number of casualties, and more than once, even highlighting it with headlines.
For worse, two days before the appearance of Yoani Sanchez "in exclusive for The Huffington Post", commander Fidel in the second reflection in which he mentions the sinking of the Cheonan, "The Empire and the Lie", he alerted on "The weird deceive that North Korea had sunk the South Korean corvette Cheonan -designed with top technology, equipped with an ample sonar system and acoustic submarine sensors -, in waters located off the coasts, he accused it of the atrocious event that took the life of 40 South Korean marines and dozens of wounded."
That is, how to explain Yoani's statement now that Cuban leaders remained strangely silent on the sinking of the Cheonan, or the accusation thrown by Granma newspaper that didn't inform of the death of South Korean marines in the incident? What else does Yoani Sanchez want on the topic? Several articles were published on this regard, Fidel mentions it in two of his reflections, and the figure of deceased marines appears all the time.
The problem is that Yoani writes what she wants, and not what it really is. Yoani depicts the reality her masters dictate her, and for that, she necessarily has to lie, to hide the truth, and manipulate the facts. In The Huffington Post must keep this in mind before blindly rushing to publish anything Yoani gives them, because the blogger's data never go through a minimum consultation of sources neither a superficial approval.
Besides this, she fulfills her part of the script, and apparently she never makes a mistake: between two events that happen at sea, and that coincidently speak of the attack to a boat, with casualties - the sinking not yet clarified of the Cheonan, and the Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla Free Gaza-, Yoani Sanchez, without hesitating decides to comment the first one, because the massacre in the second case was committed by allies of the North American government, who in the end pays Yoani's bills, and the Blogger knows she can't play around with them.

A Conversation with Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez

2010-04-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

An interview by Salim Lamrani, published on Rebelion Website.

Yoani Sanchez is the new figure of Cuban opposition. Since she created her blog “Generaion Y” back in 2007, she has been granted several international prizes, including the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Prize in 2008, the Bitacoras.com Prize in 2008, the Bob’s Prize in 2008, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize in 2008, granted by the prestigious US University of Columbia. Similarly, the Cuban blogger was selected among the world’s 100 most influential personalities by Time Magazine in 2008, along with George W. Bush, Hu Jintao and Dalai Lama. Yoani´s blog was included on the list of the 25 best blogs of the world by CNN and Time Magazine in 2008.
In November 30, 2008, Spain’s El Pais newspaper included her on its list of the 100 most influential Hispanic-American personalities of the year (a list where you can’t find Fidel or Raul Castro).
Foreign Policy magazine, on its part, included her among the 10 most important intellectuals of the year, while Mexico’s Gato Pardo magazine did the same in 2008.
This impressing landslide of distinctions, as well as their simultaneous occurrence, has raised numerous questions, so much so that Yoani Sanchez, according to her own confession, is absolutely unknown in her own country. How can a person, who is unknown to her neighbors—according to the blogger—, be on the list of the 100 most influential personalities in the world?
A diplomat from a western country, who is close to this atypical opponent of the Cuban government, had read a series of articles I wrote about Yoani Sanchez and that were somewhat critical. He showed the blogger my articles and she wanted to meet me to clear out some points I had referred to.
The meeting with the young dissident, of controversial fame, did not take place in any dark apartment with closed windows or in a remote site that could avoid the indiscrete ears of “the political police.” On the contrary, the meeting took place in the lobby of the Hotel Plaza, in the heart of the Old Section of Havana, and in a sunny afternoon. The place was packed with people, many foreign tourists wandering around the huge hall of the majestic building that opened its doors in the early 20th century.
Yoani Sanchez has close ties with western embassies. In fact, a simple call by my contact at midday allowed us to set the date just three hours later. And at 3 pm, the blogger showed up smiling, dressed in a long skirt and a blue jersey. She also wore a sports jacket to keep herself warm in the relatively fresh temperature of the Havana winter.
Our conversation lasted nearly two hours as we sat at a table in the bar and in the presence of her husband Reinaldo Escobar, who accompanied her for some 20 minutes before they left the place as they headed for another meeting. Yoani Sanchez appeared very cordial and friendly; she proved her great peace. Her voice was firm and she never showed being uncomfortable. Already used to meeting with the western media, she really masters the arts of communication.
This blogger, a person who looks weak, intelligent and astute is aware that, although hard for her to admit her western media relation is not by mere chance, but because it advocates the setting up of “sui generis” capitalism in Cuba.

The Incident on November 6, 2009

Salim Lamrani: Let´s start with the incident that occurred on November 6, 2009 in Havana. You explained on your blog that you were arrested along another three friends of yours by “three unknown hefty men” during “an afternoon stormed with beating, cries and insults.” You denounced the Cuban police for having committed violence against you. Do you maintain your version of the events?

Yoani Sánchez: Yes indeed, I confirm I was submitted to violence. They held me for 25 minutes. I was beaten. I managed to take a piece of paper that one of the men had in his pocket and I hid it in my mouth. One of them pressed his knee over my chest and the other, from the front seat would beat me in the kidney area and my head so that I opened my mouth and get the piece of paper. For a moment, I thought I would never get out of that car.

SL: the story on your blog is really terrifying. I quote: you spoke of “beats and pushes,” of “beating knuckles,” of “stream of beats,” “Knees on your chest,” beating your “kidneys and […] your head, “pulling you by your hair,” of your face “going red due to pressure and painful body, of “ beats that went on” and “ all those bruises.” However, when you met with the international press on November 9 all those marks had faded it out of your body. How can you explain that?

YS: They are beating professionals.

SL: Ok, but why didn’t you show the pictures of the marks?

YS: I got the pictures. I got the proving images.

SL: So you got the proofs?

YS: I got the proofs in the pictures.

SL: But, why haven’t you published them to reject all rumors saying you might have fabricated this attack so that the press told about your case?

YS: I rather keep them for the time being and not publish them. I want to present them to a court some day so that these three men are judged. I can perfectly recall their faces and I got the pictures of two of them at least. As to the third man, he is still to be identified but since he was the chief, he will be easy to spot. I also have the piece of paper I took from one of them, which has my saliva because I kept it in my mouth. The name of a woman was written in that paper.

SL: Fine. You publish many photos on your blog. It is not difficult to understand why you prefer not to release the pictures this time.

YS: As I told you, I rather keep them for justice.

SL: You are aware that your attitude gives credit to those who think that you fabricated the attack against you, aren’t you?

YS: It is my choice.

SL: However, even the western media, which quite favor you, took some unusual precautious measures when telling your story. BBC correspondent in Havana Fernando Ravberg wrote, for instance, that you “had no bruises, marks or scars.” France Presse news agency told the story by clarifying carefully enough that it is your own version and it gave it the title: “Cuba: Blooger Yoani Sanchez Says to have been Beaten and Briefly Arrested.” On the other hand, the reporter affirmed that you “were not hurt.”

YS: I wouldn’t like to evaluate their work. I am not who is supposed to judge them. They are professionals who face very complicated situations that I can not evaluate. The fact is that the existence or not of physical marks is not evidence of the event.

SL: But the presence of those marks would reveal that violence took place. That is why publishing the photos would be so important.

YS: You should understand that they are professionals in intimidation. The fact that three unknown men took me to a car without presenting any documents gives me the right to complaint as if they had broken all my bones. The photos are not that important because the illegal act has been committed. Now being so accurate as to say “if it hurts here or there” is just my internal pain.

SL: Ok, but the problem is that you presented it all as a very violent attack. You talked about “kidnapping you in the worst Sicilian Camorra style.”

YS: Yes, that is true, but it is my word against theirs. The fact of getting into these details, if I have bruises or not takes us far off the real subject, which is that they kidnapped me during 25 minutes illegally.

SL: Excuse my insistence, but I think this is important. There is some difference between an identity control, which lasts 25 minutes, and police violence. My question is very simple. You said and I quote: “I had a cheekbone and an eyebrow swollen all during the weekend.” Since you got the pictures, you can now show the marks.

YS: I just told you I rather keep them for court.

SL: You are aware that some people will find it hard to believe your version, if you do not publish the photos, aren’t you?

YS: I think that by getting into these details we miss the subject. The fact is that three bloggers accompanied by a friend of theirs were on their way to a place in the city, right on the corner of 23 and G streets. We had heard that a group of youngsters had called a march against violence there. They are alternative kind of people, hip hop and rap singers, artists. I would be there as a blogger to make pictures and post them on my blog and make some interviews. On the way to that site we were stopped by a “Geely” car.

SL: Was it an action to prevent you from taking part of the event?

YS: That was the reason, evidently. They never told us that formally, but that was their objective. They told me to get in the car. I asked them who they were. One of them took me by my wrist and I held back. That happened in a Havana zone which is centrally located, right at a bus stop.

SL: So there were people at the place then. I mean there were witnesses.

YS: Yes, there were witnesses but they do not want to talk. They are scared.

SL: Not even in an anonymous way? Why hasn’t the western media interviewed them anonymously as they usually do when they publish critical articles about Cuba?

YS: I can’t explain about the reaction of the press. I can tell them what happened. One of them, a man about fifty years old, with a strong body as if he had ever practiced free wrestling—I tell you this because my father practiced that sports and he has the same body shape-. I have quite weak wrists and I managed to get out of his grasp and I asked him who he was. There were three men plus the driver.

SL: So then, there were four men instead of three.

YS: Yes, but I couldn’t reach to see the driver’s face. “Yoani, get in the car, you know who we are.” I replied: “I don’t know who you are.” The smallest one said: “Listen, you know who I am, you know me well.” I answered him: “No, I don’t know who you are. Who are you? Let me see your papers or just any document.” The other one told me: “Get in the car, do not make things difficult.” Then I started to shout. “Help! Kidnappers!”

SL: Did you know that they were policemen wearing civilian clothes?

YS: I figured it out, but they never showed me any document.

SL: Then, what was your objective?

YS: I wanted things to be done legally; that is, that they showed me their documents and then they could take me although I suspected they really represented the authority. You can not force a citizen to get in a private car without presenting any documents, or else it is illegal and thus kidnapping.

SL: How did the people at the bus stop react?

YS: The people were astonished because “kidnapping” is not a common word in Cuba; such a phenomenon does not exist here. Then they wondered what was going on. We did not look like criminals. Some tried to approach us but one of the policemen shouted at them: “Do not get into this, these ones are counterrevolutionaries!” And this confirmed that they were part of the political police although I figured it out when I saw the Geely car, a new Chinese make, which has not been sold anywhere in Cuba. These cars only belong to people with the Armed Forces and the Interior Ministries.

.SL: Do you mean that since the beginning you knew that they were policemen wearing civilian clothes because you identified the car they were driving?

YS: I sensed that. On the other hand I confirmed it when one of them called a uniformed policeman. A patrol made up of a woman and a man came and took two of us away. They left us in the hands of these unknown men.

SL: But at that point you did not have any doubt about who they were, did you?

YS: No, but they did not show us any documents. The policemen did not say that they represented Cuban authority. They said no word.

SL: It is hard to understand any interest of Cuban authorities in attacking at the risk of unleashing an international scandal. You are famous. Why would they do that?

YS: They wanted to make me radical so that I wrote violent articles against them, but they won’t get away with it.

SL: We can not say that you are soft about the Cuban government.

YS: I never use verbal violence or personal attacks. I never use hard adjectives like “bloody repression”, for instance. Their objective was that of having me radicalized.

SL: However you are very tough about the Cuban government. You can read in your blog that: “the ship taking in water is about to be shipwrecked.” You speak about “the shouts of the despot,” of “people in the shadows who, like vampires, feed from our human joy, inoculate us with fear through beating, threats and blackmail,” “the shipwreck of the process, the system, the expectations, the illusions. [It is] [total] shipwreck,” these are really strong words.

YS: Perhaps they are, though their objective was burning the Yoani Sanchez phenomenon by demonizing me. For that reason my blog was blocked for a long time.

SL: However, it seems surprising that Cuban authorities decided to physically attack you.

YS: It was clumsy. I can’t understand why they prevented me from attending the march since my thinking is quite different from those who use repression. I can’t explain. Perhaps they did not want me to meet with the youths. The police thought I would start a scandal or make an incendiary discourse.
Back to my arrest; the police took my friends away in an energetic and firm manner, but without any violence. When I realized they would leave us alone with Orlando, and with these three guys I held on tightly to a tree at the place and Claudia grasped my waist in an effort to prevent being separated from me just before she was taken away.

SL: What’s the use of resisting the police in uniform and run the risk of being accused for that and commit crime? In France, if you resist the police, you run the risk of being imposed sanctions.

YS: They took them away, anyhow. The police woman took Claudia. The other three persons took us to the car and I started to shout again: “Help! This is a Kidnap!

SL: Why? Did you know they were police men not wearing their uniforms?

YS: They did not show any documents. Then, they started to beat me and they pushed me inside the car. Claudia witnessed it and she told about it.

SL: But, You have just told me that the police patrol had taken Claudia away, haven’t you?

YS: She saw the scene from a distance while the police car drove away. I defended myself and launched beats like an animal that feels that its last hour has come. They drove around Vedado as they tried to take the piece of paper out of my mouth. I took one of them by his testicles and he increased his violence. They took us to a poor neighborhood, La Timba, which is near the Revolution Square. The man stepped down, opened the door of the car and asked us to get out. I did not want to get off. They took us out by force including Orlando and then they left.
A woman approached us and we told her we had been kidnapped. She took us for insane people and left. The car returned but did not stop. They threw out my purse in which I had my cell phone and my camera.

SL: Did they return your cell and your camera?

YS: Yes

SL: Doesn’t it sound funny to you that they bothered to return? They could have confiscated your cell and your camera, which are your work tools.

YS: Well, I don’t know. It all lasted 25 minutes.

SL: You are aware however, that as long as you do not publish the photos your version will be submitted to doubt and that will cast a shadow on the credibility of all that you say.

YS: I do not care about it.

SWITZERLAND AND THE RETURN TO CUBA

SL: In 2002 you decided to migrate to Switzerland. Two years later you returned to Cuba. It appears difficult to understand why you left the “European paradise” to return to the country which you describe as hell. My question is simple: Why?

YS: It is a good question. Firstly, I like to go against the current. I like to organize my life in my own way. What is absurd is not the fact of leaving and returning but the Cuban migration laws, which stipulate that any person who spends eleven months abroad loses his or her permanent resident status. Under different conditions, I could spend two years abroad and with the money earned I could return to Cuba to repair my home and do some other things. Then it is not the fact of deciding to return to Cuba that is amazing, but the Cuban migration laws.

SL: Surprising enough is particularly the fact that having the chance to live in one of the richest countries in the world, you had decided to return to your country, which you describe in quite an apocalyptic manner, nearly two years later you left.

YS: There are several reasons for that. First, I was not able to leave with my family. We are a small family but very united with my sister and with my parents. My father was sick during my stay in Switzerland and I was afraid that he could die and that I was not able to see him anymore. I also felt guilty for being living a better life than theirs. Every time I bought a pair of shoes, or that I logged on the Internet, I thought of them. I felt guilty.

SL: OK, but you could help them from Switzerland by sending them money.

YS: That is true, but there is still another reason. I thought that with all I learned in Switzerland I could change things when I returned to Cuba. You also feel this nostalgia for the people, your friends. It was not a well thought decision, but I do not regret it. I wanted to return and so I did. Actually, it’s something that could seem uncommon, but I Iike doing unusual things. I opened a blog and the people asked me why I was doing that, while the blog satisfies me professionally.

SL: That is alright, but despite all these reasons, it is still difficult to understand why you returned to Cuba while people in the West think that all Cubans want to leave their country. It is something even more surprising in your case because you present your country, I repeat, in an apocalyptic way.

YS: As a philologist I would consider that word, since “apocalyptic” is a grandiloquent term. There is something that characterizes my blog: verbal moderation.

SL: That is not always the case. For instance, you describe Cuba as “a huge prison, with ideological walls.” The terms are quite strong.

YS: I have never written that.

SL: Those were the words you used during an interview with France 24 TV Channel on October 22, 2009.

YS: Did you read that in French or in Spanish?

SL: In French.

YS: Do not trust translations because I never said that. Quite often I come across words I have not said. For instance, Spain’s ABC newspaper attributed words to me that I had never pronounced and I protested that. The article was withdrawn from the Internet site.

SL: Which were those words?

YS: “In Cuban hospitals, more people die from hunger than from diseases.” It was a total lie. I never said that.

SL: Then, did the western media manipulate what you had said?

YS: I wouldn’t say that.

SL: If they attributed words to you that you did not say; then it is manipulation.

YS: Granma newspaper manipulates reality further more than the western press when it say that I am the product of the Prisa media group.

SL: Exactly, Don’t you think that the western media uses you because you advocate “sui-generis” capitalism in Cuba?

YS: I am not responsible for what the media does. My blog is personal therapy, a kind of exorcism. I have a feeling that I am being more manipulated in my own country than in any other part. You know about this law in Cuba, Law 88 called the “Gag” law, which imprisons the people who do what we are doing.

SL: You mean?

YS: I mean that our conversation may be considered a crime and that you may be punished up to 15 years in jail.

SL: Sorry but, the fact that I interview you may take you to jail?

YS: Of course!

SL: I do not have the feeling that this worries you that much, since you are giving me this interview, in full day light, in the lobby of a hotel in the heart of Old Havana.

YS: I am not worried. This law states that any person that denounces the violations of human rights in Cuba cooperates with the economic sanctions, since Washington justifies the imposition of the sanctions against Cuba because of the violation of human rights.

SL: If I’m not wrong, Law 88 was passed in 1996 as a response to the Helms-Burton Law and particularly punishes those people who collaborate with the implementation of the American law in Cuba, for instance, by providing Washington information about foreign investors in Cuba so that they be taken to American courts. As far as I know, nobody has been condemned for that so far. Let’s talk about freedom of expression. You have certain freedom to speak through your blog. You are being interviewed this afternoon in a hotel. Don´t you notice any contradiction between your affirming that there is no freedom of expression in Cuba and the reality about your writings and activities, which show the opposite?

YS: Yes, but you can not see my blog in Cuba since it has been blocked.

SL: I can assure you that I visited it this morning before we had this interview, from this very hotel.

YS: It is possible, but most of the time it is blocked. Any way, at present, I can’t have the smallest space in the Cuban press, while I am a moderate person, no space in radio or television.

SL: However, you can publish whatever you want on your blog, can’t you?

YS: But I can not publish a single word on the Cuban press.

SL: In France, which is a democratic country, wide sectors of the population have no access to the media because most media outlets belong to private economic or financial groups.

YS: Yes, but it is different.

SL: Were you threatened because of your activities? Have you ever been threatened with prison for what you write about?

YS: No direct prison threats, but they do not allow me to travel abroad. I am currently invited to a Congress on the Spanish Language, in Chile; I did all proceedings, but they do not allow me to go.

SL: Have you received any explanation?

YS: None, but I´d like to put something straight. US sanctions against Cuba are atrocious. It is a failed policy. I have said this many times, but they do not publish it because it bothers them that I have this opinion, which is contrary to the archetype of any opposition member.

THE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS

SL: So you oppose the economic sanctions.

YS: Absolutely, and I say this in every interview. Some weeks ago, I sent a letter to the US Senate requesting that the American citizens be allowed to travel to Cuba. It is atrocious to see how they do not allow American citizens to visit Cuba, just like the Cuban government prohibits me to travel out of my country.

SL: What’s your opinion on the hopes sparked by the election of Obama, who promised a policy change towards Cuba, but has disappointed so many people?

YS: He came to power without the support of the Miami-based fundamentalist lobby, which backed the other candidate. On my part, I have already given my statement against the sanctions.

SL: This fundamentalist lobby opposes the lifting of the sanctions.

YS: You can discuss with them and expose my criteria, but I would not say they are enemies of the homeland. I don’t think so.

