AP's Sloppy Reporting on Cuban-American Electorate

Capitol Hill Cubans

The AP's Miami bureau has a sloppy story today regurgitating the same narrative about the "changing" Cuban-American electorate.

We've literally seen variants of this story since The New York Times first wrote on December 5th, 1965:

“The very active anti-Castro groups in Miami have faded into virtual obscurity.”

Today's AP story contains only one fact, which it got wrong:

"Exit polling showed that 49 percent of Cuban-Americans voted for the Democrat, roughly the same percentage as four years ago."

Even though analysis-after-analysis has shown that President Obama got approximately 35% of the Cuban-American vote in 2008, the AP's exit polls had him getting 49% four years ago.

It obviously wasn't true then, and as precinct analyses have shown since the 2012 election, it's not true this year either. 

The rest of the story is all narrative by the AP's reporter, Christine Armario.

It is based on four "analysts" -- all of whom have lobbied (in some fashion or other) for unconditionally normalizing relations with the Castro regime.

Thus, their spin that Obama has some sort of a mandate to further ease whatever remaining sanctions he can (within the legal confines of the 1996 and 2000 codification by the U.S. Congress).

Even the AP's Havana bureau tries to show a bit more balance than this -- and that is saying a lot.

Why didn't they ask any Obama campaign officials why they so effectively wedged Paul Ryan's past support for lifting the travel ban and embargo against Romney?

The Financial Times responsibly asked and here's what they told them:

"Paul Ryan, Mr Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, had voted a number of times to end the longstanding US embargo on communist Cuba, which had been in place for decades since Fidel Castro came to power.

'That did their ticket a lot of harm with Cubans and allowed us to at least get a hearing with them about many other economic issues,' said an Obama campaign official in Florida."

But, of course, that would go against the AP's narrative.

Castro's Bogus Economic "Reforms" Exposed

Capitol Hill Cubans

Think about it.

If this is the sector that has supposedly seen the most "liberalization," then what does it say about Castro's other so-called economic "reforms."

From today's New York Times:

President (CHC: Dictator) Raúl Castro has made agriculture priority No. 1 in his attempt to remake the country. He used his first major presidential address in 2007 to zero in on farming, describing weeds conquering fallow fields and the need to ensure that “anyone who wants can drink a glass of milk.”

No other industry has seen as much liberalization, with a steady roll-out of incentives for farmers. And Mr. Castro has been explicit about his reasoning: increasing efficiency and food production to replace imports that cost Cuba hundreds of millions of dollars a year is a matter “of national security.”

Yet at this point, by most measures, the project has failed. Because of waste, poor management, policy constraints, transportation limits, theft and other problems, overall efficiency has dropped: many Cubans are actually seeing less food at private markets. That is the case despite an increase in the number of farmers and production gains for certain items. A recent study from the University of Havana showed that market prices jumped by nearly 20 percent in 2011 alone. And food imports increased to an estimated $1.7 billion last year, up from $1.4 billion in 2006.

Entrepreneurs lead Cuba's new revolution – from spas to drag nights

The Guardian

Fiona McAuslan/

flickr.com

"Clown, magician, party quizmaster", reads the list of positions for which self-employed licences are available to enterprising Cubans. The opportunities for private sector jobs are myriad since the change in the law in 2010 allowed private enterprise to flourish. While options like these may well be lucrative career choices it is undoubtedly businesses that give Cubans access to the tourist dinero that are most sought.

In a country that is as body beautiful as Cuba it's little surprise that there's been a surge in private spas. Conner Gorry, born in New York but living in Cuba and author of the Havana Good Time app says: "State massage venues and gyms have always been popular but now these very smart and well-run, private spas are now driving competition." With services that range from Swedish massage to yoga classes and indoor cycling she rates O2, (Calle 26B #5, +53 7883 1663) as one of Havana's finest.

Activities such as independent scuba diving tours and private dance groups are part of the burgeoning private sector. On a trip this year, travel journalist Claire Boobbyer found that Julio Muñoz's horseback tours (+53 41 993673) through the beautiful countryside near Trinidad were far better than the state options.