SL: A group of them participated in the invasion against their own country in 1961, at the orders of the CIA. Several of them are involved in terrorist actions against Cuba.

YS: The Cuban exiles have the right to think and take decisions. I favor their right to vote. Here, the Cuban exile has been very much stigmatized.

SL: Do you mean the “historic” exile or the ones that have emigrated for economic reasons?

YS: Actually, I oppose all extremes. But these persons who are in favor of the economic sanctions are not anti-Cuba people. Just think that they are defending Cuba according to their own criteria.

SL: Perhaps, but the economic sanctions affect the most vulnerable sectors of the Cuban population and not the leaders. Then, it is difficult to favor the sanctions and intend to defend the wellbeing of the Cuban people at the same time.

YS: That is their opinion. That’s it.

SL: The are not naive. They know that the Cuban people are suffering because of the sanctions.

YS: They are simply different. They think they will be able to change the regime by imposing sanctions. In any case, I think that the blockade has been the perfect argument for the Cuban government to keep its intolerance, control and internal repression.

SL: Economic sanctions have an impact. Or do you think that the sanctions are a mere excuse for Havana?

YS: They are an excuse leading to repression.

SL: Do they affect the country from the economic point of view, according to you? Or is it only a secondary issue?

YS: The real problem lies on the lack of productivity in Cuba. If they lift the sanctions tomorrow, I doubt that the result will show.

SL: In this case, why doesn’t the United States lift the sanctions and eliminate the excuse for the Cuban government? That way, it would reveal that economic difficulties are the result of domestic policy. If Washington insists that much on the sanctions, despite their anachronistic character, despite the opposition staged by the large majority of the international community, 187 countries in 2009, despite the rejection by a majority of US public opinion, despite the rejection by the world of business, there must be a reason, don’t you think?

YS: Simply because Obama is not the dictator in the United States and he can not eliminate the sanctions.

SL: He can not eliminate them totally because an agreement by the Congress is necessary; however, he can soften them considerably, what he has not done so far, since except for the elimination of the restrictions imposed by Bush in 2004, almost nothing has changed.

YS: No, that is not true, because he has also allowed US telecommunication companies to do business with Cuba.

INTERNATIONAL PRIZES, THE BLOG AND BARACK OBAMA

SL: You have to admit that this is all very little when we know that Obama promised a new approach of Cuba. Let’s go back to your personal case. How can you explain this landslide of prizes, as well as your international success?

YS: I can’t say much except expressing my gratitude. Any prize implies a dose of subjectivity on the part of the jury. Any prize can be questioned. For instance, many Latin American writers deserved the Nobel Literature Prize better than Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

SL: Do you say that because you think he is not as talented or due to his position favoring the Cuban Revolution? You do not deny his talent as a writer, or do you?

YS: It is my opinion, but I will not say that he took the prize and then accuse him of being an agent of the Swedish government.

SL: He obtained the prize for his literary work, while you have been rewarded for your political position against the government. That is the impression we have.

YS: Let’s talk about the Ortega and Gasset Prize granted by El Pais newspaper, which sparks more controversy. I won it in the “Internet” category. Some say that other journalists have not yet won the prize, but I am a blogger and a pioneer in this field. I consider myself a figure in the Internet. The Ortega y Gasset jury is made up of highly prestigious personalities and I would not say they took part of any conspiracy against Cuba.

SL: But you can’t deny that the El Pais newspaper maintains a very hostile editorial line towards Cuba. And some people think that the prize, which includes 15,000 Euros, was a way to reward your writings against the government.

YS: People think what they want to think. I think my work was rewarded. My blog has 10 million visits monthly. It is a cyclone.
However, that is not what an internationally recognized site measuring traffic says; a site like Alexa.com, of Amazon, which at the same time can not be taken as suspicious in terms of partiality in favor of alternative media sites from Cuba, Venezuela and Spain. A simple comparison of Yoani´s blog (blue line) to other media outlets confirms that Generacion Y has much less traffic than the other websites to which it is compared, which have made their traffic public, below 10 million accesses monthly. Does Generacion Y alter its stats? I would seem it does. Another example, the Website with the largest traffic in the United States and one with the largest traffic in the world is The New York Times, which reports 17 million accesses every month.

SL: How do manage to pay the cost of the management of such a large proportion?

YS: A friend of mine in Germany would deal with that, because the site was hosted in Germany. It has been hosted in Spain for over a year now and I got and 18-month free management thanks to The Bob´s Prize.

SL: And how about the 18-language translation?

YS: They are friends and admirers who do it voluntarily and for free.

SL: Many people find it hard to believe that, because no other Web site in the world, even those of the most important international institutions -for example, the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, the European Union- has so many linguistic versions. Not even the Web sites of the US State Department or the CIA have such variety.

YS: I’m telling you the truth.

SL: Even President Obama responded to your interview. How do you explain that?

YS: First, I want to say they were not complacent questions.

SL: We can’t say either that you were critical, since you didn’t ask him to lift the economic sanctions that you say “are used as justification for the production disaster and to repress those who think differently.” That’s exactly what Washington says in that regard. The most daring question was when you asked him if he was thinking about invading Cuba. ¿How do you explain the fact that President Obama spent part of his time to answer you in spite of his extremely tight schedule, an unprecedented economic crisis, the reform of the health system, Iraq, Afghanistan, the military bases in Colombia, the coup d'état in Honduras, and hundreds of requests for interviews from the most important media in the world waiting for him?

YS: I’m a fortunate person. I’d like to tell you that I’ve also sent questions to President Raúl Castro and he has not responded yet. I don’t give up hope. Besides, he now has the advantage of having Obama’s answers.

SL: How did you reach Obama?

YS: I passed on the questions to several people who were coming to see me and could possibly contact him.

SL: Do you think that Obama answered you because you’re a Cuban blogger or because you’re opposed to the government?

YS: I don’t think so. Obama replied because he speaks with citizens.

SL: He receives thousands of requests everyday. Why to answer you, if you’re just a blogger?

YS: Obama is close to my generation, to my way of thinking.

SL: But why you? There are millions of bloggers around the world. Don’t you think you have been capitalized on in Washington’s media war against Havana?

YS: In my opinion, perhaps he wanted to address some aspects, like the invasion of Cuba.
Perhaps I gave him the opportunity to express himself about a topic he wanted to deal with a long time ago. Political propaganda constantly talks about a possible invasion of Cuba.

SL: But there was one, wasn’t it?

YS: When?

SL: In 1961. And in 2003, Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, said that any Cuban migratory wave to the United States would be considered a threat to national security and would require a military response.

YS: That’s another issue. Going back to the interview, I believe it made it possible to clarify certain aspects. I was under the impression that none of the sides wanted a normalization of relations, reaching an understanding. I asked him when we were going to find a solution.

SL: In your opinion, who is responsible for this conflict between the two countries?

YS: It’s difficult to find somebody to blame.

SL: In this specific case, the United States is the one imposing unilateral sanctions on Cuba, and not the other way around.

YS: Yes, but Cuba confiscated properties from the United States.

SL: I get the impression that you’re acting as Washington’s advocate.

YS: Confiscations occured.

SL: It’s true, but they were made in accordance with international law. Cuba also confiscated properties from France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, and indemnified those nations. The only country that rejected that compensation was the United States.

YS: Cuba also allowed the installation of military bases on its territory and of missiles from a far-off empire…

SL: …Just like the United States installed nuclear bases against the USSR in Italy and Turkey.

YS: Nuclear missiles could reach the United States.

SL: Just like the US nuclear missiles could reach Cuba or the USSR.

YS: It’s true, but I think there was an escalation of confrontation on the part of the two countries.

The five Cuban political prisoners and dissidence

SL: Let’s tackle another subject. A lot is said about the five Cuban political prisoners in the United Stated, sentenced to life imprisonment for infiltrating extreme right factions in Florida, involved in terrorism against Cuba.

YS: It’s not an issue the population is interested in. It’s political propaganda.

SL: But what is your point of view in this regard?

YS: I’ll try to be as neutral as possible. They’re agents from the Ministry of the Interior who infiltrated the United States to collect information. The Cuban government says they were not carrying out activities of espionage but that they had infiltrated Cuban groups to prevent terrorist acts. But the Cuban government has always said those groups were linked to Washington.

SL: Then the radical groups of exiles have bonds with the US government.

YS: That’s what the political propaganda says.

SL: Then it’s not true.

YS: If it’s true it means that the five were carrying out activities of espionage.

SL: Then, in this case, the United States has to admit that violent groups are part of the government.

YS: It’s true.

SL: Do you think the Five should be released or that they deserve their sentences?

YS: I think it would be worth re-examining their cases, but in a political context of greater calm. I don’t think that the political use of this case could be good for them. The Cuban government gives this issue too high a media profile.

SL: Perhaps because it’s a matter totally censured by the western press.

YS: I think that the situation of those persons could be salvaged, they’re human beings, with families and children, but there are also victims on the other side.

SL: But the Five have not committed crimes.

YS: No, but they provided information that resulted in the death of several people.

SL: If you refer to the events of February 24, 1996, when the two airplanes of the radical organization Brothers to the Rescue were downed after they violated Cuban airspace several times and dropped fliers inciting rebellion.

YS: Yes.

SL: However, the district attorney admitted that it was impossible to prove Gerardo Hernández’s guilt in this case.

YS: It’s true. I think that’s what we get when politics interferes in matters of justice.

SL: Do you think this is about a political case?

YS: For the Cuban government, it’s a political case.

SL: And for the United States?

YS: I understand that there’s a division of powers there, but the political atmosphere could have influenced the judges and the jury, but I don’t think we’re talking about a political case led by Washington. It’s difficult to have a clear image of this case, since we have never been able to have full information in this regard. But the release of the political prisoners it’s a priority for Cubans.

The US financing of Cuban dissidents

SL: Wayne S. Smith, the last ambassador of the United States in Cuba, declared that “sending money to Cuban dissidents was illegal and unwise.” He added that “no one should give money to dissidents and much less with the objective of overthrowing the Cuban government.” And explains: “When the United States declares that its objective is to overthrow the Cuban government and then affirms that one of the means to achieve that objective is to provide Cuban dissidents with funds, then they are, in fact, in a position of agents paid by a foreign power to overthrow their own government.”

YS: I think that the financing of the opposition on the part of the United States has been presented as a reality, which is not the case. I know several members of the group of the 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 and I very much doubt that version. I have no evidence that the 75 were arrested for that reason. I don’t believe in the evidence presented before the Cuban court.

SL: I don’t think it’s possible to ignore this reality.

YS: Why?

SL: The US government itself affirms that it finances the internal opposition since 1959. Suffice is to consult, besides the declassified archives, Section 1705 of the Torricelli Law of 1992, Section 109 of the Helms-Burton Law of 1996, and the two reports of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba of May, 2004, and July, 2006. All these documents reveal that the President of the United States finances internal opposition in Cuba with the purpose of overthrowing the government of Havana.

YS: I don’t know, but…

SL: If you allow me to, I will quote the laws in question. Thus, Section 1705 of the Torricelli Law stipulates that “the United States will provide assistance to non-governmental organizations suitable for support to individuals and organizations which promote democratic and non-violent change in Cuba.”
Section 109 of the Helms-Burton Law is also very clear: “The President [of the United States] is authorized to offer assistance and to offer all kinds of support to individuals and non-governmental independent organizations to organize forces with a view towards constructing a democracy in Cuba.”
The first report of the Commission for Assistance for a Free Cuba sets forth the establishment of “a solid program of support which favors Cuban civil society.” Among the measures announced were 36 million dollars in financing to “support the democratic opposition and the strengthening of the emerging civil society.”
The second report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba sets forth a 31 million dollar budget to finance, even more, internal opposition. In addition, the financing of at least 20 million dollars a year for the following years, with the same objective, “until the dictatorship ceases to exist,” is also planned.

YS: Who told you that that money reached the dissidents?

SL: The US Interest Section affirmed it in a communiqué: “The US policy, for a long time now, is that of providing humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, particularly the families of political prisoners. We also allow private organizations to do the same.”

YS: Well…

SL: Even Amnesty International, which recalls the existence of 58 political prisoners in Cuba, recognizes that they’re in prison “for having received funds or materials from the US government to carry out activities considered by the authorities as subversive and damaging for Cuba.

YS: I don’t know if…

SL: On the other hand, dissidents themselves admit they receive money from the United States. Laura Pollán, one of the so-called Ladies in White, declared: “We accept aid, support, from the ultra-right to the left, unconditionally.” Opponent Vladimiro Roca also confessed that Cuban dissidence is subsidized by Washington, claiming that the financial aid received was “totally and completely legal.” For dissident René Gómez, the economic support on the part of the United States “is not something that needs to be concealed or that we have to be ashamed of.”
Even the western press recognizes it. France Press agency reports that “dissidents, for their part, defended and accepted that economic aid.” The Spanish agency EFE refers to the «opponents paid by the United States.” And the British Reuters news agency points out: “the US government openly provides federal financial aid for the dissidents’ activities, which is considered by Cuba as an illegal act.” And I could give many more examples.

YS: All that is the Cuban government’s fault, which prevents the economic prosperity of its citizens, which imposes rationing on the population. People have to queue to obtain products. It’s necessary to judge the Cuban government first, which has led thousands of people to accept foreign aid.

SL: The problem is that dissidents commit a crime that Cuban law and all penal codes in the world severely punish. Being financed by a foreign power is a serious crime in France and in the rest of the world.

YS: We can admit that the fact of financing an opposition is proof of interference, but…

SL: But in this case the people you describe as political prisoners are not political prisoners, since they committed a crime when they accepted money from the United States, and Cuban law condemned them on that basis.

YS: I think that this government interfered many times in the internal affairs of other countries, financing rebel movements and the guerrilla. It intervened in Angola and…

SL: Yes, but it was a matter of helping pro-independence movements against Portuguese colonialism and South Africa’s segregationist regime. When South Africa invaded Namibia, Cuba intervened to defend that country’s independence. Nelson Mandela publicly thanked Cuba for that and was the reason for which he made his first trip to Havana and not to Washington or Paris.

YS: But many Cubans died for that, far from their land.

SL: Yes, but it was for a noble cause, whether in Angola, the Congo or Namibia. The battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1988 made it possible to put an end to Apartheid in South Africa. That’s what Mandela says! Aren’t you proud of that?

YS: OK, but at the end of the day it’s my country’s interference abroad what bothers me more than anything else. It’s necessary to decriminalize prosperity.

SL: Even the fact of receiving money from a foreign power?

YS: People have to be economically autonomous.

SL: If I understand correctly, you advocate the privatization of certain sectors of the economy.

YS: Privatize? No, I don’t like that term, because it has pejorative connotation, but put them in the hands of private people, yes.

Social achievements in Cuba?

SL: It’s a question of semantics then. In your opinion, what are the social achievements of this country?

YS: Every achievement has had an enormous cost. All things that could look positive have had a cost in terms of freedom. My son receives a very indoctrinatory education and he’s taught a History of Cuba that does not correspond to reality at all. I would rather have a less ideological education for my son. On the other hand, nobody wants to be a teacher in this country because salaries are very low.

SL: OK, but that doesn’t prevent Cuba from being the country with the highest number pf professors per inhabitant in the world, with a maximum of 20 students per classroom, which is not the case in France, for example.

YS: Yes, but there was a cost for that, and that’s why education and health are not real achievements to me.

SL: We can’t deny something acknowledged by all international institutions. With regard to education, the illiteracy rate in Latin America is 11.7% and 0.2% in Cuba. The primary education rate is 92% in Latin America and 100% in Cuba, and as for secondary education level is 52% and 99.7%, respectively. These are figures from UNESCO’s Department of Education.

YS: I agree, but in 1959, although conditions were difficult in Cuba, the situation was not that bad. There was a flourishing intellectual life, a political thinking that was alive. Actually, most of the current supposed achievements presented as results of the system were inherent in our idiosyncrasy. Those achievements existed before.

SL: It’s not true; I’m going to quote a source free of any suspicion: a report from the World Bank. It’s a long quote, but it’s worthy to recall.
“Cuba has become internationally recognized for its achievements in the areas of education and health, with social service delivery outcomes that surpass most countries in the developing world and in some areas match first-world standards. Since the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the subsequent establishment of a communist one-.party government, the country has created a social service system that guarantees universal access to education and health care provided by the State. This model has enabled Cuba to achieve near universal literacy, the eradication of certain diseases, widespread access to potable water and basic sanitation, and among the lowest infant mortality rates and longest life expectancies in the region. A review of Cuba’s social indicators reveals a pattern of almost continuous improvement from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. Several major indices, such as life expectancy and infant mortality, continued to improve during the country’s economic crisis of the 1990’s… Today, Cuba’s social performance is among the best in the developing world, as documented by numerous international sources including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and other UN agencies , and the World Bank. According to 2002 World Development Indicators, Cuba far outranks both Latin America and the Caribbean and other lower-middle income countries in major indices of education, health and sanitation.”
Moreover, figures show this. In 1959, infant mortality rate was 60 per every one thousand live births. In 2009, it was 4.8. We’re talking about the lowest rate in the American continent, of the Third World; even lower than that of the United States.

YS: Well, but…

SL: Life expectancy was 58 years before the Revolution. Now, it’s almost 80 years, and it’s similar to that of many developed nations. At present, Cuba has 67,000 doctors, as compared to 6,000 in 1959. According to the English newspaper The Guardian, Cuba has twice the amount of doctors as compared to England, for a population that is four times smaller.

YS: OK, but in terms of freedom of expression there was a reduction with respect to Batista’s government. The regime was a dictatorship but there was a plural and open freedom of the press, radio programs of all political tendencies.

SL: It’s not true. Censorship also existed. Between December, 1956, and January, 1959, during the war against the Batista regime, censorship was imposed for 630 days, out of 759. And opponents were doomed as a rule.

YS: It’s true that there was censorship, intimidation and dead people in the end.

SL: Then you can’t say that the situation was better with Batista, since opponents were assassinated. That’s no longer the case today. Do you think that January 1st s a tragic date in Cuban history?

YS: No, no, not at all. It was a process that aroused a lot of hope, but that betrayed most Cubans. For many people, it was a bright moment, but they put an end to a dictatorship and established another. I’m not as negative as some.

Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban Adjustment Act and migration

SL: What do you think about Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA agent and responsible for a large amount of crimes in Cuba and whom the United States refuses to trial?

YS: It’s a political issue people are not interested in. It’s a smokescreen.

SL: At least it interests the relatives of the victims. What’s your point of view in this regard?

YS: I don’t like violent actions.

SL: Do you condemn his terrorist acts?

YS: I condemn all terrorist acts, event those committed today in Iraq by a alleged Iraqi resistance that kills Iraqis.

SL: Who kills most Iraqis, the attacks of the resistance or the US bombings?

YS: I don’t know.

SL: A word about the Cuban Adjustment Act that stipulates that Cubans legally or illegally migrating to the United States automatically get the status of permanent resident.

YS: It’s an advantage the rest of the countries don’t enjoy. But the fact that Cubans seek to migrate to the United States is due to the fact that here the situation is difficult.

SL: And also the United States is the richest country in the world. There are also many Europeans immigrants there. You admit that the Cuban Adjustment Act is a wonderful tool of incitement to legal and illegal emigration.

YS: It is, indeed, a factor of incitement.

SL: Don’t you see it as a tool to destabilize society and the government?

YS: In this case we can also say that the fact of giving the Spanish citizenship to descendants of Spaniards born in Cuba is a destabilizing factor.

SL: That’s beside the point, since there are historic reasons for that and besides Spain applies this law to all Latin American countries and not only to Cuba, while the Cuban Adjustment Act is unique in the world.

YS: Yes, but there are strong relations. Baseball is played both in Cuba and in the United States.