Havana's famously lively nightlife scene is also changing. Locals –and in-the-know tourists – now head to the independently run Fashion Bar (Kessell #52, Vibora Park, +53 7 644 2894). This supper club bursts its glittery seams with the best of the capital's formidable drag queen talent and is popular enough to warrant a strict reservations policy – still something of a rarity in Cuba.

Low taxation is also fuelling the boom: in order to boost private sector revenue the government has either suspended or reduced taxes. This is set to change early next year when full taxation will gradually be rolled out. It's inevitable that some less profitable businesses will fall by the wayside but until then the spirit of free enterprise courses through this socialist stalwart.

Cuba: Paradox Island/ World Affairs Council

WorldAffairsCouncil

Speaker: Cynthia Gorney, Contributing Writer, National Geographic Magazine
The last four years, in comparison to the previous fifty, have seen considerable change in Cuba. In 2008, Fidel Castro stepped aside to allow his brother Raul to lead. At the same time, after a period of tight travel restrictions, the United States has made it easier for Cuban Americans to visit family and for Americans to travel legally to Cuba on cultural exchanges. This fall, President Raul Castro announced an impending end to much reviled exit visas Cubans must obtain in order to leave their own country legally for travel or work. These changes, along with experimental encouragement of private enterprise within Cuba, have renewed interest in the country and its relationship with the United States.
Cynthia Gorney, a contributing writer for National Geographic Magazine, visited the island earlier this year and will share her insights into the current situation inside Cuba.

Pravda: Illiterate society reelected Obama

Birther Report: Excerpts Via Gina Miller @ Renew America

Throughout most of the twentieth century, the Pravda newspaper was roughly the Russian equivalent of our leftist, state-controlled "mainstream" media, publishing only regime-approved, Communist party line content. Since undergoing a change in ownership in the early 1990s, it now offers warnings against the communism that infected the former Soviet Union and caused the deaths of millions of Russian citizens.

Despite the warnings of history and those who have lived under its iron fist, communism has come to America, and the useful idiots who dumbly adore the Communist-in-Chief, Barack Obama (or whatever his name is), are gladly and stupidly drinking the kool-aid of ignorance in embracing that deadly and dead-end ideology. Even the Russians can see this!

I read with sad amazement a couple of columns in the new, non-communist Pravda online by Xavier Lerma. One is titled, "Obama's Soviet Mistake," and the other, "The Reason Obama is President." Mr. Lerma clearly understands the terrible place of tyranny America has chosen, and he knows the reasons why. The reason Obama is President is the same reason I have repeatedly declared here in my columns: America has turned away from God and to self-worship and fleeting, carnal pleasures.

In "The Reason Obama is President," Mr. Lerma writes, [...]

[...] Despite the election result numbers, I do not believe the ignorant people yet outnumber the informed in America, although most of the informed are of the older generations. The Left has election and voter fraud down to a science, and it may well be that conservatism will not be allowed to win major elections anymore. The reports of election fraud since November 6th are sickening, but it appears the Republicans are content to lie down and take it, while they go off on misguided, introspective tangents about what they should have done differently to get the women and minority votes. It is stupidity in motion. If the election numbers are fraudulent, then speculation on "why" we "lost" is dumb, because without the election fraud tacked on, it is likely that we didn't lose!

Regardless, it remains that we are now saddled with the Communist federal government we deserve. Those of us who know better have allowed our liberty to lapse under decades of incremental thefts of our freedoms by an ever-growing monster bureaucracy in Washington. We have ceded our freedom to our Republican and Democrat masters in DC. Can we ever get it back? Not without a return to God's principles found in the Bible. And, looking around at the younger members of our degenerate, ignorant society, I am not holding my breath that they will suddenly turn to the Lord, although a few of them will, as God has called and chosen them.

Nevertheless, we will continue to pray for our nation and fight to rid our government of the evil criminals — both Democrat and Republican — who have commandeered it.