SL: And also in the Dominican Republic and there’s no Dominican Adjustment Act.

YS: There is, however, a tradition of rapprochement.

SL: Then, why wasn’t this law approved before the Revolution?

YS: Because Cubans didn’t want to leave their country. At that time, Cuba was a country of immigration and not of emigration.

SL: It’s absolutely false, because in the 1950’s Cuba already ranked second among Latin American countries in terms of the number of migrants to the United States, only after Mexico. Cuba sent more emigrants to the United States than all of Central America and South America together, while today Cuba only occupies the 10th position, in spite of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the economic sanctions.

YS: Maybe, but that obsession of leaving the country did no exist.

SL: Figures show the opposite. Nowadays, I repeat, Cuba only occupies the 10th position in the American continent in terms of migratory emission to the United States. Then, the obsession you’re talking about is stronger in at least nine countries of the continent.

YS: Yes, but at that time Cubans left and returned.

SL: It’s the same things today, since every year Cubans abroad return to spend their vacation here. In addition, before 2004 and before the restrictions imposed by President Bush that limited the trips of Cubans from the US to 14 days every three years, Cubans constituted the minority in the United States that travelled more often to their country of origin, much more than Mexicans, for example, which shows that the vast majority of Cubans in the United States are economic émigrés and not political exiles, since they return to their country for visiting, something a political exile wouldn’t do.

YS: Yes, but ask them if they want to stay to live here again.

SL: But that’s what you did, right? Besides, in July, 2007, you wrote in your blog that your case was not an isolated one. And I quote: “Three years ago [...] in Zurich [...], I decided to return to my country to stay. My friends thought I was joking; my mother refused to accept that her daughter no longer lived in the Switzerland of milk and chocolate.” On August 12, 2004, you showed up before immigration authorities in Havana to explain your case. You wrote: I was surprised when they told me to mark in line, in the queue of ‘those who return’ [...]. So I found, all of a sudden, other ‘crazy people’ like I, each of them with his or her gruesome story of return.” Then, this phenomenon of returning to the country exists.

YS: Yes, but these are people who return for personal reasons. There are some who had debts abroad, others who couldn’t stand living abroad. Well, dozens of reasons.

SL: Then, in spite of difficulties and daily vicissitudes, life is not that terrible here, since some return. Do you think that Cubans have too much of an idyllic vision of life abroad?

YS: That’s due to the propaganda of the regime, which presents life abroad too negatively and that has caused the opposite effect on the people, who have overly idealized the western way of life. The problem is that, in Cuba, emigration for more than eleven months is definitive, when one could live two years abroad and return for a while and then leave again, etc.

SL: Then, if I understand correctly, the problem in Cuba is rather of an economic nature, since people want to leave the country to improve their standard of living.

YS: Many would like to travel and then be able to return but migratory laws don’t allow them. I’m sure that if that were possible many people would emigrate for two years, and then they would return to leave again and return, etc.

SL: There were interesting comments about it in your blog. Several émigrés spoke about their disappointments with respect to the western way of living.

YS: That’s very human. You fall in love with a woman and three months later you lose your enthusiasm. You buy a pair of shoes and two days later you don’t like them any more. Disappointments are part of human nature. The worst thing is that people can’t return.

SL: But people return.

YS: Yes, but only on vacation.

SL: But they have the right to stay all the time they want, even several years, although they lose some advantages related to their status of permanent resident, like the ration card, priority for housing, etc.

YS: Yes, but people can’t stay for several months here, they have their lives abroad, their jobs, etc.

SL: That’s something else, and it’s the same for all émigrés the world over. In any case, they can perfectly return to Cuba whenever they like and stay there all the time they want. The only thing is that if they stay for more than eleven months outside the country they lose some advantages. On the other hand, I find it hard to understand, if reality is so terrible here, if someone has the opportunity to live abroad, in a developed country, why would he or she like to return to live in Cuba again?

YS: For numerous reasons, their family bonds, etc.

SL: Then reality is not that dramatic.

YS: I wouldn’t say that, but some people have better living conditions than others.

SL: What are in your opinion the objectives of the US government with respect to Cuba?

YS: The United States wants a change of government in Cuba, but that’s also what I want.

SL: Then you share a common objective with the United States

YS: Like many Cubans.

SL: I’m not convinced of that, but, why? Why is it a dictatorship? What does Washington want from Cuba?

YS: I believe it’s a geopolitical issue. There’s also the will of the Cuban exile, which is taken into account, and that wants a new Cuba, the well-being of Cubans.

SL: With the imposition of economic sanctions?

YS: It all depends on whom you’re referring to. As for the United States, I think they want to prevent the migratory bomb from exploding.

SL: Is that so? With the Cuban Adjustment Act that incites Cubans to leave their country? That’s not serious. Why don’t they repeal that law then?

YS: I think that the real objective of the United States is to finish with the Cuban government in order to have a more stable space. A lot has been said about David against Goliath to talk about the conflict. But to me the only Goliath is the Cuban government, which imposes control, illegality, low wages, repression, limitations.

SL: You don’t think that US hostility has also contributed?

YS: I not only think it has contributed to it but also that it has become the main argument to say that we live in a besieged fortress and that all dissidence is treason. Actually, I think that the Cuban government fears the disappearance of this confrontation. The Cuban government wants the maintenance of economic sanctions.

SL: Really? Because that’s exactly what Washington says in a somewhat contradictory way, because if that were the case, it should lift the sanctions, thus leaving the Cuban government to stand up to its responsibilities. The excuse of the sanctions to justify problems in Cuba wouldn’t exist.

YS: Every time the United States has tried to improve the situation, the Cuban government has had a counterproductive attitude.

SL: When has the United States tried to improve the situation? Sanctions have been strengthened since 1960, with the exception of the Carter period. It’s difficult then to maintain this discourse. In 1992, the United States voted the Torricelli Law with an extraterritorial reach; in 1996, the Helms-Burton Law, extraterritorial and retroactive; in 2004, Bush adopted new sanctions and increased them in 2006. We can’t say that the United States has tried to improve the situation. Facts show the opposite. Besides, if sanctions are favorable to the Cuban government and it’s only a matter of an excuse, why not eliminate them? Leaders are not the ones who suffer as a consequence of sanctions, but the people.

YS: Obama took a step in that regard, insufficient perhaps, but interesting.

SL: He only eliminated the restrictions Bush imposed on Cubans, which prevented them from travelling to their country for more than 14 days every three years, at the very best, and provided that they had a direct member of their family in Cuba. He even redefined the concept of family. Thus, a Cuban in Florida who only had an uncle in Cuba couldn’t travel to his country because he was not considered to be a “direct” family member. Obama didn’t eliminate all the sanctions imposed by Bush and we didn’t even return to the status that existed under Clinton.

YS: I think the two parties should lower their tone about everything, and Obama has done that. Obama can’t eliminate sanctions, since it takes congressional approval.

SL: But he can alleviate them significantly, by signing simple executive orders, which he refuses to do for the time being.

YS: He’s busy on other issues, like unemployment and the heath reform.

SL: However he took time to respond to your interview.

YS: I’m a fortunate person.

SL: The position of the Cuban government is the following: we don’t have to take steps before the United States since we don’t impose sanctions on the United States.

YS: Yes and the government also says that the United States should not ask for domestic changes, because that’s interference.

SL: That’s the case, right?

YS: Then if I ask for a change it’s also interference?

SL: No, because you’re Cuban and for that reason you have the right to decide the future of your country.

YS: The problem is not who is asking for those changes but the changes in question.

SL: I’m not sure, because as a French citizen I wouldn’t like the Belgian or the German government to interfere with France’s internal affairs. As a Cuban, do you accept that the US government tells you how to govern your country?

YS: If the objective is an aggression to the country, it’s obviously unacceptable.

SL: Do you consider economic sanctions an aggression?

YS: Yes, I consider them an aggression that hasn’t had results and that it’s a mummy of the cold war, that it makes no sense, that it affects the people and that has made the government stronger. But I repeat that the Cuban government is responsible for 80% of the current economic crisis and the remaining 20% is due to the economic sanctions.

SL: One more, I repeat, it’s exactly the position of the US government and figures show the opposite. If that were the case I don’t think that 187 countries in the world would bother to vote a resolution against the sanctions. This is the 18th consecutive time that the vast majority of the UN member nations declares itself to be against this economic punishment. If it were marginal issue, I don’t think these nations would bother to vote.

YS: But I’m not a specialist in economics; it’s my personal feeling

SL: What do you advocate then for Cuba?

YS: I think the economy needs to be liberalized. That can’t be done overnight, because it would cause a fracture and social differences that would affect the most vulnerable people. But it has to be done gradually and the Cuban government has the possibility of doing it.

SL: A “sui generis” capitalism, like you say.

YS: Cuba is a sui generis island. We can create a sui generis capitalism.

SL: Yoani Sánchez, thank you for your time and your availability.

YS: Thank you.

Salim Lamrani is a professor in charge of courses at the Paris-Sorbonne -Paris IV University and at the Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée University. He’s a French journalist and a specialist on relations between Cuba and the USA. He has just published Cuba: Ce que les médias ne vous diront jamais (Paris: Estrella Editions, 2009). Contact: lamranisalim@yahoo.fr

Olga Tañón: Cuba is a country with lots of dignity

2009-09-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2691.html
Google translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico (AP) Olga Tañón admitted Friday the artists who participated in the Peace Without Boundaries concert in Cuba felt a lot of pressure before starting the show, but described the final result as wonderful.''
The singer arrived on Friday in her native Puerto Rico, where she was received by Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock, who supported their participation in the controversial show on Sunday.
"I think people misunderstood the production, thought that we had required white shirts but no, we let in anyone without a white shirt,'' said the song stylist at a press conference upon arrival at the airport.
That, plus the perception that Juanes was under surveillance and other trifles, made me think that there was excessive pressure. To me, that was a micro, which happened at the concert was the macro,'' he said.
Added to the criticism that I'm not going to put a fight with anybody,'' and said that everyone knows I'm not a Communist. If so would call me to laugh.''
' What I say is what I found in Cuba was not what I was told. It is true that Cubans lack many things, but nobody is crying. It is a people with dignity,'' the Puerto Rican said, adding that she would accept another invitation to sing there. Tañón return to her homeland to suffer the effects of laryngitis prevented her from saying much, the point was to interrupt the press conference several minutes by a bout of coughing. For the artist, the purpose of bringing peace to Cuba was totally fulfilled. We cried, we worked.
But when we saw the result we realized that we were right. I have not stopped to mourn because the result was wonderful. Cuba gave its all and showed she is ready for the world,'' she said.

On Thursday, we learned that hours before the historic concert in Havana Juanes threatened to cancel the event, supposedly infuriated by the constant surveillance by Cuban officials and rumors that the police were blocking the passage of the concert audience. In a video captured by reporters at the National Hotel in Havana on Sunday morning, Juanes states: It was very annoying, very annoying ...
We're here for young people of Cuba, Cuba's future ... We found a barrier very strong and we will not allow ... We have come with all the love, with all respect. This can not continue. It's over.'' However, on Friday Cuba's official Granma newspaper said that the images were shown out of context and Juanes's manager , Fernan Martinez, in Miami, confirmed the version in the newspaper

Juanes won the battle with a dove

2009-09-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Marta Rojas • La Habana

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2678.html
Google translation. Revised by Walter Lippmann.

Sunday September 20, 2009 is recorded in our memory where we had the privilege of enjoying Juanes' Paz Sin Fronteras concert, in the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, or any part of the island and the world where it was shown on television.
We have experienced a cultural and humanistic event par excellence, truly momentous and unprecedented, given their proportions in terms of attendance of well over a million people, almost all in their twenties, and international and local.
That the Colombian Juanes, intimately enjoying the birth of Dante, his first son, as stated in the Cuban capital, has set an example of solidarity and love is unquestionable. Thus, it earned a spot in the history of Latin American artistic culture to have proposed and brought about a concert for peace. It was called on short notice and drew other artists of outstanding quality and reputation,. Among these were his friend Bosé, Olga Tañón, who exuded joy and transmitted in bulk and without losing the infectious Creole rhythm more than once, shouted excitedly the brotherhood of his country and Cuba with the words of poet Lola Rodriguez de Tio, who José Martí made famous: "Cuba and Puerto Rico are two wings if a bird."
Tañón entered the concert in triumph and the level never dropped for over five uninterrupted hours.
That day a universal battle was won with a single dove, that of Peace, who flew around the world from the hands of Juanes and his friends in Latin America, Spain and Italy, in brotherhood with the Cubans.
There were many surprises, among them the Cucú Diamante "parragueña Cuban" -- as they call her -- was done with the group call-Yerbabuena, and the Yoruba drums of Andabo.
The experts will tell you otherwise but this afternoon also showed that Latinos snatched the scepter of classic rock in the world.
Only natural water bottles, candy or other treats were enough to keep the Revolution Square, full of joy and rhythmic movement, more than a million of our youth.
Outcome: The expected with Formell and his Van Van, which was joined by other artists in the foreground Juanes, Olga, Danny Rivera, Bose and others. Tears of joy and emotional love for Cuba and for peace. Formell understand was a telling phrase "who was hurt was hurt and the Juanes concert for peace, Cuba earned it."
This is a golden chapter of men and women of goodwill in the world. Thank you, Colombian Juanes.

Cuba: Raul Castro Heads Homage to Almeida

2009-09-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Havana, Sep 13 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Raul Castro on Sunday headed the homage the Cuban people is paying to Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, who died on Friday night.
The president, accompanied by Almeida's relatives, put a flower near the image of the outstanding revolutionary fighter at the Revolution Square's Jose Marti Memorial hall, where the ceremony develops until this evening.
So did Commanders of the Revolution Ramiro Valdes and Guillermo Garcia, as well as the rest of the members of the Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee.
A Guard of Honor escorts the image, while thousands of Cubans have been paying tribute since very early today to the commander who was linked to all transcendental events of the revolutionary process.
The burial will take place later next week at the memorial site of the Third Guerilla Front in the province of Santiago de Cuba.

Tania Bruguera investigada por repartir cocaína

2009-09-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

BOGOTÁ, 11 Set 2009 (AFP) - Una obra de "arte político" de la cubana Tania Bruguera, programada en la estatal Universidad Nacional en Bogotá, terminó convertida en un caso judicial debido al reparto de cocaína a los asistentes que abarrotaban el auditorio, informó la fiscalía.
La presencia de la artista cubana en la Universidad Nacional formó parte del VII Encuentro del Instituto Hemisférico de Performance y Política que investiga las prácticas corporales en el arte, financiado con fondos públicos, según señaló la Fiscalía en un comunicado.
"La única responsable de esta obra fui yo", aceptó Bruguera tras recordar que fueron "tres o cuatro bandejas de cocaína, y cada una con 20 líneas", las que se repartieron en medio de la manifestación artística que incluía una mesa redonda a la que asistían ex guerrilleros de izquierda, ex paramilitares de derecha e intelectuales.
En declaraciones telefónicas desde Estados Unidos a la radio RCN de Bogotá, la artista se negó a responder cómo y con quién consiguió la droga, señalando que como "como persona que hace arte político, soy responsable y no voy a decir quiénes me ayudaron a conseguir algún elemento de mi trabajo".
Bruguera dijo que los organizadores del certamen no conocían hasta dónde llegaría la situación.
Este viernes, la Fiscalía informó en un comunicado que "comenzó la etapa de indagación preliminar, para establecer si en la Universidad Nacional fueron distribuidos alucinógenos a los asistentes a la presentación de una artista internacional".

Gloria Estefan: "Voluntary CIA agent?"

2009-09-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

By M. H. Lagarde

Google translation. Slightly revised by Walter Lippmann.

According to People magazine, if fate had not put Gloria Estefan in the music world, probably the Cuban singer would have become a spy. She was then still very young and by her ability with languages, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) United States proposed that she go to work for it.
"They realized that I was someone who could pass as a regular person without raising any eyebrow. So the CIA approached me and wanted me to train in their Atlanta headquarters," said the 52 year-old song interpreter to the Telemundo TV program Al red vivo with Maria Celeste Arraras. She explained that the offer came while working as an interpreter of Spanish, English and French Customs at Miami International Airport. The Cuban said her mother influenced her decision saying she should not consider the proposal, having already suffered a lot from her father's political activities. However, besides the knowledge of several languages, the history of her father may have been one of the reasons that the CIA proposed that she join their ranks.
Her father, Jose Fajardo, had been a bodyguard for the dictator Fulgencio Batista and was imprisoned in Cuba after being captured during the mercenary invasion of Bay at the Pigs in 1961. Fajardo, then fled to Florida, where he was granted citizenship and later joined the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam.
However, the famous singer of the eighties, admits it had been an attractive offer. "Maybe I made the decision [to do], he said, What better cover to go as a singer, talking to the chairs, talking to the Kings, close to all the people who wanted access? So, who knows ?
The truth is that agent or not, at least in regard to its retrograde position on Cuba, such a father-of ...- both the singer and her husband, music impresario Emilio Estefan, have done a great service to the Agency.

ORIGINAL PEOPLE MAGAZINE STORY:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20262951,00.html

Placido Domingo Backs Juanes' Concert in Cuba

2009-09-04T06:20:00.001-07:00

Bogota, Sep 3 (Prensa Latina) Spanish tenor Placido Domingo offered support to the September 20 concert of Juanes in Havana.
Placido, who will sing Saturday in Cartagena de Indias, wished he could sing in Cuba despite pressures from Miami, adding that Juanes' bravery deserves wide support.
The renowned tenor also called for general cooperation and to allow everyone to travel on free will, and called Juanes brave for enduring adverse reaction to his work for peace.
Placido Domingo called the Colombian musician brave for carrying his music to the Cuban people and wishes he could walk in the streets of Havana.

Silvio Rodriguez on Juanes Havana Concert

2009-09-01T05:26:00.000-07:00

(PL) The announcement in Havana of the concert Peace without Frontiers, promoted by the Colombian musician Juanes, next September 20th at the Revolution Square, has aroused diverse opinions. In the Island, there is expectation for the meeting. There is also a grateful attitude for the recognition to Cuba's voice in the name of Peace.
One of the guest artists, the Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez, in an interview granted to La Jiribilla, on answering about the "concerns" aroused by such an "audacity", reaffirms it as "an event of Peace that bothers the extreme right-wing, because the nature of these people is aggressive, as well as the blockade, and because the idea and the fact of peace undermines the hatred that feed them".
When the strains of the performance in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, on the occasion of the commemoration of the independent war of August 10, 1809, could still be heard, Silvio, who sang songs that constitute a substantial part of the song history of this continent before some 25 000 people at the Model Stadium, shared some reflections with this magazine.
The concert by the Colombian musician Juanes at the Revolution Square has a previous and spontaneous story in Havana. Tell us about this story and its antecedents.
The antecedents, regarding my own person, began by a phone call of the Ministry of Culture to tell me that Juanes wanted to give a Concert for Peace in Havana and he was coming to Cuba to talk about that. I was called because there was going to be a dinner and they wanted me to attend. There I met Juanes and I heard him speak about the project for the first time. He asked me if I wanted to take part and I said yes. I had seen the first concert for Peace they had made at the border between Colombia and Venezuela on TV and it seemed positive to me.
During the launch of the book Cancionero (Song book) you mentioned that at the age of 20 you believed that poetry could change the world and now, at the age of 60, you were convinced that you couldn't change it, but you could in deed make it much better. Can this concert by Juanes in Cuba provide evidence of such certainty?
That is correct; I don't believe that a song or a concert can change the complex reality overnight, but without a doubt an event like this one can be a strong message of Peace will, in this case between the United States and Cuba, countries that are separated by half-century discrepancies. In my opinion, this concert intends to join the voices of many here and there who want the situation to become normal and that everybody can live the way they want, respecting differences.
The idea of this musical event has caused a huge stir in Miami accusing it of being a politicized concert. Why can an event in favor of Peace bother so much?
The voices condemning this concert are not the voices of the immense majority of the Cuban emigrant workers. Even less the voices of the 11 million people who live in Cuba. The awkward and aggressive voices are of the small but very powerful Cuban extreme right-wing that goes hand in hand with the US extreme right-wing (it is common knowledge what this extreme right-wing does all over the world). An event of Peace bothers the extreme right-wing because the nature of these people is aggressive, as well as the blockade, because the idea and the fact of Peace undermine the hatred that feeds them.
There are many outbreaks of wars all over the world: military, ideological, economic And this concert is dedicated to oppose Peace to such conflicts. In favor of what causes or against what acts is it worthy to "sh oot" songs?
Juanes says he wants this concert to be white; he has also said that white is the lack of color; therefore I deduce that Juanes doesn't want any idea prevailing over another one; he wants everyone to have the same opportunity. I believe that in this concert there is space for all the songs transmitting aspects of the human condition, which is a very diverse and very rich thing, apart from ideologies. Therefore, everything that means respect to the right to life, to education, to freedom and to diversity will be valid. And rather than "shooting" I guess that it will be a concert where songs will be blown so that the wind helped by satellites takes them every where softly as possible.
Among your songs, there are several against war. Will we hear some of them at the concert? Maybe some advance of the new production "Segunda cita" (Second appointment).
To make the program I guess that first we need to know how many artists will take part in it. Then we can have an idea of the repertory that each will play.
Segunda cita is a disk that is pretty focused on the Cuban reality; I could maybe sing some of those. I don't know yet. At some point I thought of singing "Rabo de nube" (Small tornado), which I couldn't sing at the homage to Pete Seeger. I have also thought about "Días y flores" (Days and flowers). But I could also dust revive one, entitled "Blanco" (White), which I composed forty years ago.
To sing at the Revolution Square is a duty, recalling your anthological song. What meaning does it have to do it today, in the present circumstances and accompanied by all these musicians?
It continues to be a duty and, of course, also a pleasure.
You have just given several concerts in Ecuador, one of the centers of the social renewal that takes place in Latin America. Taking into account the experience of this visit, your contact with the people, together with the recent facts of the coup d'état in Honduras, the world crisis and the Yankee military bases in Colombia, what sings or lessons born in this context should be a lesson for the most immediate Latin American future?
I think that the coup d'état in Honduras is very similar to the one given by Pinochet in Chile and I think that they didn't do it alone here either. The ambitious ones have stained once more the dignity of the Armed Forces of a Latin American country. There are many bullet wounded and if there are less dead people it is because of the alert presence of TeleSur. It is obvious that the Honduran people will say the last word. On the other hand, the intensity of what we have lived in Asuncion and Guayaquil reinforces my faith that the second Latin American independence continues.

Cuban defectors: why do they call it “political asylum” when they actually mean “more money”?

2009-08-27T16:59:00.001-07:00

Published by J.Parra – August 27, 2009A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Three Cuban basketball players – Georvis Elías Sayus, Grismay Paumier, Taylor García and Geofry Silvestre– decided to defect from the national team while in Grand Canary Island, claiming that “they could not make any progress in Cuba”.“We had made up our mind since we took the plane in our country”, said Sayus, one of the team’s most experienced players.
“We planned everything together with Geofry. We wished to keep doing what we like to do. And we don’t want to have a dispute about political issues, but we could not stand it any longer; in Cuba we were not able to develop our basketball skills”. So to develop their basketball skills they asked for “political asylum”. Surreal, especially as they don’t want to have a “dispute about political issues”.

What’s funny is that some spiteful journalists and anti-Cuban propagandists encourage them, cover their case in their newspapers and don’t even have the decency to disclose the real motives behind their alleged “political asylum”. Small wonder, when the ultimate goal has always been to destroy the Revolution.These individuals ask for “political asylum” just because they want to make more money, and I assume they will get it.
Wishing to be better at what you do is no doubt an absolutely legitimate aspiration; what’s immoral and despicable is to request a “political asylum” never granted to others who are really persecuted in their countries, as in the case of Colombia.Well, I propose that all engineers, architects, athletes, writers, artists, etc. from all over the Third World to show up at the embassies of the rich countries to ask for “political asylum” in order to make progress in their professions.
I also propose to the thousands of men and women who arrive in Spain from the Third World that they should do the same. Do not authenticate your papers. There’s a simpler solution: ask for political asylum so you can make progress.The anti-Cuban propaganda, the blatant counterrevolutionary misinformation, and the journalistic trash written by the most evil-minded reporters of this country will continue to call those who leave Cuba “political refugees”.
I wonder whether they also refer to the Spaniards who live in Cuba as “political refugees” who escaped from capitalism and the Bourbon regime and took refuge in a socialist country.Allow me to state my disrespect, even at the risk of being “politically incorrect”, for those who pretend to be considered as “political refugees” when all they want is more money.http://www.larepublica.es/javierparra/?p=228

Cuba: Gold and Silver in Triple Jump (F) Final

2009-08-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

Berlin, Aug 17 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban triple jump female competitors Yargelis Savigne and Mabel Gay gave the first medals to Cuba in the World Cup in Berlin Monday by winning the gold and silver, respectively.
Savigne, 24 years old, achieved 14.95 meters in the fifth beat of jumps to repeat her title in Osaka, Japan in 2007 and be ratified as the best in the season in the specialty.
Gay achieved 14.61 meters, her better performance of the year, and assured a silver medal for which very few experts bet before the competition.
Among the big losers there was Russian Tatyana Lebedeva who finished sixth with 14.37 meters, while her countryfellow Anna Pyatykh took the bronze with 14.58.
Jamaican Trecia Smith finished fifth with 14.48 meters and Brazilian Gisele of Oliveira twelfth with 14.19.
The analysts considered Savigne the favorite to take the gold medal in the World Cup, but few hoped Gay reached the podium.
In the female triple jump competition the results were distant of those gotten one year before by the participants in the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, won by Cameroon s Francoise Mbango-Etone, who finished with 15.39 meters. In the Olympic Games, Savigne achieved 15.05 but could not pass of the fifth position.
In the Japanese city Cuba got also a silver medal thanks to hammer thrower Gipsi Moreno and a bronze medal with female discus thrower Yarelis Barrios.

Reflections by Comrade Fidel THE YANKEE BASES AND THE LATIN AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY

2009-08-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

The concept of nation emerged from the combination of common elements such as history, language, culture, costumes, laws, institutions and others related to the material and spiritual life of human communities.
Bolivar, who worked the great heroic deeds that turned him into ‘The Liberator of peoples’ during his struggle for the freedom of the peoples of the Americas, urged them to create what he called “the greatest nation in the world: less for its extension and riches than for its liberty and glory.”
In Ayacucho, Antonio José de Sucre waged the last battle against the empire that for more than 300 years had transformed much of this continent into a royal property of the Spanish Crown.
That was the same America that tens of years later, after being divided in part by the rising Yankee imperialism, was called by Martí ‘Our America.’
We should remember once again that on May 19, 1895, a few hours before dying in combat for the independence of Cuba, the last bastion of Spanish colonialism in the Americas, Jose Marti prophetically wrote that everything he had done and would was to “…to timely prevent, with the independence of Cuba, that the United States could expand over the Antilles and fall with that additional force over our American lands."
In the United States, where the recently liberated thirteen colonies did not take long to expand disorderly to the West in their quest for land and gold, while exterminating indigenous populations, until they reached the Pacific coast, the agricultural and slave States of the South competed with the industrial States of the North that exploited wage labor in an attempt to create other States to protect their economic interests.
In 1848 Mexico was robbed of more than 50 per cent of its territory during a war of conquest launched against that country that was then militarily weak. The conquerors occupied the capital and imposed humiliating peace conditions. Mexico’s big reserves of oil and gas, which remained in the territory that was robbed, would later on be supplied to the United States for more than a century and in part they continue to be so now.
The Yankee filibuster William Walker, encouraged by “the manifest destiny” declared by his country, landed in Nicaragua in 1855 and proclaimed himself as President, until he was expelled by the Nicaraguans and other Central American patriots in 1856.
Our National Hero realized how the destiny of Latin American countries was being shattered by the rising United States Empire.
After Marti’s death in combat there was a military intervention in Cuba at a time when the Spanish army had already been defeated.
The Platt Amendment, which granted that powerful country the right to intervene in the Island, was imposed on Cuba.
The occupation of Puerto Rico - which has lasted for 111 years now- a country so called “Free Associated State” that is neither free nor a State, was another consequence of that intervention.
The worst was still to come for Latin America, as was confirmed by the ingenious premonitions of Marti. The growing empire had decided that the canal that would link the two oceans would go through Panama and not through Nicaragua. The Panama isthmus, the Corinth dreamed of by Bolivar as the capital of the biggest Republic of the world envisaged by him would be a property of the Yankees.
Despite that, the worst consequences were still to come in the course of the 20th century. With the support of the national political oligarchies, the United States became the owner of the resources and the economies of Latin American countries. Military interventions multiplied; military and police forces fell under the US aegis. The Yankee transnationals took control over the fundamental productions and services, banks, insurance companies, foreign trade, railways, ships, warehouses, electricity services and telephone services. Others, to a greater or lesser degree, were finally controlled by them.
It is true that the sharp social inequities led to the emergence of the Mexican Revolution in the second decade of the 20th century, which became a source of inspiration for other countries. The Revolution made it possible for Mexico to make progress in different areas. But the same empire that in the past devoured much of the Mexican territory is devouring today important natural resources it still keeps, cheap labor, and is even forcing the Mexican people to shed its own blood.
The NAFTA is the most brutal economic agreement imposed on a developing country. For the sake of brevity, it will suffice it to point out that the US Government has just stated that at a moment when Mexico has been hit by a double blow, not only because of its economic slowdown, but also because of the effects of the AH1N1 virus, the US would probably want to see a more stable economy before engaging in a long discussion about new commercial negotiations. And of course, not a single word is said about the fact that, as a consequence of the war unleashed by drug trafficking - for which Mexico has deployed 36 000 troops-, almost 4 000 Mexicans have died in 2009. The same phenomenon repeats itself to a greater or lesser degree in the rest of Latin America. Drugs not only cause serious health problems; they are also a source of violence which is causing lot of pain in Mexico and Latin America as a consequence of the insatiable US market, which is an infinite source of the hard currency that is used to foment the production of cocaine and heroine. It is the country that supplies the weapons used in that ferocious and unadvertised war.
Those who die in the territory between Rio Grande and the farthest corners of South America are all Latin Americans. Thus, the general violence is breaking new records of deaths. The victims, mostly because of drugs and poverty, surpass the figure of 100 000 a year in Latin America.
The empire does not wage the struggle on drugs within its borders; it is doing so in the Latin American countries.
In our country we do not grow coca or poppy. We efficiently combat those who attempt to introduce drugs in our country or use Cuba as a transit point. The number of persons who die as a result of violence is decreasing every year. And for that we do not need Yankee soldiers. The struggle against drugs is a pretext to establish military bases in the whole hemisphere.
Since when the vessels of the 4th Fleet and modern combat planes are used to combat drugs?
The true objective is to control the economic resources, the markets, and to struggle against social changes. Was there any need to re-establish that fleet which was demobilized after the Second World War, more than 60 years later, when the cold war is over and the USSR no longer exist? The arguments used for the installation of seven air and naval bases in Colombia are an insult to intelligence.
History will not forgive those who have been so disloyal to their own peoples or those who resort to the exercise of sovereignty as a pretext to harmonize this with the presence of Yankee troops. What sovereignty they refer to? The one conquered by Bolivar, Sucre, San Martin, O’Higgins, Morelos, Juárez, Tiradentes and Martí? None of them would have accepted such a repugnant argument to justify the granting of military bases to the Armed Forces of the United States, an empire far more dominant, powerful and universal than the Crowns of the Iberian Peninsula.
If as a consequence of such agreements promoted illegally and unconstitutionally by the United States, any government in that country uses those bases, as was done by Reagan during the dirty war, and Bush at the time of the Iraq war, to provoke an armed conflict between two sister nations, this would be a big tragedy. Venezuela and Colombia were born together in the history of the Americas, after the battles of Boyacá and Carabobo, under the leadership of Simon Bolivar. The Yankee forces could promote a dirty war as they did in Nicaragua, and even recruit soldiers of foreign nationalities trained by them and attack any country, but the combatant, brave and patriotic people of Colombia would hardly let itself be dragged into a war against a brother people like the Venezuelan.
The imperialists would be making a mistake if they equally underestimate the other Latin American peoples. None of them would agree with the presence of Yankee military bases; none of them will stop expressing its solidarity with any Latin American people that is been attacked by the imperialism.
Martí admired Bolivar very much, and he was not wrong when he said: “And that is how Bolivar is in the sky of America: vigilant and frowning…still wearing his campaign boots; because what he did not do, remains to be done still today: because Bolivar still has things to do in the Americas.”

Fidel Castro Ruz
August 9, 2009
6:32 p.m.

Silvio Rodríguez: Still Singing Challenging Songs

2009-08-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

(PL) Art as a continual challenge keeps on being the premise of Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, who in an interview shortly after the release of a Cancionero (Songbook), published by Ojalá publishing house, said: I am still interested in challenge.
His new songbook comprises more than four hundred tunes- one hundred of them unknown_ It also brings forward pieces included in his forthcoming disc.
This Songbook, illustrated with drawings made by the artist himself, summarizes four decades of constant task in song-writing, and piles up such popular themes as Sueño con serpiente, Pequeña Serenata diurna, La Maza, and Ojala, among other charismatic titles.
José Marti, whose imprint appears in some of his pieces, exerted great influence on his works and way of thinking, thus his acknowledging words concerning The Golden Age as one of his first readings; especially the release published by Emilio Roig in 1953 on occasion of Martí s centennial.
That historian had the good idea of introducing the book with a foreword depicting Martí s ethics from a very early stage. From that reading, the Martí accompanying me is the human being, the son, the friend, the comrade he was, plus the patriot endowed with cosmopolitan spirit. I am also taking his substantial and beautiful stanzas with me.
Songbook, a volume completing the artist s autobiographical portrait, bears many photos depicting various stages. Rodríguez points out the importance of lyrics- or poetry-, that he started to enjoy being a kid thanks to his father, a farmer who used to read Darío, Martí, Nicolás Guillén and others. His readings- he comments- went on with authors who shook me twice with abandon , such as Cuban José Zacarías Tallet, Eliseo Diego and Rubén Martínez Villegas, whom he regards a bedside one nowadays. Also César Vallejos, who condemned me to eternal fascination and Saint-John Perse.
On the last author in the aforementioned lineup, he tells an anecdote: I was in the barracks, and a rookie in love with the exuberant images was reading Perse out loud, and I became infested with it right away until now. Then he lent me a marvelous bilingual edition of Shakespeare s sonnets, which I stupidly gave him back 20 years later.
Love is a recurrent topic in Rodríguez s compositions so he wonders what human coupling would be all about without the so-called love songs, which are like a connecting thread toward all times and places; an inextinguishable theme renewed by each human group and stage with their characteristics.
Even his testimonial lyrics, far from any voluntarism and highfalutin tones, move along a string which is both intimate and confidential. Ever since I was a boy, I went into the street to support the revolutionary process enthusiastically, but when I started to sing I avoided making pamphlets. I am the kind of person who cannot put up with flattering what he respects.
Silvio, who concedes to have praised exceptionally- Canción urgente a Nicaragua being a good example-, affirms that the we identifying songs should be the need on the singer s part to say that he is part of a collective dignity.
He also says that from the very beginning he thought that songs topics and vocabulary had to be enlarged as they both seemed stale to him. Therefore, he looked for words that were seldom used to make songs with them. The search led him to expressions discriminated against by the prevailing morale. Hence, La era está pariendo un corazón was said to be counterrevolutionary because for some people the word to bring forth was immoral, much more if it was used in a song. That is , he said, declaring that I tried to sing and cry, live, love, war, pain, was little less than a sacrilege.
Last May 4, Rodríguez s visa to the United States for attending the homage paid to folk musician Pete Seeger on his 90th birthday was delayed so much, that he could not take part in it. Apart from being discriminated against, he adds: We have been at loggerhead for many years, and that has conditioned both parties. In the US, many mechanisms keep on working on the obsolete meaning of the cold war. The same happens in Cuba, but mollified by the fact that we have been the country historically attacked.
I would like to see what share of that change proclaimed by the new US administration is allotted to the Cubans living in Cuba. I would not like to believe that the good will of that government is only for those who want to live there or those who think like them.
Songbook puts forth tunes of his upcoming album Second date, among them, Tonada del albedrío, a song devoted to Che.
Silvio regrets that the collapse of Eastern Europe was followed by a media war distorting the meaning of human freedom and reducing the hopes of social changes to the most fateful experiences of real socialism . According to his view, Che is among the revolutionary examples that globalization is trying to wipe out, and Tonada del albedrío deals with three key aspects of Che s thinking.
Lastly, the troubadour, who made his debut one day after being discharged from military service on a prime-time TV program called Música y Estrellas, in 1967, bets on a new challenge: I must concede that I am still interested in singing what is challenging; what is forbidden is interesting, above all, when it goes beyond the little game of watching if you dare .

The author is a renowned Argentinean poet.

Who Pays for Yoani Sánchez’s Blog Therapy?