CONTINUED HERE: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/miller/121127 >>

Nombrada Yoani representante de la SIP en Cuba

Gustavo Mohme*

al firme rechazo a la reciente represion desatada por el regimen de subcastro tanto por la sociedad interamericana de prensa [sip] que representa a mas de 1,300 agencias y organos informativos del continente, como por la comision interamericana de derechos humanos, se añade la designacion de yoani sanchez como la representante de la sip en cuba. 

mientras el cubano de a pie que es mantenido blindado a la informacion internacional, recibe la promocion no pagada de yoani en el exabrupto del granma de hoy.  

--------------------

*Presidente de la Comisión de Libertad de Prensa e Información de la SIP

Represion y Lucha No Violenta Activa

mientras la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa [SIP] que representa a 1,300 agencias del continente da a conocer la carta  enviada a Raul Castro exigiendole respeto a la integridad de Yoani Sanchez y su familia; la Comision Interamericana de Derechos Humanos [CIDH] condena  la ola de detenciones "arbitrarias" de defensores de derechos humanos e instó al gobierno de Raúl Castro a tomar medidas para "prevenir" y "erradicar" el hostigamiento contra quienes ejercen el derecho de reunión.

y si bien estos pronunciamientos internacionales que no siendo ineditos son importantes, lo que marca un giro es la reaccion de un grupo heterogeneo  de disidentes [que cubre un amplio diapason desde un escritor como Angel Santiesteban hasta un opositor encarcelado durante la Primavera Negra como Angel Moya] de protestar frente a la Unidad policial de Acosta en el municipio 10 de octubre de La Habana, por el arresto arbitrario de Antonio Rodiles, quien se encontraba en esta unidad, porque eso es "Lucha no violenta activa".

Yoani entre las 25 mujeres mas poderosas del 2012/ People en español

Leer en  

Marti noticias >>

Italy's reporter detained in Cuba to fly back tomorrow

no picture allowed for whom you know. we have to wait until they are safe in italy.
------------------------------- 
Agenzia Giornalistica Italia/

(AGI) - Trieste, Sept 30 - Messaggero Veneto journalist Domenico Pecile will be back in Italy tomorrow. Cuban police had detained Pecile and three other Italian reporters who had come to the island to interview a man suspected of double murder in Lignano Sabbiadoro with his half-sister. Pecile will leave Cuba tonight and will arrive in Milan's Malpensa airport tomorrow evening after a 5 p.m. connection flight in Madrid.
 Pecile told regional Friuli Venezia TV news that he was in good physical shape though somewhat stressed, and that he had been treated well. Pecile said Reiver Laborde Rico was completely at ease during their interview about the murder on Saturday.
 Laborde Rico said he was not hiding anything. The man said he had nothing to do with the murder in Lignano and that his sister had been forced to confess. (AGI) . .

Tres periodistas italianos se encuentran detenidos en Cuba

Lisandra Laborde Rico/ nanduti.com.py

EFE/

Roma -- - Tres periodistas italianos se encuentran detenidos en Cuba, donde habían viajado para investigar sobre el homicidio de una pareja de ancianos en Italia el pasado agosto, y por el que confesó la joven cubana Lisandra Laborde Rico, confirmó hoy el Ministerio de Exteriores italiano.
La página de internet del telediario TgCom24, que pertenece al grupo Mediaset, informó hoy de que este viernes fueron detenidos la periodista de este medio Ilaria Cavo; el cámara que la acompañaba, Fabio Tricarico; el redactor del diario “Messaggero Veneto”, Domenico Pacile, mientras que el fotógrafo del “Corriere della Sera” Stefano Cavicchi fue puesto en libertad después de algunas horas por “irregularidades en su visado”.
Los periodistas habían viajado a Cuba para entrevistar al hermano de Lisandra, Reiver Laborde Rico, de 24 años, que está acusado por la Justicia italiana de haber participado en el asesinato del matrimonio italiano el pasado 19 de agosto en Lignano Sabbiadoro (norte).
Lisandra, residente en Italia desde hace más de diez años y vecina de la pareja de ancianos, confesó ser la autora del asesinato de tras ser arrestada por los Carabineros (policía militar italiana) el 16 de septiembre.
Desde entonces, las autoridades italianas buscan a su hermano, del que después se supo que había regresado a Cuba, ya que es sospechoso de haber sido cómplice en el doble asesinato.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2012/09/29/1310809/tres-periodistas-italianos-se.html#storylink=cpy