2009-08-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

By Norelys Morales Aguilera

Some experienced bloggers argue that personal blogs are a therapy. For Yoani Sánchez, the therapy for her frustration is a clever communications product that is keeping right-wing, counter-revolutionary and other anti-Cuba elements really happy.
An objective look at the site and the author, as becomes serious journalism, raises many a suspicion.
Among the millions of blogs on the Internet on just about any subject, it cannot be a chance occurrence that Generation Y may have been chosen by Grupo Prisa, as is not the prominence surrounding any opinion by this madam, elevated to the rank of "an authorized voice" by the Spanish newspaper El País for any insult it may want to hurl at Cuba. Stepping over other arrivistes with no lesser “merits,” Yoani perfectly suits the needs of her employers in the cyber-dissidence: being a sort of “virtual contractor” who is on the scene yet avoids the “repression and censorship,” in the Cuban case, allowing her to grant interviews left and right and to post stuff on her site peacefully without disruption, as has been reported by the foreign press in Havana, even make surveys, as Yoani herself has explained.
Reviewing the arguments raised by fellow Cubans like M. H. Lagarde and Rosa Miriam Elizalde, some questions come to mind. These are not intended to be uncomfortable, just obvious.
1) How comes the US Treasury Department issued the order—accomplished on the spot—to vanish more than 80 websites somehow related Cuba on grounds that they promoted trade with the island and “violated U.S. law,” and it has not taken note of the money traffic via Yoani’s Internet site?
Generation Y carries in a prominent place a link to purchase Yoani’s book Cuba libre in Italian. This is something that anyone can do through PayPal, except a Cuban living in Cuba, because it contravenes regulations contained in the US blockade against the island, which is very clear regarding the prohibition on electronic commerce.
Many journalists without a steady job would certainly love to “have the skills” to use the administration tools and services, with payment gateway for electronic money transfers using credit cards. And let no one be mistaken: Generation Y has its Copyright © 2009 - All Rights Reserved, something no Cuban blogger can do from the Island
2) Who designed the blog’s technical support? Who is in charge of its maintenance? How much does it cost to customize this software? The site’s technical support, which serves this one blog almost exclusively, is the type of tool that is specially designed by a computer expert, whose annual salary is not going to be paid by Yoani through her royalties. Her “patriotism” does not go that far, although money would not be the problem for her.
According to data from Internet domains about the Desde Cuba portal, which hosts Yoani’s blog, it uses the Joomla system. This is a complex management system for dynamic websites and a content management system, whose modules can only be enabled by someone with advanced knowledge of computers. And this is, of course, not madam’s case.
3) While the Generation Y blog seems simple in its design, a blogger’s eye quickly finds this is no ordinary blog from the point of view of its technical requirements.
It has versions in 18 languages (not a simple translator installed by any blogger), a high traffic, with hundreds of comments under each post, and resources for Internet advertising and to store the site’s memory for a long time. Such features can only be kept by means of abundant funds. Just to handle the traffic that the page generates and the GBs of stored comments, in addition to the administration services, Generation Y would need to count on money, especially with servers in Europe, which are not free!
4) Who is Josef Biechele, Yoani’s old friend who for years has been charitably in charge of the Desde Cuba server outside of the country? He certainly must know how to subsidize the portal, hosted in a server of the company Cronon AG Regensburg, a subsidiary of Germany’s Strato.
If you visit the web site of this Internet provider at http://www.cronon-isp.net/index.html you will see that a common user, in this case a blogger, could not be among its clients.
The menu is not shown nor the price list, or the terms and characteristics of services. Why is it indicated that one needs to write to this "Professional IT-Services" company and directly ask how much it would cost to host a site there? This means that the service is offered via a direct contract and not promoted.
Cronon AG, it seems, does not rely in publicity and is confident enough that its potential clients will find the company online or come to it via recommendations. This highly unusual or exclusive approach to the telecommunications market raises suspicions regarding its client list.
5) Who pays for what Cronon AG reports as the features of its servers, in German? These are presented as follows:

• Total area of more than 3500 m2 (of net exhibition space)
split in 6 halls

• Bandwidth: External connections: 2 x 20 Gbit/s for the Freenet backbone, 1 x 10 Gbit/s for the DE-CIX Frankfurt, smaller connections of bandwidth of up to 155 Mbit

• 1 GBit input and output transport

• Start/Electric System:
48 and 230 volts in all ambits
Multiple redundant UPS units (split for each the 230 and 48 volts)

• Emergency power sources: 4 x diesel engines and 2 x diesel reserve engines
One megawatt power (6 megawatts total benefit)

• 45.000 litres of continually preheated gas oil in storage, readily available in 40 seconds

• 6 dedicated stations with a 1 megawatt transformer

• Access control:
24/7 segurity
Card reader
Anticipation
Surveillance
CCTV
Written registration
This speaks of a server that can use “external connections: 2 x 20 Gbits/s.” In other words, it is not just another provider.
Even supposing that “the first world is full of these servers,” when applied to the Cuban reality by the grace of the US blockade—which is never criticized by Yoani—it shows that the site hosting the Generation Y blog has 60 times the bandwidth that the whole of Cuba has available for all its Internet users!
6) What was the company used to obtain the domain registration of Yoani’s blog? Well, it was simply GoDaddy, the company preferred by the Pentagon to register the sites it uses for its cyber war. GoDaddy is the anonymous, safer way to purchase a domain in the United States, the company says.
Why anonymous if such a registration is not expected to imply any crime? Why using the same strategy the Pentagon uses? How does Super Yoani manage to prevent GoDaddy from canceling her domain, just like another US registration company did in the case of dozens of sites which promoted cultural events and trips to Cuba? Why isn’t anybody talking of the restrictions Cuba faces—even under the Obama administration—in terms of e-commerce, thanks to the US blockade?
7) Interestingly enough, Yoani’s blog was the first one to promote the subversive Granpa Internet news service, at the address http://www.granpa.info
She did not bother to disguise her relations with the Granpa sponsors who for this particular registration followed the same procedures used for the hosting and registration of the Generation Y blog in Europe-based servers.
The Granpa domain was created on June 9, 2009 under anonymous owners. Its server is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The owner of the account that paid for the domain registered the address of a credit card in the fiscal safe heaven of Grand Cayman, according to public Internet registration data. The IP address hosting the site is 82.103.135.163, which belongs to the ISP Easyspeedy Networks.
Granpa is an exclusive service for Cuba, with the particularity that anyone can register a phone number working on the island without the approval of its owner. Those who own cell phones in Cuba do not receive any access code to confirm their acceptance to receive daily headline news, picked from three fiercely anti-Cuba papers: El Nuevo Herald of Miami and Cubaencuentro and Penúltimos Días of Spain.
Actually, this service is meant to send mass messages, even if the user has not requested, in open violation of standards protecting the privacy of Internet users and anti-spam regulations. As it is well known, international sms services are not a free choice for cell phones.
The Vodafone site, a provider of telecommunication services in Spain, shows that sending messages to other countries in Europe and abroad ranges between 1.16 and 2.50 Euros a message. You can check it at http://www.vodafone.es/particulares/tarifas/viajar-al-extranjero/sms-mms/euros.
Considering these rates, how much are these mass sms services from Europe to Cuba, under which bases are they sent, and who is financing them?
8) How many bloggers in the world have Spain’s Grupo Prisa as their manager? Why has Prisa, which is supposedly undergoing a hard financial crisis, been able to purchase Noticias 24—the most aggressive website against the Venezuelan government—and to pay Yoani a 15,000-Euro prize? No less than via the Ortega y Gasset Prize, traditionally granted to personalities in the field of arts, with a rich record in that field of knowledge, which is absolutely not the case here.
How comes Italy’s Rizzoli publishing house paid 50,000 Euros to an unknown “writer”? Such an amount of money was never given to, say, Alejo Carpentier, Jose Lezama Lima, or any other unquestionable figures of Cuban literature. The list adds some 100 other prizes, including a recent mention at the Maria Moors Cabot, of the University of Columbia.
I do not intend to accuse Yoani of being a mercenary, No way! She has already accused herself! The image they have designed for her is even supported by her lying self-proclamation of being a revolutionary, only that she is disappointed and frustrated, and all that goes because of her “suffering” and her therapy on her blog, which someone pays for, on account of her “great patriotic sacrifices” (money has no homeland).
Aren’t all those aforementioned facts reasons to think of a sophisticated kind of marketing strategy against Cuba? Could her blog have such large visibility without a strong economic support, hidden behind prizes?
Yoani does not speak to the average Cuban citizen, who might tell her to get lost, but she voices her whining through messages designed following the principles of the Pentagon’s cyber war, with wicked interests that we can not suppose she ignores, as she cannot ignore those financing the therapy for her frustrations.

Reflections by comrade Fidel: SEVEN DAGGERS AT THE HEART OF THE AMERICAS

2009-08-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

I read and reread data and articles written by smart personalities, some better known than others, who publish in various media outlets drawing the information from sources nobody questions.
Everywhere in the world, the people living on this planet are taking economic, environmental and war risks due to the United States policies but no other region of the world as threatened by such grave problems as that country’s neighbors, that is, the peoples of this continent south of that hegemonic power.
The presence of such a powerful empire --with military bases, nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers; modern warships and sophisticated fighter planes that can carry any type of weapons, deployed in every continent and ocean; with hundreds of thousands of troops and a government that claims absolute impunity for them-- is the most important headache for any government, be it a leftist, rightist or center government, an allied of the United States or not.
The problem for those of us who are its neighbors is not that it is a different country with a different language. There are Americans of every color and background. They are people just like us with all kinds of feelings, in one sense or another. What is dramatic is the system that has been developed there and imposed on everyone else. That system is not new to the use of force and to the domination methods that have prevailed throughout history; what is new is the time we are living. Approaching the issue from a traditional perspective would be a mistake and no one would benefit. Reading and getting acquainted with the ideas of the advocates of the system can be very educational for it helps to become aware of the nature of a system which builds on a continuous appeal to selfishness and to the peoples’ most basic instincts.
Without convictions about the value of conscience and its capacity to prevail over instincts, it would not be possible to even speak of a hope for change in any period of the very short history of man. Neither would it be possible to understand the formidable obstacles lying in the way of the different political leaders of the Latin American or Ibero-American nations in the hemisphere. In any case, the peoples living in this part of the world in the last tens of thousands of years until the famous discovery of the Americas had no traits of the Latin, Iberian or European peoples and their features resembled more those of the Asian peoples where their ancestors had come from. Today, we can find them on the faces of the indigenous people in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile, a country where the Araucanians wrote enduring pages. In certain areas of Canada and Alaska they still preserve their indigenous roots as purely as they can, but in the continental United States a large part of the ancient peoples was exterminated by the white conquerors.
As everybody knows, millions of Africans were uprooted from their land and brought to work as slaves in this hemisphere. In some countries like Haiti and a large part of the Caribbean Islands their descendants make up the majority of the population, and in some other countries they add up to large segments. In the United States, there are tens of millions of people of African descent who, as a rule, are the poorest and most discriminated against.
For centuries that country claimed privileged rights over our continent. At the time of Jose Marti, it tried to impose a single currency based on gold, a metal whose value has been the steadiest through history. In general, international trade was based on gold; but that is not the case today. From the days of Nixon’s administration, world trade developed on the basis of the paper money printed by the United States, the dollar, a currency worth today about 27 times less than in the early ‘70s; one of the many ways to dominate and defraud the rest of the world. At the present moment, however, other currencies are taking the place of the dollar in international trade and in the hard currency reserves.
Then, while the value of the empire’s currency is decreasing, its military forces’ reserves are increasing and the state-of-the-art technology and science monopolized by the superpower are largely directed to weapons development. Presently, it is not only the thousands of nuclear missiles or the modern destructive power of conventional weapons, but the guided planes piloted by robots. This is not just a fantasy. Some of these aircraft are being used in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Recent reports indicate that in a relatively near future, by the year 2020, --long before the Antarctic icecap melts-- the empire plans to have among its 2500 war planes, 1100 fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 fighter-bombers. Just to give an idea of that potential, suffice it to say that the aircraft used at the Soto Cano base in Honduras to train that country’s pilots are F-5, and the ones supplied to the Venezuelan air force --prior to Chavez-- and to Chile and other countries, were small F-16 squadrons.
Even more significant is the empire’s plan for the next 30 years anticipating that every U.S. combat aircraft, from fighter planes to heavy bombers and tanker planes are piloted by robots.
Such a military might is not a necessity of the world; it is a necessity of the economic system that the empire imposes to the world.
Anyone understands that if the robots can replace the combat pilots, they can also replace the workers in many factories. The free-trade agreements that the empire is trying to impose on the countries of this hemisphere mean that these workers will have to compete with the advanced technology and the robots of the Yankee industry.
Robots do not go on strike; they are obedient and disciplined. We have seen on TV machinery that can pick up apples and other fruits. The question could also be asked to the American workers. Where will the jobs be? What is the future that capitalism without borders, in its advanced development stage, assigns to the people?
In light of this and other realities, the leaders of UNASUR, MERCOSUR, the Rio Group and others cannot but analyze the very good question raised by Venezuela: What’s the meaning of the military and naval bases that the United States wants to set up around Venezuela and in the heart of South America? I remember that a few years back, when relations between Colombia and Venezuela, two sister nations bound by geography and history, grew dangerously tense Cuba quietly promoted significant steps leading to peace between them. Cuba will never encourage war between sister nations. Historic experience, the manifest destiny claimed and applied by the United States and the weak accusations against Venezuela about weapon supplies to the FARC, combined with the negotiations aimed at granting to the U.S. Armed Forces seven places in that territory to be used by their air and naval troops, are leaving Venezuela no other choice but to invest in weaponry the resources it could use for the economy, social programs and cooperation with other countries of the region having less resources and development. Venezuela’s military build-up is not aimed against the fraternal people of Colombia but against the empire which already tried to overthrow its Revolution and today intends to set up its sophisticated weapons near the Venezuelan border.
It would be a serious mistake to believe that only Venezuela is being threatened. Actually, every country in the south of the continent is under threat. Not one of them will be able to avoid the issue as some of them have already stated.
The present and future generations will pass judgment on their leaders for the way they conduct themselves at this moment. It is not only the United States, but the United States and the system. What does it offer? What does it want?
It offers the FTAA, that is, the early ruin of our countries: free transit of goods and capital, but not free transit of people. They are now afraid that the opulent consumerist society is inundated by poor Hispanics, indigenous people, black, mulatto or whites who cannot find jobs in their own countries. They return everyone who commits an offense or that they do not need; quite often these people are killed before they enter that country or returned like animals when they are not necessary. Twelve million Latin American or Caribbean immigrants remain in the United States illegally. A new economy has emerged in our countries, especially in the smallest and poorest: that of remittances. In times of crisis, this strikes mostly the immigrants and their families. Parents and children are separated, sometimes forever. If the immigrant is of military age, he is given the chance to enlist for fighting thousands of miles away from home “on behalf of freedom and democracy,” and if they do not get killed, on their return they are given the right to become US citizens. Then, as they are well trained they are offered the possibility of a contract, not as official soldiers but as civilian soldiers for the private companies that provide services to the imperial wars of conquest.
There are other extremely serious dangers. There are always news of immigrants from Mexico and other countries of our region dying as they try to cross the U.S.-Mexican border. The number of victims each year widely exceeds the totality of those who lost their lives in the almost 28 years of existence of the famous Berlin Wall.
But what is most incredible is that there is hardly any news in the world about a war that is taking thousands of lives every year. In 2009, more Mexicans have been killed than the number of American soldiers who died during Bush’s war on Iraq in the course of his administration.
The cause of the war in Mexico is the largest drug market in the world: the United States market. But there is no war going on in the American territory between the U.S. police and the military fighting the drug-traffickers. The war has instead been exported to Mexico and Central America, but especially to the Aztec country which is closer to the United States. Dreadful images of dead bodies are shown on TV while news keep coming in of people murdered in the surgery rooms where their lives were being saved. None of these images originates in the U.S. territory.
Such a wave of violence and bloodshed is expanding through the countries of South America, affecting them to a lesser or greater extent. Where does the money come from if not the endless source of the U.S. market? Likewise, consumption tends to expand to the rest of the countries in the region causing more victims and direct or indirect damages than AIDS, malaria and other illnesses put together.
The imperial plans of domination are preceded by huge sums of money assigned to the task of deceiving and misinforming the public. For this purpose, they have the full complicity of the oligarchy, the bourgeoisie, the rightist intelligentsia and the media.
They are experts in spreading news of the politicians’ mistakes and contradictions.
The fate of mankind must not be left in the hands of robots turned into people or people turned into robots.
In the year 2010, the U.S. government will promote its policy through the State Department and USAID spending 2.2 billion dollars –12 percent more than the Bush administration received in the last year of its second term-- and almost 450 million of them will be used to prove that the tyranny imposed on the world means democracy and respect for human rights.
They constantly appeal to the human beings’ instinct and selfishness; they despise the value of education and conscience. The resistance put up by the Cuban people throughout 50 years is evident. Resistance is the weapon that peoples can never give up. The Puerto Ricans were able to stop the military exercises in Vieques by standing on the site of the firing range.
Bolivar’s homeland is today the country they are most worried about for its historical role in the struggle for the independence of the peoples of the Americas. Cubans working there as healthcare and informatics specialists, educators, physical education and sports professors, agricultural technicians and specialists in other areas should do their best to fulfill their internationalist duty to prove that the peoples can put up a resistance and carry forward the most sacred principles of human society. Otherwise, the empire will destroy civilization and even the human race.

Fidel Castro Ruz
August 5, 2009
11:16 a.m.

Cuba: More than Ever USAID Continues Investing in Subversion

2009-08-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

By: Jean-Guy Allard

There’s an imperial offensive against the progressive Latin America which is growing stronger now towards the countries members of ALBA. In Cuba, not only the annexionist investments of Washington have not diminished, but they have grown and intensified through new technologies and means. Thus is affirmed by the Venezuelan investigator Eva Golinger when analyzing how the current North American administration is still trying to destabilize the Cuban Revolution through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). With such ends, says Golinger, the USAID carries out investments in the destabilization of the Cuban Revolution using two formats, explains the specialist who has been devoted during the last decade to study and expose the North American mechanisms of interference and subversion in Latin America. "Their main financing sources come from the Economic Support Fund, a financial division of the Department of State that finances USAID projects", she asserts. This fund has contributed 65 330 000 dollars to the so-called transition towards democracy in Cuba during the last two years. For year 2010, an extra of 20 million dollars are destined. According to USAID terminology, the money already delivered during years 2008 and 2009, an amount of 10 million dollars were directed to the area of "human rights", seven millions to promote "the political competition" and almost 49 millions for the "civil society."
It’s interesting that USAID also opened an Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI) for Cuba late in 2007, with the objective of carrying out "a work with the youth" and the “independent initiatives of media", points out the investigator. "To this purpose, they have contributed an additional fund of 8 383 000 dollars since 2008. The OTIs are USAID divisions dedicated to respond to political crisis in a quick fashion, in order 'to solve them' in favor of North American interests". The OTI manages liquid funds of dollars "in larger amounts, without undergoing much revision or accounting before the North American congress". One of these OTI offices was established in Venezuela in August 2002 to promote and consolidate the forces opposing the Bolivarian Revolution. Ever since, the OTI has financed and helped to create more than 450 NGO and political groups with funds exceeding the 60 million dollars.
This money is basically used to fuel conflicts and support the White House’s concealed interests.
THE "IRREGULAR WAR"
USAID, the agency that began as the financial arm of the Department of State in year 1962 to take care of "humanitarian" issues, has become during the 21st century one of the main actors of the "counterinsurgency" under Washington’s new doctrine of Irregular Guerra. "Early in 2009 this doctrine was signed by the recently appointed president of the United States, Barack Obama, as part of his new politics of 'smart power', a politics that uses military power together with diplomacy, culture, communication, economic power, and politics." There are two great points of difference the traditional War and the Irregular War: the objective and tactics, asserts the Venezuelan-American lawyer. "The Traditional War pursues as objective the defeat of opponent armed forces, and the main tactics is the use of military power in its most traditional form, the combat and bombing. The Irregular War has as main goal the control over the civil population and the neutralization of the State, and its main tactics is 'counterinsurgency' which is the use of indirect and asymmetric techniques, like subversion, infiltration, psychological operations, cultural penetration, and military deceit". During the 21st century, the USAID has developed divisions within the agency that work together with the Pentagon, like the offices of Conflicts Management, Transition, and Reconstruction, Democracy and Governability, and Initiatives towards a Transition which are reorienting their work towards "counterinsurgency" efforts.
"Hence, the USAID has become the actor and main investor of the destabilization and penetration in the 'civil society' in countries strategically important for North American interests". In the case of Latin America, the figures of USAID financial investment in political groups and in the "promotion of democracy" are overwhelming. THE NED AND ITS CHAIN DE MERCENARY NGO
On the other hand, NED that was founded to do the work carried out by the CIA, but with a more legitimate image, has contributed 1 435 329 dollars to promote the destabilization in Cuba this year.
Thus explains Golinger when enumerating the groups benefited by this North American fund: Afro-Cuban Alliance (ACA), 82 080 dollars; Association Encounter of Cuban Culture, 225 000 dollars; Center for a Free Cuba (Frank Calzon), 54 222 dollars; Center for the International Private Company (CIPE), 157 526 dollars; the Committee for the Free Trade Unionism (CFTU), 150 000 dollars; the Democratic Governing body of Cuba, 275 000 dollars; CubaNet News, 42 000 dollars; Universal Dissident of Puerto Rico, 40 000 dollars; International Group for the Social Corporative Responsibility in Cuba, 236 730 dollars; People in Need (PIN), 129 451 dollars; People in Peril Association (PIPE), 43 320 dollars.
The great majority of these messy collections of organizations, groups, and small groups have been related in the past to CIA activities.
In spite of the promises, change of administration or not, Washington still continues to waste yearly hundred of millions dollars of taxpayer's money in this dirty war against Latin America.
There’s an imperial offensive against Latin America going on which is intensifying in these moments against the countries members of ALBA” said Golinger.
"One of the manifestations of this aggression is the so-called counterinsurgency as tactics to penetrate and infiltrate communities and promote the destabilization", highlights the author of the Chavez Code and The Imperial Spiderweb, the repertoire of intelligence activities of Washington in the continent and the world.
Cubasi Translation Staff

Cuban Children Photo Exhibit in Japan

2009-08-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, Aug 4 (Prensa Latina) A total of 140 Cuban children from different educational centers will exhibit their photos in this capital as part of a project fostered by Japanese photographer Hiraku Nagatake.
The initiative includes the exhibition of instant photos in the Tokyo Gallery Walk and the Konica Minolta Plaza this month.
The children went out to the street and took photos of the environment, in which was their first contact with photography. The images reflect the novel curiosity and talent of the authors.
Wonder Eyes Project is a creative and educational project by Nagatake, who has already started such an experience in Japan, Timor Leste, Uzbekistan, Australia, Brazil, Mozambique, Russia and other countries.

US Official Forced Hemingway to Flee Cuba

2009-08-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

Havana, Aug 3 (Prensa Latina) Writer Ernest Hemingway left Cuba suddenly in July, 1960, forced by the US ambassador, says Cuban expert in the US literature bronze god's work.
There has been much speculation about his death in US territory, and also about the causes that led the famous writer to leave La Vigia farm in this capital, leaving all his belongings there, including some of his unfinished novel manuscripts.
Biographers of the writer hold that such decision was due to his frustration, faced with the Cuban Revolution.
However, expert Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales, director of Ernest Hemingway Museum, asserted that Philip Wilson Bonsal, then US ambassador to Cuba, forced Hemingway to leave the Island, Juventud Rebelde daily said.
The director of the museum, located at La Vigia farm, has based her hypothesis on data found in "Running with the Bulls," a book by Hemingway's last secretary Valerie Dunby-Smith, now Valerie Hemingway.
Hemingway's last secretary, who became his daughter-in-law, because she married his son Gregory after the writer's death, stated it clearly in that text."
She also holds that when the writer arrived in the United States on July 25, 1960, he did not go to his shack in Sun Valley, but stayed in New York and traveled to Spain few days later on August 4.
Besides, he left all his unfinished work here, and a writer does not leave his work behind, even less a writer like Hemingway.
The expert also said the famous US writer had always returning in mind. It was not only about the material things he left.
Hemingway loved La Vigia farm. It was his place for writing and that to which he always returned. It was the place he was proud of.
He said he had 18 different kinds of mango trees there and it was close to Havana and Cojimar, where he used to go sailing on his yacht Pilar.
She also recalled that Hemingway never had problems with the Cuban government, even when he was in the United States, he talked to some of his friends to ask about his possible return and they said he could come back whenever he wanted to.
In one of his books, we found an armband of the 26 de Julio Movement, to which he contribute money.
Hemingway, winner of the 1954 Literature Nobel and the 1953 Pulitzer prizes, shot himself twice in the head on July 2, 1961. Such event is still being the subject of debates nowadays.

Confronting challenges serenely and with more determination than ever

2009-07-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

PRESIDED over by Raúl Castro Ruz, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), the 7th Plenum of the Communist Party of Cuba took place on July 29.The agenda of this important meeting included issues related to the functioning of the Party, defense, and immediate measures needed to confront the impact on our country of the economic crisis which is affecting all of humanity.Invited to the plenary were members of the Councils of State and Ministers, first secretaries of the PCC in the provinces, and cadres of the mass organizations who are not currently members of the Central Committee of the Party.

DEFENSE NOT TO BE NEGLECTED

During the morning and part of the afternoon, participants in the meeting received full information on the extended meeting of the National Defense Council that took place last June 26.As it is known, the principal objective of that meeting was to take stock of actions undertaken from 2003-2008 to increase the country’s defense capacity, in line with agreements adopted by an extraordinary Plenum of the PCC on July 15, 2003, given the threat of aggression looming over the island and scenarios that could occur in the future.The extraordinary Plenum was convened at a moment of euphoria on the part of the U.S. administration over the rapid initial victory in Iraq, summed up in Bush’s "mission accomplished" speech, which he gave on the deck of an aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003, and the proclamation 20 days later of a aggressive and arrogant plan against Cuba, including the appointment of "transition coordinator," as if nothing had changed since 1898, when the victory of the Cuban Mambi forces was stolen and a military governor installed.The results of the Bastión 2004 Strategic Exercise, the 5th Plenum of the Party’s Central Committee on July 1, 2006 and periodic visits to provinces and municipalities to assess progress on assigned tasks, confirmed that national defense achievements had exceeded expectations and moreover facilitated detailed projections of work for the next few years.A well-conceived policy and plans, in conjunction with systematic and cohesive work, were key to attaining the proposed objectives aimed at strengthening the country’s defense, based on the strategic concept of the War of All the People, drawn up by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, and which has steadily demonstrated its validity during the close to 30 years of its existence. It has given appropriate direction to the efforts and dedication of millions of compatriots, from the principal civilian and military cadres to the most modest citizen.Speaking on the subject, the second secretary of the Party affirmed that those positive results are the fruit of good work on the part of everyone and constitute a great experience. He recalled that since the disappearance of the USSR, the country has acquired very few armaments; efforts were directed at upgrading existing ones, thanks to the efforts of scientists, specialists and workers from both the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the economic sector. He noted the importance of continuing to strengthen the nation’s defense, taking into account its real economic possibilities.The Central Committee accordingly agreed to support all the conclusions reached and projects drawn up by the National Defense Council.In continuity with the work undertaken, the Bastión 2009 Strategic Exercise is to take place at the end of this year. The current plan is to carry out this important activity every four years. Thus, while it was initially planned for November 2008, it was decided after the hurricanes to postpone the exercise and concentrate on recovery tasks.

ECONOMY A DETERMINING FACTOR

Marino Murillo Jorge, vice president of the Council of Ministers and minister of economy and planning, informed the plenum of the difficult situation confronting the national economy in the first six months of this year, given the combined impact of the world economic and financial crisis and damages stemming from the hurricanes in late 2008.He noted that this situation required an initial reduction of the annual plan in April, which downsized projected growth of the gross domestic product to 2.5%. He explained the central adjustments to be analyzed on July 30 by the Council of Ministers, which include further downsizing of 2009 economic growth, to 1.7%.He listed the premises to be met by economic activity up until the end of the year and particularly in 2010, which will be equally difficult. These include the decentralization of provisions for the goods and services that contribute the most income to the country, guaranteeing that every productive increase is linked to the reduction of imported goods, and the search for innovative formulas that will release productive potential.In reiterated comments, Raúl stated that we have not as yet managed to extend the solidness of our national defense to the equally important economic front, which is also essential to national security, given that while ideas chart the course, the reality of figures is decisive.He confirmed that the Revolution is determined to confront the serious negative effects of the complex situation of the world economy and those deriving from our own shortcomings.He emphasized the need to strengthen the Party, given its role in that crucial battle, and for controls to ensure that every agreement adopted is fulfilled; if not, they will turn into a dead letter. He noted the importance of every citizen understanding that the measures will be difficult and not at all pleasant, but they simply cannot be put off. "Our people know how to rise in the face of difficulties," he affirmed. When the population has been informed of these realities, they understand them better and take part consciously in solving problems. He gave as an example the situation produced by excess electricity consumption in the first few months of the year, and the rapid and positive reaction to the measures implemented.He warned that nobody, much less a leader, has the right to shut themselves away in the narrow confines of his or her environment; everybody is obliged to think and contribute to the solution of the country’s problems.He pointed out that false unanimity is pernicious and debate and healthy disagreement must be encouraged, because the best solutions generally come out of such discussions. Ideological work must present sound arguments, propitiate an exchange of ideas and eliminate superfluity, bluster and simple repetition of slogans.He spoke of efforts underway to produce food for the people at a time when high prices persist on the international market and in order to be in a position to confront even more complex situations. He reiterated that this is an issue of maximum priority, given its direct impact on national security. "It is necessary to continue simultaneously waging the battle in the political, economic and defense terrains," he stated. He added that everything that has been attained in increasing the country’s defense capacity confirms that when appropriate measures are adopted and their execution is correctly controlled, results are obtained.He noted that the modest advances being obtained in production and services demonstrate the enormous existing reserves in our society that are still waiting to be exploited.He highlighted the importance of order and discipline, institutionalism, clear establishment of the duties and powers of every post and, above all, of convincing people of the need to work in order to satisfy their aspirations.The Plenum approved the report submitted by Marino Murillo, ratified the policy laid down by the Political Bureau and government on the decisive economic front, and reaffirmed the vital need to achieve the active and conscious participation of workers and all the people in their materialization.

CONTINUE WORKING TO PREPARE FOR THE 6TH PARTY CONGRESS

In reference to holding the 6th Party Congress, Raúl argued that this cannot be just another event. He observed that, given the law of life, it will most probably be the last headed by the historical leadership of the Revolution.He added: "The things that we have been discussing are very serious matters. The principal issue is the economy, what we have done and what needs to be improved or even eliminated, because we are confronting the imperative of working out what the country really has at its disposal, how much we really have to live on and develop.""The first thing we have to do is finish preparing the Party, and then discuss everything with the people as a whole, and only then should we convene the Congress, when that whole process has concluded," he stated."If we want to have a real congress, one that is seeking solutions to problems and looking to the future, that’s the way we have to do it. It has to be the people, with their Party in the vanguard, who decide," Raúl affirmed.It was therefore agreed to postpone the 7th Party Congress until this crucial stage of prior preparation has been completed.
Translated by Granma International

Benicio del Toro Received Tomas Gutierrez Allea Award

2009-07-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

Actors Benicio Del Toro, left, James Caan, center, and Robert Duval sit at the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba in Havana

The Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro received in Cuba the International Cinema Award Tomas Gutierrez Allea granted by the Cuban Association of Writers and Artists (UNEAC).
The recognition, consistent in the a piece of painter Agustin Bejarano, was given to him by Miguel Barnet, UNEAC president, during a ceremony held in Martinez Villena room, of that institution.
Del Toro was also accompanied by outstanding North American actors like Robert Duvall, James Caan, and Bill Murria besides the producer Steve Bing.
Benicio declared that this award would be shared with the Cuban artists, because all of them are in the same ship and he feels proud and small when receiving it, since Gutierrez Allea is a personality that influenced him greatly since he watched his film The Death of a Bureaucrat.

The FBI does not know Posada Carriles?

2009-07-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

By M. H. Lagarde

A cable from the AP says that "anti-terrorism officials are alarmed by an outbreak of extremist Americans who travel abroad to receive training and then return to the country, where they often recruit people for their cause.

"According to this source, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are very concerned about the danger posed by Americans who travel abroad in disguise to learn terrorist techniques and then return to the country, where they begin recruit for future attacks.

"The concern of the American security services were unleashed Monday when the FBI arrested Daniel Patrick Boyd, age 39, and accused him of leading a group of people that were planning attacks. "The case highlights our concern about individuals returning to the United States after receiving training and advocacy in combating terrorists abroad ''said Justice Department spokesman Richard Kolko.

"It is a pity that such "concerns" and "alarms"are only generated by terrorists who were trained outside their territory and not those who were trained by previous administrations on their own territory. One of the latter is the case of the notorious terrorist Cuban-born Posada Carriles, who has many years of total freedom in Miami thanks to the accessories subterfuge of American justice.

Or the FBI does not know Posada Carriles and obviously the torture training practices received at the School of Americas or the use of explosives acquired during his service in CIA which does not represent any danger to national security of United States.

Translated by: Walter Lipman

How American Antiwar and Solidarity Movements in 60s Impeded an Effective Invasion of Cuba

2009-07-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

By BILL SIMPICH

July 26, Cuba’s most important holiday, is the commemorative date in 1953 when Castro and his forces unsuccessfully stormed the government stockade at Moncada and ignited the Cuban revolution. On a day like today, it should be noted that Americans made a successful Cuban invasion impossible with a campaign of determined resistance.
Antiwar and solidarity activists came together to protect the Cuban revolution during the era of 1960-1963 - the era of the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, and the JFK assassination - in significant part due to organizations such as the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). Professor (and CISPES activist) Van Gosse has done groundbreaking research to make a good argument that this period really was the birth of the New Left.
The release in the last few years of thousands of CIA and FBI files reveals that this resistance was central in preventing a successful invasion of Cuba. Like most activist organizations, the FPCC had approximately a three-year life cycle - after that period, many of the core activists had returned to Cuba or have moved on to other pressing causes. In the period from 1960-1963, recently released documents show the powerful conflict between the forces of agitation (the FPCC and its allies) and the forces of provocation (the CIA, FBI and military). This conflict ended with a political landscape that made any future US invasion of Cuba impossible. This story is not founded on a theory about who killed JFK, but rather examines an overlooked conflict.
The story below is largely set in New York City, the headquarters of the FPCC, and the revelation here of a key informant’s identity explains how different threads of this drama weave together. As the Church Committee said in the seventies, informants are used to “raise controversial issues” and “to take advantage of ideological splits in an organization.” Many of the documents are hidden to protect the identity of the informants, while the world is deprived of the history of how these informants were used to protect the US national security state.

An April 1960 New York Times advertisement paid for by the Cuban government led to the formation of the FPCC
The founder and first leader of the FPCC was Robert Taber, a CBS newsman who was befriended by the Santos Buch family when they learned that Taber was interested in telling the rebels' side of the story about Castro and his followers. With the help of the Santos Buch family, Taber obtained a rare exclusive interview with Fidel Castro while he was up in the mountains fighting in 1957. This interview became the basis of the CBS Special Report “Rebels of the Sierra Maestra: The Story of Cuba’s Jungle Fighters and his renowned book on the rebels: “M-26: Biography of a Revolution”. “M-26" refers to the aforementioned storming of Moncada on July 26, 1953.
Working with CBS newsman Richard Gibson, they decided to run a full page ad in the New York times in order to make a statement on the importance of the Cuban revolution. Taber and Santos-Busch went so far as to raise the money for the ad by obtaining a big donation from the Cuban government with the assistance of Raulito Roa, the son of Cuban UN foreign minister Raul Roa.
The advertisement caused a minor sensation in a number of different circles. The authors were flooded with more than a thousand letters of people ready to take action. Besides the timeliness of the appeal, it was signed by other leading lights in the literary community: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Norman Mailer, Dan Wakefield, even Truman Capote. African Americans were prominent in the call - besides newsman Richard Gibson of CBS, it was also signed by the historian John Henrik Clarke, novelists James Baldwin, Julian Mayfield and John O. Killens, and the soon-to-be-famous Southern activist Robert F. Williams. Other supporters in this period included Linus Pauling and Allen Ginsberg.
The ad also caught the attention of the CIA's Cuban affairs head William Harvey, whose love of alcohol and firearms caused many to ask if he was the role model for Ian Fleming's James Bond. Two days after the ad ran, William Harvey bragged to FBI counterintelligence chief Sam Papich. “For your information, this Agency has derogatory information on all individuals listed in the attached advertisement.”
Harvey was the head of Task Force W, a brigade of 2000 Cubans, a navy of speedboats, and 400 Americans based at CIA headquarters and the JM/WAVE station in Miami. JM/WAVE may have been the largest CIA base in history. Huge quantities of arms and munitions passed through its gates. The JM/WAVE station directed a wide range of operations against Cuban shipping, aircraft and industrial sites.
The Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party were able to work together within the FPCC, marking a break from a bad history going back to the Depression era when 20,000 Communist supporters marched through the streets to denounce their Trotskyist competitors. Berta Green of the SWP was able to provide deep experience from her organizing efforts in Detroit and more recently in New York City. Richard Gibson was a bridge to people like Robert Williams, Leroi Jones, journalist William Worthy and other black activists in making the equation between African American militance and solidarity with Castro and Cuba's largely black population. Within six months, the FPCC had 7000 members in 27 "adult chapters" and 40 student councils on various college campuses with emerging student leaders such as Saul Landau and Robert Scheer. When Fidel met Malcolm X and other community leaders at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem during the late summer of 1960, it was the social event of the year in New York for African Americans and radicals alike.
In December, 1960, William Worthy released the documentary “Yanqui, No!”, with a camera crew that included the legendary D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles. After doing a national tour for Fair Play, his work led to an indictment for traveling to Cuba - imposed on no other journalist. “The Ballad of William Worthy” earned a spot in the Phil Ochs canon:
William Worthy isn’t worthy to enter our doorHe just came back from Cuba, he’s not American anymoreBut it seems awfully funny to hear the State Department sayYou’re living in the Free WorldIn the Free World you must stay.
Sensing a deepening problem, the anti-Castro forces countered by investigating the funding of the initial ad, calling the FPCC leaders before a Congressional committee, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee with the appropriate-sounding name of "SISS". It was also known as the Eastland Committee; at the time, James Eastland was probably the most racist senator in the United States. The SISS was so powerful that its chief prosecutor Julian Sourwine had been known in the 48-state era as the "97th Senator".
On January 6, 1961 Santos-Buch told Sourwine in executive session that he and Taber had received the needed money from "eight different people". The documents reveal that Santos Buch changed his story on January 9 at a subsequent executive session, and that he was also given a promise that the CIA would help get a number of family members out of Cuba. On January 9, Santos Buch changed his story, at least in part because of his desire to extricate his family from Cuba. On January 10, Santos Buch publicly admitted that the Cubans provided the crucial $3500 needed to place the NYT ad. A week later, Jane Roman from James Angleton's counterintelligence office in the CIA reported that security concerns made it too dangerous for the CIA to keep its promise to Santos Buch. Taber had gone to Cuba the previous month, in December 1960. For obvious reasons, he now felt it was a good idea to stay. He passed on his executive secretary duties to Richard Gibson, covered the ensuing Bay of Pigs invasion, and was wounded by mortar shells in the effort. Meanwhile, CIA operatives David Phillips and James McCord (of Watergate fame) ran an illegal domestic surveillance on the FPCC throughout the year of 1961 until the FBI apparently got wind of it while they began their own operation. The CIA then backed away from the FBI’s turf for a period of time. During this same period, Phillips was running an anti-Castro media campaign in New Orleans. Phillips was the recent recipient of the CIA’s Intelligence Medal of Merit for the disinformation campaign he ran in Guatemala that paved the way for the successful 1954 coup - it was stated that “this achievement has no parallel in the history of psychological warfare”.