Cuando Maria Shriver-Kennedy paseaba por La'bana

una  maria shriver-kennedy 25 anos mas joven que la senora de 57 anos que se entera que el bodybuilder austriaco que convirtio en el gobernador de la bancarrota de la 4ta economia del mundo en su momento [cuando ella -democrata- era la favorita de la poblacion], fornicaba y procreaba con la housekeeper hispana, mientras la sobrina de jfk  paseaba por la'bana interrogando al magnifico en jefe con toda la agudeza y admiracion que le profesa el clan kennedy al dueno de llaves y cerraduras.

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Hija de Paya responde a periodista extranjero

La autora, hija de Oswaldo Payá, responde a un artículo del corresponsal de la BBC en Cuba.

Fernando Ravsberg, corresponsal de BBC en La Habana. (VISORONLINE.BLOGSPOT.COM)

Fernando Ravsberg ha publicado en estos días una extensión de las tergiversaciones, manipulaciones y falacias con las que los medios de prensa oficiales cubanos han pretendido confundir al pueblo cubano y al resto del mundo por ya más de medio siglo. Lo ha hecho desde su propio blog. Al parecer, las cuatro páginas del día de Granma, órgano del Partido Comunista, ya estaban saturadas.

Esta vez, a las falsedades literalmente copiadas de la Mesa Redonda y a la reiteración del absurdo carácter accidental que la Televisión Cubana se empeña en dar a la muerte de mi padre y de Harold Cepero, Ravsberg añade algunos enredos de su propia invención, como que Ángel Carromero y Aron Modig viajaban por la Isla haciendo proselitismo y repartiendo dinero.

Harold Cepero recientemente había escrito: "los que tienen el coraje y la libertad de plantearse la opción política pacífica para sus vidas, saben que se exponen a la soledad poco menos que absoluta, a la exclusión laboral, a la persecución, a la prisión o a la muerte. Y su vida y su muerte son la confirmación sincera y radical de su pensamiento".

Sin embargo, Ravsberg, decide no mencionar que la mayoría de los disidentes en Cuba pierden su trabajo, y ellos y sus familias son tratados como apestados sociales y condenados a la miseria, principalmente fuera de La Habana, donde en no llega la prensa extranjera acreditada y, en muchos casos, ni le interesa llegar.

En lugar de esto, Ravsberg intenta resaltar el hipócrita debate moral sobre si la oposición debe o no recibir apoyo material, como si en la mayoría de las luchas de los oprimidos en el mundo entero —y la historia de Cuba es fiel ejemplo— no se hubiese necesitado de la ayuda de simpatizantes y exiliados.

Me pregunto cuántos países del mundo conocerá Ravsberg donde los miembros de la oposición no puedan viajar libremente por el territorio nacional porque sus nombres están circulados en todas las estaciones y aeropuertos. En qué otros oscuros rincones del planeta la Seguridad del Estado impide las reuniones de los opositores con chantajes, amenazas, golpizas, detenciones o "accidentes". Esta es la razón por la que jóvenes simpatizantes extranjeros que vienen a conocer a mi padre le facilitan en ocasiones el transporte. Hecho que dista mucho de la versión que el corresponsal de la BBC y el Gobierno cubano se empeñan en sostener.

Fernando Ravsberg sabe que miente, porque él conoció muy bien a mi padre y sabe que nadie podía darle órdenes, y menos aún pretender organizar el MCL, un movimiento con 24 años de historia, cuyo jóvenes tenemos muy claro que hacer. Mi padre gozaba de un tipo de libertad que probablemente Fernando Ravsberg nunca ha experimentado, a pesar de venir de un país democrático: la libertad de vivir responsablemente, en coherencia con sus principios, pensamientos y sentimientos, a la luz de su fe.

El señor Ravsberg emplea el más cínico de los tonos colonialistas para hablar de las preocupaciones de mi pueblo, minimizándonos, como si para nosotros, "los cubanitos", con que mejorase o apareciese la comida o las guaguas, fuese suficiente. Sutilmente se suma a esta orgía de la mentira, que pretende entretener a la opinión pública con unas sosísimas y mal implementadas reformas económicas, que son la fachada de ese cambio-fraude que mi padre tantas veces denunció.