The upsurge of protest against the Bay of Pigs invasion in the United States
Some people could sense the Bay of Pigs coming, but the FPCC sounded the alarm. After the Nation magazine warned about it in explicit terms during November of 1960, the LA chapter held a press conference to get the word out. They “called upon Congress to investigate immediately the widespread reports indicating that the Central Intelligence Agency is implicated in the training of armed forces for an invasion of Cuba. Persistent reports from Guatemala, Nicaragua and Florida of invasion forces in these areas being tied to the CIA raise into question U.S. observance of the principle of nonintervention into the domestic affairs of other countries.”
At what is described by Van Gosse as a "massive inaugural rally of San Francisco Fair Play" in January 1961, the anarchist Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote an homage to Castro and Walt Whitman that sums up the passions of many people during this era.
One Thousand Fearful Words for Fidel Castro
I am sitting in Mike’s Place trying to figure out What’s going to happenwithout Fidel Castro Among the salami sandwiches and spittoonsI see no solutionIt’s going to be a tragedyI see no way outamong the admen and slumming modelsand the brilliant snooping columnistswho are qualified to call Castro psychoticbecause they no doubt are doctorsand have examined him personallyand know a paranoid hysterical tyrant when they see onebecause they have it on first handfrom personal observation by the CIAand the great disinterested news services…I see no answerI see no way outamong the paisanos playing poolit looks like Curtains for FidelThey’re going to fix his wagonin the course of human events...
The radio squawkssome kind of memorial program:“When in the course of human eventsit becomes necessary for one peopleto dissolve the political bondswhich have connected them with another—“I see no way outno escapeHe’s tuned in on your frequency, Fidel…
History may absolve you, Fidelbut we’ll dissolve you first, FidelYou’ll be dissolved in historyWe’ve got the solventWe’ve got the chaserand we’ll have a little partysomewhere down your way, Fidel It’s going to be a GasAs they say in Guatemala…
Here’s your little tragedy, FidelThey’re coming to pick you upand stretch you on their StretcherThat’s what happens, Fidelwhen in the course of human eventsit becomes necessary for one people to dissolvethe bonds of International Tel & Teland United FruitFidelHow come you don’t answer anymoreFidelDid they cut you off our frequencyWe’ve closed down our station anywayWe’ve turned you off, Fidel
I was sitting in Mike’s Place, Fidelwaiting for someone else to actlike a good LiberalI hadn’t quite finished Camus´ Rebelso I couldn’t quite recognize you, Fidelwalking up and down your islandwhen they came for you, Fidel“My Country or Death” you told themWell you’ve got your little death, Fidellike old Honest Abeone of your boyhood heroeswho also had his little Civil Warand was a different kind of Liberator(since no one was shot in his war)and also was murderedin the course of human eventsFidel...Fidel...your coffin passes bythru lanes and streets you never knewthru day and night, FidelWhile lilacs last in the dooryard bloom, Fidelyour futile trip is doneyet is not doneand is not futileI give you my sprig of laurel."
In the immediate aftermath of the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, the FPCC’s national influence was at its highest point.
"Actions with up to 2,000 outside the United Nations began the same day as the invasion and lasted throughout the entire week of the crisis, culminating in a rally of perhaps 5,000 in Union Square on 21 April - the largest left wing demonstration there or anywhere else in the US since the execution of the Rosenbergs, and one also unprecedented in that a young Communist and a young Trotskyist shared the same public podium, brought together by the 26th of July."...Meanwhile, San Francisco saw demonstrations in which students played a leading role. Coordinated actions on various Bay Area campuses on 19 April were followed by a student-only rally of 2,000 in Union Square on 20 April, and an equally large all-ages Fair Play demonstration...(where protesters) spontaneously took to the streets of the downtown area to march to the offices of Hearst's virulently anti-Castro San Francisco Examiner, an unheard thing to do in those days."
Elsewhere, there was violence inflicted on numbers of Fair Play protesters. Meeting halls were shuttered in Los Angeles, Detroit, Newark and Tampa. Campuses came alive with lively actions at Cornell, Swarthmore, Madison, Berkeley, City College, Yale, the University of Michigan and Oberlin.
On April 27, Hoover himself ordered his agents to focus on pro-Castro activists, stating that the FPCC illustrated "the capacity of a nationality group organization to mobilize its efforts in such a situation so as to arrange demonstrations and influence public opinion.”

Right after the Bay of Pigs, the FBI organizes a campaign of disruption against the FPCC
In response, FBI man number three Cartha “Deke” DeLoach began a well-documented red-baiting campaign against the FPCC during May 1961. "As part of his counterintelligence responsibilities, DeLoach developed a "Mass Media Program" that included over 300 newspaper reporters, columnists, radio commentators, and television news investigators."
Meanwhile, during that same month, something very odd was going on in Havana. Dr. Enrique Lorenzo Luaces told Army Intelligence that Taber introduced him to “Lt. Harvey Oswald, an arms expert” while having drinks at Sloppy Joe's, better known as the "Sardi's for spies". When the FBI interviewed Taber, he denied knowing Oswald. A popular position to take, especially since the common wisdom is that Oswald was continuously in the USSR between 1959 and 1962.
During June, 1960, a few months after Oswald's defection to the USSR in late 1959, J. Edgar Hoover himself sent a memo to the State Department alerting it to the possibility that an imposter was using Oswald's identity. Hoover was tipped to the problem by a telegram from Harold F. Good at the New York field office. Former Cuban Prime Minister Tony Varona testified to a House committee that he believed Oswald was in Cuba during 1961. There is a long and well-documented history of reports involving individuals impersonating Oswald, no matter where one stands on the JFK assassination.

The FBI uses Victor Vicente, the head of the FPCC’s Social Committee and informant T-3245-S*, to build a criminal case against Gibson
Back in Washington DC, SISS was now focusing its attention on Richard Gibson, issuing a subpoena for him to come to Washington and testify. They wrote a letter to INS, asking them to take action to stop Gibson from leaving the country before his testimony. INS explained that American citizens were virtually never given such a “stop” order without a directive from the Secretary of State. Within a matter of hours, such a directive was issued against Gibson. Gibson spent years abroad in the 1950s in expatriate circles, and this directive was a serious blow to his freedom.
In Gibson’s first appearance in April, 1961, he told SISS that "on behalf of myself and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and speaking personally for myself and many other American Negroes, I can only express delight at the utter and dismal defeat of this act of international banditry." The SISS, licking its wounds, ordered him to come back with the FPCC membership list. When he came back on May 16, he provided the mailing list, and claimed that there was no way to separate the FPCC members from those who were on the mailing list. This infuriated the committee. The FBI was asked to take action to obtain whatever membership list could be found, as well as anything else that would expose Gibson to perjury charges. They immediately ordered a mail cover on Gibson's home at 788 Columbus Circle. On May 21 and 22, Special Agents Patrick Lundquist and Harold Hoeg went inside the FPCC offices and photographed the list provided to them by informant T-3245-S*. The identity of T-3245-S* has been the subject of serious speculation over the years, especially because the “S” is a symbol for a political informant.
With the flood of new documents released by the government in the wake of the JFK Act, I can confirm with confidence after long and careful study that the identity of this informant is Victor Thomas Vicente, who was the head of the Social Committee for the FPCC. As the one willing to do the difficult work of fundraising, he was given special trust. Vicente’s work proved invaluable.
The dean of the study of FBI “black bag jobs”, also known as “break-ins” or “surreptitious entries” for many years has been Athan G. Theoharis, professor of history at Marquette History. In a black bag job, the documents are photographed rather than stolen, so that the target does not know that its privacy has been compromised. William Sullivan justified them in a letter to the Director’s office in 1966: “Such a technique involves trespass and is clearly illegal; therefore, it would be impossible to obtain any legal sanction for it. Despite this, “black bag” jobs have been used because they represent an invaluable technique in combatting subversive activities...aimed directly at undermining and destroying our nation.”
Theoharis credits the FBI for eight black bag jobs to the FPCC, far more than suffered by any other group in his study. He discovered an initial black bag job at the FPCC NY headquarters during January, 1961, which I have not yet located in the FBI records on-line. The second one is clearly during the weekend of May 22-23, 1961.
The purpose for the entry was to obtain evidence to contradict Gibson’s testimony to SISS about the FPCC membership list and to the Fair Play publication. In the material provided by Vicente in May, 1961, a voluminous mailing list was included in this material, but the agents reported that there was no way to determine whether a code system was being used on this list in order to designate members or subscribers – names of members of student groups were also provided, but no membership list and no list of subscribers to “fair play” was included in this material. Thus, this material could not be used to support a perjury charge against Gibson.
However, the data was used to focus on FPCC operatives in Dallas, Tampa and Miami (major cities in the southern United States). What is fascinating is that the NY office mailed the relevant portions of these mailing lists to Miami got the mailing lists on 6/16/61, Dallas got the lists on 6/19/61 in a letter from “FED” in the New York office to Dir. FBI urging an investigation of the principal FPCC leaders in the area. Shortly after, Miami was asked to bring the Tampa office into the hunt. The Tampa FPCC had hundreds of members during this period, due to the pro-Castro workers in the nearby cigar factories. The president of the chapter during this time, VT Lee, later became Gibson's successor as the last national FPCC head. It seems like the FBI wanted the focus to be on FPCC members in the vicinity of Cuba. Within days, the FPCC mailing list were circulating in right-wing circles such as the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee.

Taber returns to the USA, leaves the FPCC, is hounded by the red-hunters, but curiously not charged with perjury - while Gibson seeks recruitment by the CIA in exchange for money
Taber returned to the US during the end of 1961. The stories were various: One was that he was "homesick"; another was that Cuban currency was not convertible into American dollars. In any case, Taber claimed that he could return "quietly". He was subpoenaed in short order. He resigned from the FPCC in February, and spoke with the CIA and FBI on 3/19/62. On 4/10/62, he had to testify again before SISS, this time in executive session, where he was confronted with his testimony that clashed with Santos-Buch about the source of the money for the ad. Despite the committee's fury at Taber, he was never charged with perjury. Instead, his testimony was publicly released in June 1963. Many people claim that Taber had gone over to the CIA at this point. The real question is more subtle - it isn't whether he asked to be an informant, but whether his offer was ever accepted.
In a dramatic incident during the summer, Gibson's problems with money finally got the best of him. On July 16, 1962, Richard Gibson wrote a letter to Thornton Hagert of Falls Church, VA, the stepbrother of Philip Reiss of the Dept. Of Agriculture. Gibson writes in the letter that Reiss told him in the past that he is a former CIA employee. Gibson wants to make contact with the CIA, and suggests either the 799 Broadway office or his home. (201-306052) (also see redacted version at 105-93072-80)
On July 24, 1962, the Nationalities Intelligence Section get the OK to interview Gibson. On August 16, 1962, Gibson is interviewed by NY agents Hoeg and Day. James Day writes the report in October, after Gibson skipped the country heading for Algeria in 9/12/62 - some say "just ahead of an indictment" but I'm not convinced any indictment was in the works based on these records. Gibson initially went to Canada, and there is no sign of pursuit or even concern by his departure by the intelligence agencies.
Although I don't see anything in the file indicating a push for indictment of Gibson, Gibson's story to Lee was that the Cuban Mission told him that indictment was imminent. From reviewing the documents, it seems like this was Gibson's cover story.
"On September 15, 1962, NY T-1 advised that on the evening of September 14 Ted Lee (also known as VT Lee) advised that Gibson's departure from the United States was unexpected. Lee told the source that someone from the CMUN (the Cuban Mission to the UN) had contacted Gibson and had told Gibson that things were getting hot for Gibson in the United States and that it would be necessary for Gibson to go to Canada for a short time. According to what Lee told NY T-1, the employee of the CMUN gave Gibson an envelope and instructions. Lee further stated that when Gibson got to the Cuban embassy in Ottawa, Canada, Gibson was told that he should go to Algeria with the result that Gibson left Ottawa, Canada by plane on September 13, 1962 headed for Algeria. Lee stated that Gibson told him of this when Gibson called Lee from Ottawa, Canada on the evening of September 12, 1962. Lee further advised T-1 that very few people know of the involvement of the CMUN in this matter and that NY T-1 should keep it secret."
Gibson says he will assist the FBI for money, as he finds the FPCC no more than a translation service and the whole leftist movement "ineffective and inconsequential". He adds that the Cubans are stupid and he hates stupidity, and that the Communists have failed to help the Negro race.
Hoeg discusses in his report that he will submit the New York office’s “recommendation for both a tactical and strategic plan to be implemented to disrupt, dissolve, or at least neutralize the FPCC as a subversive organization”.
Another report on this interview says: “We advised Attorney General (Robert F. Kennedy) re (Gibson’s) interview with New York office on 8/16/62 (redacted) wherein he wanted money to denounce FPCC and wanted US to grant fugitive Robert Williams immunity from prosecution if he returned from Cuba. We told AG Gibson was untrustworthy and we were not initiating any more communication with him. Data herein will be given AG, as well as CIA and State Department, which agencies are aware of the previous interview.”
FBI reports Gibson is in Algeria, speculates that Gibson may have been picked up by the CIA as an informant, but a handwritten note by Austin Horne of the CIA says no. Chief of the Nationalities Intelligence Section Raymond Wannall told his boss domestic intelligence chief William Sullivan that Gibson is very untrustworthy and the approach has to be to accept any info he provides but not to run Gibson as an informant.
A later document confirms that neither the FBI or the CIA would accept Richard Gibson’s help at that time: "Gibson indicated that he was willing to publicly denounce the FPCC, say he was duped, that the FPCC is a tool of the Cuban government, that it is ineffective, and anyone still remaining loyal (to the FPCC) was just wasting his time, or any other tactic subsequently determined to be the most effective course of conduct. However, there was an undertone that he expected to be paid for any efforts in this regard. He stated that it was his personal opinion that it would be much more effective to use the FPCC as a cover for intelligence and counter-intelligence purposes, but when questioned for his specific thinking in this regard, he commented only that this could possibly be worked out later." Gibson clearly had some weak moments.

The Cuban missile crisis - protesting against the end of the world
At this point, during October, 1962, the world was in the full grip of the Cuban missile crisis. Even when protesting against the end of the world, FPCC activists did not get a lot of support, but the show of resistence made the powers that be even more irrational.
From Ron Ridenour's on-line book, Our America:
I later learned that everyone in the United States was scared to death, even my friends. There were daily air raid drills—practice drills for children and workers in air raid shelters, stacked with food and water supplies. Hoarding became a national characteristic with rushes on supermarkets. The American people were preparing for a world war; they were not acting to prevent one. A few thousand rare souls braved the government-mass media-panic-created atmosphere to take up picket signs. There were a few demonstrations. The largest mustered about 10,000 people. They marched before the United Nations plaza with slogans: “US-USSR, No War Over Cuba”, and “Hands Off Cuba.” The latter, more “radical” demand was opposed by the social democratic part of the tiny minority who protested US bellicosity. The American working class—the population as a whole—shunned the left-wing like pariahs. As Simone de Beauvoir wrote in Force of Circumstance, “To be genuinely left-wing in the United States takes a great deal of character and independence as well as openness of mind...(they are) lonely and courageous men and women.”
Van Gosse mentions that the FPCC-led demo in New York on October 27 drew about 2500, and the SANE-led one the next day had about 8000 participants. San Francisco FPCC led the biggest one on the West Coast, with about 3500. These were among the few actions led by FPCC that month - the organization was already much smaller and weaker than during the Bay of Pigs eighteen months earlier. On October 8, the FPCC did put together a picket line at the UN with 200 participants, where they were attacked with bottles of red paint, rotten eggs and other objects.
The FBI "expanded its Security Index, establishing a special "Cuban Section" that included not only names of suspected Cuban agents operating in the United States, but also of people who had participated in organizations or picket lines that supported Castro. Nearly twelve thousand persons were included on the main index and another twenty thousand in two reserve indexes - all of whom were targeted for arrest as "potentially dangerous" in the event of an "internal security emergency".
Oh, yes, the Security Index is still around, under another name. After 1971, the Security Index became ADEX during the 70s. From the 80s on, it's been known as "Main Core". There's been progress, of a sort - now, 8 million Americans are apparently on the round-up list.
So members of the FPCC were on the Security Index, but not Oswald. He was placed on the FBI’s watchlist (a level of slightly lesser severity, denoted by a “Wanted Notice Card”) shortly after he relinquished his passport at the US embassy in Moscow. This would be lifted a month before the assassination, as shown below.
At the same time, Oswald became a subject of the CIA’s mail-reading project “HT LINGUAL”. Thus, even though no CIA file was opened on Oswald for more than a year, Angleton’s CI-SIG unit was reading his mail, ostensibly because he was a defector that might be contacted by the Soviets.
Right at the time of the final Bay of Pigs prisoner exchange, the FBI and Vicente conduct a key black-bag job at the FPCC office.
During April, 1963, Vicente reports the contents of the FPCC bank statements from Chase for the months of January through April 1963. Lee is the person who can authorize withdrawal from the bank account. The FBI agents are still trying to develop volunteer Ed Linton as a source. During this month, Victor Vicente stated that Vincent Lee had telephonically contacted him and asked that the NYC FPCC take care of the month's rent of the FPCC office.
Lee was on a speaking tour for the month of April, and assured his colleagues that Ed Linton would handle the office Monday-Wednesday, Lee’s wife Marjorie Speece would handle the office Thursday, and that the office would be closed on Friday. The FBI agents entered on April 21, 1963 - a Sunday. Lee's final words on the subject were that "Victor Vicente will handle anything of importance that happens during his absence."
4/18/63 is the postmark date of the letter sent from Dallas by Oswald to the national FPCC office in New York, according to a It refers to “photographs of the below listed material made available by NY 3245-S* on 4/21/63...in the event any of this material is disseminated outside the bureau, caution should be exercised to protect the source, NY 3245-S*, and the communication should be classified “Confidential”.
The FPCC notes stating that 50 pieces of literature were forwarded to LHO on 4/19/63. Lee informed the FBI that the notation was written by him - but all the evidence is that he was out of town at the time. It was a meaningless and stupid falsehood, and he was probably covering for his ally Vicente in an absent-minded fashion.
On 4/21/63, Vicente “made available records and correspondence currently maintained at FPCC Headquarters…Approximately 100 photographs were taken of this material…NYO will make appropriate dissemination when the film is developed.”
Hoover biographers Dr. Anthan G. Theoharis and John Stuart Cox have a copy of the FBI NY office’s “Surreptitious Entries” file, maintained “informally” in the SAC’s personal folder, which says that “the FBI did break into the FPCC offices during April, 1963".
On April 21, 1963, Vicente - advised that Lee H. Oswald of Dallas, Texas, was in contact with FPCC of New York City at which time he advised that he passed out pamphlets for the FPCC.”

Under the wing of the CIA, informant Victor Vicente goes to Mexico City and meets Castro and Che
The document that tells us what was Vicente's award for all of his hard work is a 7/10/63 memo by CIA’s Louis de Santi of the counterintelligence division of the Special Affairs Staff (SAS) which states: “(T)he FBI informant (blank) is an American-born (blank) born in NYC (blank). He has been under FBI control for nearly three years penetrating the three pro-Castro organizations in NYC: the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC); the Casa Cuba, and the Jose Marti Club. Through the first two years Subject was only a marginal asset, in the last six months he has become a valuable penetration for the FBI into the above 3 organizations as well as the (blank) having apparently won the complete confidence of the pro-Castro leaders and Cuban officials. (blank) Recently he was asked to join the CPUSA…subject has been instructed by his Cuban superiors to take a camera with him to take pictures of Cuba for organizational meetings in NYC.”
The LAD/JFK Task Force wrote an analysis in the 70s that DeSanti debriefed the informant upon his return to the US, and there is a reference that there were interviews with Castro and Che Guevara.
In The Road to Dallas, author Robert Kaiser names the document quoted above that identifies Vicente: “In July 1963, the agency infiltrated an informer from the New York chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a Puerto Rican named Victor Thomas Vicente, into Cuba, probably through Mexico City. Vicente declined to settle there, as the CIA hoped he might, but he met both Castro and Che Guevara and was debriefed after he returned.”
Upon his return to New York, Victor Vicente showed a slide show of his recent trip to Cuba on September 23 with about 100 persons in attendance. The FPCC was still soldiering on with hundreds of people attending the various New York forums, but it appeared to be reaching the end of the three year life cycle that is the natural fate of most activist-oriented organizations. Cuba was no longer in the news on a regular basis. Getting the travel ban reversed seemed hopeless in the political climate of the era. The FPCC was undergoing more and more infiltration - some of the FBI reports refer to as many as forty informants. But the intelligence agencies’ plans to make the FPCC look bad were to blow up in their face.
Throughout this period, CIA and Mafia forces were trying to assassinate Castro
Trafficante (Tampa), Marcello (Dallas) and Johnny Roselli (Chicago) had the motive to assassinate Castro, and they worked with CIA operatives like William Harvey to get it done. In the wake of the missile crisis, such an operation had to be done in secret. Officials like William Harvey of Task Force W, Deputy Director of Plans Richard Helms, and Desmond Fitzgerald of the Special Affairs Staff had not informed the CIA Director about some of their plots, which forced them to cover up after the JFK assassination. Harvey testified to the HSCA that he and Helms concealed the Castro assassination plots from the CIA director.
David Morales, the Chief of Operations at JM/WAVE, was involved in all of the numerous CIA actions against Castro in 1963. CIA documents show that Morales was at an early AMTRUNK meeting at a “safe house in Washington, D.C.”, along with “Tad Szulc, New York Times reporter”, someone from the State Department, and two other CIA agents, before the CIA and AMTRUNK apparently went their separate ways in April. One of the more spectacular efforts happened on March 13, 1963, when Morales and “Colonel” Rosselli’s team tried to assassinate Castro from a house near the University of Havana by firing a mortar...bazookas, mortars and machine guns were taken. Demond Fitzgerald handed poison to another operative to kill Castro on the very day that JFK was shot.
The Kennedys had their own projects for a coup or to push the Soviets from Cuba
Kennedy also met with CIA officials in May 1962 and told them not to join forces with the Mafia without personally contacting him.
As quietly as possible during 1963, the Kennedy brothers were brewing their own Cuban disruption campaign. They had a two-track strategy: A coup launched from foreign shores if necessary, or an agreement with Castro to rid the island of Soviet influence. Working with a separate wing of the CIA than those supporting the Cuban exiles, this project was known as AM/WORLD.
The leaders of this effort were Manuel Artime and Harry Ruiz-Williams, with the CIA’s Harry Hecksher as the main case officer. The plan to create this junta in exile was picked up by the Associated Press as early as May 1963. By October, JFK had approved thirteen new sabotage missions as well a project called AMTRUNK proposed by New York Times correspondent Tad Szulc to enlist Cuban military officers into the coup effort. Although many referred to Artime as the Kennedys’ “Golden Boy”, it is revealing that the CIA referred to him as AM/BIDDY-1.
Oswald joins the FPCC and meets the CIA’s David Phillips of the anti-Castro forces, who is involved in a deceptive operation designed to counter the FPCC in foreign countries
During this same period Oswald used the opportunity to build up his resume as the head of his one-man FPCC chapter in New Orleans, culminating in an arrest and widespread TV coverage in August as he picketed on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and outraged his Southern neighbors. The arrest for breach of the peace grew out of a contrived fight between Oswald and the anti-Castro DRE, after what looked like a deliberately clumsy effort by Oswald to pose as an ant-Castro activist to infiltrate the DRE. Oswald even wrote VT Lee and described the fight several days before it actually happened. The head of the DRE was David Phillips.
At the beginning of 1963, the Cuban disruption program Operation Mongoose is abolished with Harvey’s departure. Harvey’s Task Force W now becomes the Special Affairs Staff (SAS).
Throughout 1963, David Morales of the CIA’s Special Affairs Staff (SAS) was one of the coordinators of operations against Castro (including new assassination projects), and to maintain contact with Cubans and other enemies of the Kennedys.
That autumn, when CIA agent David Phillips became Chief of Cuban Operations in Mexico City, he became one of these SAS coordinators. Phillips was in effect rejoining the officers he had worked with on the Bay of Pigs in 1961, at which time he had been responsible for propaganda operations against the newly-created Fair Play for Cuba Committee. The SAS was packed with people who wanted to invade Cuba and saw JFK as an impediment.
During September, Alpha-66 Cuban exile leader Antonio Veciana met with David Phillips and Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas at the lobby of the Southland Building for fifteen minutes. Oswald was talking about “something that we can do to kill Castro.”
On 9/16/63, John Tilton of the CIA asked the FBI to help obtain FPCC stationery and any existing foreign mailing list in order to have a sample “to produce large quantities of propaganda in the name of the (FPCC)” in order to “counter” their activities in foreign countries.
Tilton also said that the CIA was considering planting “deceptive information” which might “embarrass” the FPCC in areas where it has some support. Tilton assured the FBI that no "fabrication" would take place without advance notice and agreement.
The CIA request was directed to the “Nationalities Intelligence Section” -to chief Raymond Wannall. Its analogue in New York was Harold Hoeg's Squad 312. “The reply to CIA should be delivered via Liaison.”
On 9/26/63, a memo then went out to SAC NY from LL Anderson on behalf of Director Hoover. “New York should promptly advise whether the material requested by CIA is available or obtainable. If available, it should be furnished by cover letter with enclosures suitable for dissemination to CIA by liaison.”
This is right when Lee Harvey Oswald left for Mexico City for a week, and repeatedly visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies in an unsuccessful quest for a visa to get to Cuba. Wasn’t this the foreign FPCC activity the CIA was gearing up to counter? Transcripts of calls that were supposedly made by Oswald to the Cuban embassy reveal conversations so contrived that it is obvious that an imposter was making these calls. Photographs and a tape recording made available to members of the Warren Commission showed that someone impersonated Oswald in Mexico City. Even Hoover said it to LBJ the morning after the assassination.
The 10/4/63 response from SAC NY James Kennedy reiterated his understanding that "CIA desires information regarding the availability of samples of FPCC stationery and FPCC mailing lists in connection with their consideration of plans to counter the activities of FPCC in foreign countries. The NYO plans to contact 3245-S* (Vicente) on 10/27/63."
The attached blind memo is a COINTELPRO letter suggesting that VT Lee should be asked “how many dupes are still contributing to Castro’s propaganda arm here in the US…his fervor for Castro’s cause is directly related to the amount of funds being received.”
Angelton’s aide Jane Roman stated that the man who “takes over Cuban operations in WH/3/Mexico on the 8th of October 1963 is named David Phillips.” The PR man who was key in bringing down the Guatemalan government now has a second chance at getting Cuba right.
The next day after Phillips takes over Cuban operations in Mexico, October 9, FBI supervisor Marvin Gheesling canceled a FLASH notice on Oswald that had kept him on the aforementioned Watchlist among all FBI offices. As mentioned earlier, Oswald was placed on this Watchlist due to his defection to the USSR in 1959 and his statements to the US embassy that he was going to provide military secrets to the Soviet Union.
When Gheesling canceled the FLASH just hours before the twin October 10 cables were sent by the CIA containing critical information about Oswald, he “turned off the alarm switch on Oswald literally an instant before it would have gone off”. Gheesling's explanation for why he released the “stop” on 10/9/63 is contained in a memo to FBI #2 man Clyde Tolson from Inspector Gale: The “stop was placed in event subject returned from Russia under an assumed name and was inadvertently not removed by him on 9/7/62 when case closed.”
James W. Douglass, a Catholic theologian who has pondered this question, suggests that Gheesling may have been misled by Tilton's memo "into thinking Oswald was only working under cover in Mexico to counter the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. As a CIA operative, Oswald did not belong on the Security Index. Thus, his security watch was lifted. His staged Soviet connection could then be documented for scapegoating purposes after Dallas, but without sounding a national security alarm that would have put a spotlight on Oswald and prevented Dallas from happening."
The next day, the CIA sent two totally conflicting documents. One was a teletype to the FBI, State Department and the Navy about Oswald contacting the Soviet embassy in Mexico City, inaccurately describing him as “approximately 35 years old, with an athletic build, about six feet tall, with receding hairline...believed that Oswald was identical to Lee Henry Oswald", a seeming error made by the CIA in their initial filing of 1960 when the CIA finally (and mysteriously) opened a file on Oswald a year after his defection and his threat to reveal military secrets to the Soviets.
The other document was a cable sent two hours later to the station in Mexico: "Oswald is five feet ten inches, one hundred sixty five pounds, light brown wavy hair, (and) blue eyes." This description came from his mother to the FBI’s John Fain years earlier, which then ricocheted back and forth between INS, the FBI and CIA for years after that, although Oswald’s weight only varied between 130-150 and was 150 at the time of his death. The description sent to the FBI, the State Department, and the Navy is a deliberate lie.
The wording of this cable was repeated to the Dallas police officers almost verbatim in a mysterious call-in to the dispatcher fifteen minutes after Kennedy was shot: “white, slender, weighing about one hundred sixty five pounds, about five feet ten inches tall, and in his early thirties.” Despite repeated attempts to find out the source, even J. Edgar Hoover had to admit that the information came from “an unidentified citizen”.
Both of these messages were drafted by Mexico City desk officer Charlotte Bustos, while a key role in checking for accuracy was played by Ann Egerter of Angleton’s CI/SIG mole-hunting unit (the woman who opened the 201 file on "Lee Henry Oswald") This may have been as part of a larger strategy to confuse the FBI, with the goal to withhold information about its anti-Cuban operations in Mexico City. Egerter admits that she thought Oswald “was up to something bad” and that she knew he had spoken with a KGB agent at the Mexican embassy.
Vicente comes through for the CIA on October 27
Right on October 27, as predicted in the NY FBI memo earlier that month, Vicente came through. He provided the Agency with the FPCC stationery they sought, as well as a ten page mailing list. He also provided them with "one hundred photos of the financial records and general activities", which included a recent letter from Oswald.
In any case, Vicente brought home the bacon. Special Agent James Kennedy wrote that he was "...advised that CIA was interested in obtaining samples of FPCC stationery and also the existing foreign mailing list of FPCC. On 10/27/63, NY-3245-S* furnished the above material to agents of the NYO...3245-S* is a highly confidential source, the unauthorized disclosure of which could be prejudicial to national defense interests.”
After the assassination, Taber, wracked with guilt, appears to have gone over to the other side
"At approximately 9:45 pm on the night of 11/22/63, ROBERT TABER telephonically contacted the NYO at which time it was immediately evident TABER had been drinking heavily He at first asked to speak with SAS JAMES A DAY and LUNDQUIST, who had previously interviewed him in Boston and NY, and then spoke to HAROLD HOEG. He was regretful, saying he wished he had never heard of the “damned outfit” the FPCC. Told him they wanted him to cure his perjury about the Cuban funding, he said he wanted to but didn’t want to go back to jail, he’s “got four years under his belt” (note: to the SISS, he told them he did eight years) FBI told him it was the best way to avoid prosecution. Taber called HOEG again on 12/5, and had a similar conversation.
The CIA and the Assistant AG Yeagley discussed plans to have a grand jury sit on 1/15/64 and prosecute Taber for perjury about Cuba's Raul Roa being the source of FPCC's original 1960 start-up ad, as well as failure for FPCC to register, based on his statements to Lundquist on 11/22 while intoxicated.
But, instead, FBI founder Robert Taber is interviewed by Lundquist and O'Flaherty, and offers to provide info to the CIA, and even called back Lundquist on information about another case - almost certainly the report about seeing "Lt. Harvey Oswald" in Cuba after the Bay of Pigs invasion. Taber admitted that he checked out of hospital on crutches in third week of April, 1961 and went to Sloppy Joe’s tavern in Havana, but denied knowing anything about Lt. Lee Oswald or anyone named Oswald. Taber affirms that he’s willing to assist the US government. A situation can be created to make it look like he’s fleeing to Cuba to avoid prosecution. When Taber was interviewed by CIA, the agency initially said it was very interested in Taber’s offer. It is to be noted that both newspaper articles in the accompanying letterhead memo feature the possible prosecution of Taber, Gibson, and Lee.Like with Gibson, the CIA apparently got cold feet. On March 2, 1964, Henry Real said that CIA plans to use Taber are “indefinite”. During March 1964, Robert Taber applied for employment with the CIA. The CIA's Office of Security rejected him because "In view of Subject's notorious background, which raises serious questions on his honesty, loyalty, integrity and (deleted) trustworthiness, (deleted). Leo J. Dunn." Wannall grumbled to Sullivan a couple of months later that they should empanel a grand jury against Taber if he goes to Cuba as he has discussed.During 1965, Taber released his classic work on guerilla insurgency, War of the Flea. Ominously, this book was reprinted in 2002 by Potomac Press, with a new foreword by Bard E. O'Neill, a military counterintelligence author. The book is now a standard reference for the US military on counterinsurgencies.
In 1966, it appears that the plan Taber discussed with the CIA may have ripened into fruition. The CIA reported that Robert Taber asked for and received political asylum in Cuba. Allegedly, he was facing prison due to perjury before the Internal Security Committee.
Taber, like Gibson, clearly had some weak moments.
Virtually all the FBI agents named here were among the 18 punished by Hoover, and then chosen to lead the investigation into the assassination
18 FBI agents were punished by Hoover for their pre-assassination work. Lundquist and Hoeg of New York were two of them. At an HSCA hearing Gale stated, “Tolson called me on two of the agents in New York they (the Warren Commission or the FBI) found had, they felt, were derelict in the way they had reported the matter, and he asked me if we had found those...and I told him that, yes, we had found those.”
Hoover believed that Oswald's background as a Soviet defector (and marrying the daugther of a Soviet intelligence officer) triggered espionage concerns; and his FPCC activism triggered security concerns. The FBI files available to Hoover also revealed that Oswald had initially threatened to provide US military secrets to the Soviets in exchange for citizenship and that he was presently a self-declared Marxist.. For these reasons, Hoover felt that Oswald should have been on the Security Index, and certainly should not have been removed from the Watchlist.
The others punished included Gheesling for removing the FLASH, Elbert Turner for not taking action on the CIA memo received the day after Gheesling removed the FLASH, and Hosty, Kaack, and Lambert L. Anderson for not following up more aggressively. Fain would have been punished, but he retired in 1962. Nevertheless, the same men proceeded to lead the post-assassination investigation as well.
As soon as the investigation was over, the FBI knew what it had to do to protect its role in history. The Director's office told New York that since Warren Commission had issued its report, “you are now authorized to mail an updated copy of the letter previously submitted. Include a number of spelling and typographical errors in the letter and use commercially purchased stationery. Use every possible precaution to ensure that the letter cannot be traced to the FBI”. Originally submitted for approval three months earlier was a hit-piece on the “left-wing background and moral degeneration of Mark Lane”.
The FPCC legacy remains a powerful one
The FPCC provides a legacy of resistance. It was an antiwar organization and a solidarity organization, much like CISPES (Committee in Support of People of El Salvador). Berta Green, to this day, continues to organize against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is still a force in present day America - when co-founder Alan Sagner was nominated as head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Senator John McCain red-baited him about his history with the FPCC. (Sagner said good things about the founding of the FPCC, and then weaseled out with, “Within a year of two after the group was organized...I perceived that people were getting involved whose purpose and mission was different than mine.”)
Fair Play stood in solidarity with Cubans, and also with African Americans. Cubans helped build it, and part of the reason for the FPCC’s decline is that so many of them went back to Cuba.. Some people fell or lost faith in the struggle; some were strengthened; and some we won't be sure about until all the files are opened.
The work of the FPCC and its allies made any successful invasion of Cuba impossible. They blew the whistle on the Bay of Pigs loudly and clearly for months before the invasion. They mounted resistance to the war plans of US military and intelligence advisors in the Bay of Pigs aftermath. The agencies retaliated by infiltrating the FPCC and demonizing its leadership. When JFK was allegedly killed by the FPCC activist Lee Harvey Oswald, the agencies had to hide their war plans from the Warren Commission in order to avoid punishment for public exposure of their illegal plans to assassinate Castro, violate the Neutrality Act by creating shadow armies and navies, and engage in dirty tricks on American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. The Kennedys’ AMTRUNK operation never regained its momentum and slowly petered out to a close by 1966.
LBJ was petrified that any Cuban connection with Oswald could result in World War III. That’s how he persuaded Warren to chair the Warren Commission. LBJ didn’t know, and didn’t want to know, any details about the assassination. The net result was to greatly ease the heat on Cuba.
Many of these activists are still alive and with their shoulders bent in defense of Cuba, such as Saul Landau. Lawrence Ferlinghetti still operates the City Lights Book store in North Beach and continues to inspire at the age of 90. Many others are unknown to anyone but their loved ones. After the hard stories about that era, it heartened me to know that Rosa Parks came to Robert F. Williams' funeral in 1996 (he made it back to the USA in 1969, where all charges were ultimately dropped), and gave thanks that a warrior that faced so many dangers in the defense of the people was able to return home with his family and live a long and happy life. Think about what didn't happen to Fidel.
Fidel...Fidel...your coffin passes bythru lanes and streets you never knewthru day and night, FidelWhile lilacs last in the dooryard bloom, Fidelyour futile trip is doneyet is not doneand is not futileI give you my sprig of laurel."

Bill Simpich is an antiwar activist in the San Francisco Bay Area. The endnotes, with weblinks to the documents, are available with an email to bsimpich@gmail.com. To see other historical documents from the sixties and seventies involving US intelligence and military plans, maryferrell.org is a great resource.

Source: Counterpounch

Cuban Ballet Dancer Carreno in Chile

2009-07-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Santiago, Chile, Jul 30 (Prensa Latina) First Cuban National Ballet dancer Joel Carreno will perform, together with outstanding Chilean, French and Chinese dancers, will dance classical duet choreographies to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Santiago's emblematic Municipal Theater.
Carreno will dance the pas de deux of the Sleeping Beauty, Act III, with first dancer Natalia Barrios.
The first of several shows, as part of the honoring gala that will last until August 5, will be given on Friday, with a performance by Santiago's Ballet, formed in 1959 and directed by Brazilian dancer Marcia Haydee.
Santiago's Ballet will dance John Cranko's "Initials," and then the audience will enjoy performances by Barios and Carreno, Cuban National Ballet dancers, Cao Shuci and Xin Lian, of the Chinese National Ballet, and Aki Saito and Wim Vanlesse, of the French Flanders' Royal Ballet.
They will dance Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and others, choreographies by Marcia Haydee.

Former U.S. intelligence analyst jammed Iranian government websites

2009-07-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

In a recent speech about the situation in Iran, Obama pointed out: “This is not an issue of the United States or the West versus Iran; this is an issue of the Iranian people", who in a way are willing to “open” new roads. “We respect Iran’s sovereignty and the fact that it is the Iranian people’s job to make such decisions".Of course, Obama –who not long ago set up a cyber command to protect the Pentagon’s networks from hacker attacks– probably knows nothing about the role of U.S. hackers in the media’s war against Iran.One of the cyber-supporters who launched the attack on Iranian government sites is Matthew Burton, a former intelligence analyst, ITPer and Technology Consultant to the U.S. Intelligence Community, a self-proclaimed all-out defender of his Government whose website http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/index.php is aimed, he says, at helping national security and democracy.As you can see in the statement below, Burton is anything but wishy-washy when it comes to his hacking activity. Actually, his cyber-war philosophy is quite similar to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s, as evidenced by the way she urged Twitter to sign on to her government’s plans to destabilize Iran: "I consider it important to keep that line of communication open and enable people to share information, particularly at a time when there are not many other sources of information. It is a fundamental right for people to be able to communicate and organize. The United States believes passionately and strongly in the basic principle of free expression.”

Translated by: Walter Lipman

Twitter, the “social network” that the U.S. government prefers

2009-07-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

According to an EFE report, if you want to know what Barack Obama is doing right now, you can turn on the TV or do a web search, but there’s another place where you will be able to keep a closer tab on the U.S. President: Twitter, the micro-blogging service that he –as well as hundreds of personalities from all over the world– is using.Through the website the White House has opened in this social network, collaborators post messages with no more than 140 characters to keep the rest of the world informed about what the President and his administration are up to these days.The U.S. government boasts a not inconsiderable number of almost 400.000 followers.In line with his policy of having a more open public administration and fostering the use of new technologies, Obama has become an active user of social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and other state agencies are following suit.Since the White House joined Twitter early last May, around 30 of those agencies have signed up with Facebook, while over 25 official U.S. bodies have their own channel in the video network YouTube.For instance, among President Obama’s messages this weekend was one about the reaction to Iran protests: "We urge the Iranian government to stop all violent and unfair actions against its own people"."I believe we will witness a huge upturn in the use by the government of these social networks online,” said Bev Godwin, director of Online Resources & Interagency Development at the White House.

Translated by: Walter Lipman