Fernando Ravsberg goza de los privilegios que significan vivir en Cuba como un extranjero, por encima de las desventajas de todos los cubanos. Sus hijos pueden entrar y salir del país, mientras hacen sus vidas en España, pero a mi hermano no lo dejan ir de visita a conocer a sus tíos a Madrid. Me pregunto si Ravsberg habrá tenido que esperar 5 años para visitar a su hijo médico, porque eso es lo que sufren los doctores de mi país cuando deciden salir de la Isla, quizás también para reunirse con su familia en el exterior.

Ravsberg está tan acostumbrado a caminar sobre esas desventajas que se atreve a sugerir que a los cubanos no les interesan los derechos humanos. ¿Cómo se atreve a despreciar de esa manera racista al pueblo del que ha vivido durante tantos años?

Gracias a Dios hoy son muchas las iniciativas en el campo cultural, político y social que ponen de manifiesto la inconformidad de los cubanos y la promoción de los cambios pacíficos. Le recuerdo a Ravsberg que la iniciativa de ley que constituye el Proyecto Varela está avalada por más de 25.000 firmantes, y continúa vigente porque lo que pretende es un cambio en la ley, no en la Constitución, para hacer realidad derechos elementales que aún debemos conquistar.

Miles firman en este período el Proyecto Heredia, que busca dar a las personas el derecho a salir y a entrar libremente a Cuba, a residir en cualquier parte del territorio nacional y, con ello, detener las humillantes deportaciones internas, así como buscar la garantía de igualdad de oportunidades sin exclusiones de tipo ideológico, y el acceso libre y económicamente justo a internet.

Las anteriores son iniciativas independientes y autóctonas que recogen las aspiraciones y demandas de muchísimos ciudadanos. Los cubanos, de dentro y de fuera necesitamos los derechos para diseñar y edificar la Cuba que queremos. El ingenio, la laboriosidad y las capacidades que se ha demostrado aun en tiempos de crisis, garantizan la prosperidad, a pesar del destrozo legado por más de 50 años de comunismo. Y me atrevo a asegurarle a Ravsberg que la comida y las guaguas aparecerán cuando los cubanos ganemos por el precio justo de nuestro trabajo y tengamos verdaderas oportunidades económicas, políticas y sociales de participación en la construcción de nuestro futuro.

Para ello necesitamos los derechos, esa es la liberación que estamos proclamando. Estamos cada vez más cerca de lograrla, porque hasta ésos que nos persiguen, esos a los que Ravsberg parece servir, son nuestros hermanos, son cubanos y se beneficiarán con la democracia.

Fernando Ravsberg, que tantas veces ha estado en mi casa y ahora finge hasta no recordar cómo se escribe el nombre de mi padre —técnica que debe haber aprendido de la Mesa Redonda—, ha utilizado su nombre para suplantar la verdad, ofendiendo su memoria, a mi familia, a la oposición y a todos los cubanos. Lo cual resulta demasiado bajo, incluso para un corresponsal de la Mesa Redonda.

Top periodista canadiense se muda a Cuba

if he likes kaxtroz brother's dictatorship then living as a Cuban on foot ["cubano de a pie"] but not as a foreigner. maybe what he likes are teenage prostitutes and/or big and strong blacks guys. who knows?

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by Ezra Levant

Stephen Wicary

Until this summer, Stephen Wicary was The Globe and Mail’s online editor.

He would choose what would and wouldn’t go on the website. He would write headlines. He would choose photos. These are all political decisions.

Sometimes he would move from the behind the scenes and come out publicly with his own editorials denouncing Stephen Harper — accusing Harper of being anti-democratic, and heavy-handed, and even censorious.

So he was a left-winger, who claimed to care about freedom.

But then he moved to Cuba. Not a vacation. He’s moving there for two years.

Someone who had for years condemned Harper as being too authoritarian was moving to the country that the human rights NGO, Reporters Without Borders, calls the most repressive country in the western hemisphere.

I asked Wicary a dozen questions about this — and he refused to answer.

The Media Party all knew Wicary was going to Cuba, a land without press freedom. The Ottawa press gallery even threw a goodbye party for him and none seemed conflicted with a reporter going to an island of censorship.

A lot of other journalists answered my questions to Wicary for him. They were acting as his lawyers. They said he didn’t really believe in Communism. They said he was just there to support his wife, who got a promotion to work there for an NGO. The suggestion was that Wicary didn’t really love Cuba, he just loved his wife, so it was an act of marital solidarity, not political solidarity.

Wicary has been in Cuba for a few weeks. Miraculously, he has been able to get an Internet connection. No ordinary Cuban has that privilege — but Wicary somehow got Castro’s permission.

It was weird right away. There he is in Cuba — a controversial, newsworthy place, with scandals and corruption and violence and repression, with a cholera outbreak right now, with a Spanish human rights activist held hostage — but all he kept writing about on Twitter was Canadian politics, publicizing left-wing political commentaries.

But then Wicary wrote this from Cuba last week: “Have been reading up on Canada-Cuba relations and it seems Sun papers have a long tradition of asshattery with regard to the island … During the 1999 Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg, they published a how-to guide for athletes seeking to defect.”

Wicary has never criticized Cuba or, aside from a couple retweets, even reported on its scandalous news.

But he just comes right out and engages in Communist propaganda, denouncing Canada’s Sun newspaper — we’re asshats, he says — because in 1999 we wanted to help Cuban athletes come to Canada? Who would possibly object to that? Other than someone who is working under the restrictions of the Communist Party? Is he also working under its direction?  Read More >>

 

“Cuba May Be the Most Feminist Country in Latin America!” squeals The New York Times

Babalú Blog/

By Humberto Fontova, on May 1, 2012, at 11:54 pm

The longest-suffering female political prisoners in modern history suffered their tortures in Castro's Cuba. Many died by firing-squad and prison beatings.
Our friends at Newsbusters disclose the title of this post.
First off: UNSPEAKABLE (!!!) Pre-Castro Cuba had more female college students as a percentage of population than the U.S., according to Guillermo Cabrera-Infante. But the "glass-ceiling" of the time kept them out of jail for purely political offenses.

Then came Castroism and this "glass-ceilng" was triumphantly cracked to pieces! Thousands of Cuban women suddenly found themselves in Castro's KGB-tutored prisons and torture chambers!
Yes sir. Just as thousands of Cuban men were murdered and tortured, so now were thousands of women! Castro's regime jailed and tortured thousands of Cuban women for political crimes and many of them for decades, a totalitarian horror utterly unknown--not only in Cuba--but in the Western Hemisphere until Castroism.

Their prison conditions were described by former political prisoner Maritza Lugo. “The punishment cells measure 3 feet wide by 6 feet long. The toilet consists of an 8 inch hole in the ground through which cockroaches and rats enter, especially in cool temperatures the rat come inside to seek the warmth of our bodies and we were often bitten. The suicide rate among women prisoners was very high.”
In fact, Castroism TRIPLED Cuban women’s pre-revolution suicide rate, making Cuban women the most suicidal on earth. This according to a 1998 study by scholar Maida Donate-Armada that uses some of the Cuban regime’s own figures.
Some suffered months in "Tapiadas" (underground cells in total darkness) Some were jailed a few miles from La Cabana. With the right wind direction, the firing squad volley's would reach them. "HA-HA! Oiste?... Ce la cepillaron a tu marido! ( Hijo! Padre! Abuelo! Tio!)" (Heard that?! We just shot your husband, son, dad, grandad, uncle!) the guards would gather and cackle at the rat-bitten women, surrounded by cockroaches and caked in filth and menstrual fluid from lack of water in their torture chambers.
Not to take anything away from Yoani and The Ladies in White ...but many, many, MANY Cuban women had it much, much, MUCH worse--and without the slightest mention by the MSM of their deaths and decades of suffering torture...instead, as usual, with their murderers and torturers hailed to high heavens by such as the New York Times.

Many, many ladies living in South Florida and New Jersey today would like a word with New York Times blogger, LUISITA LOPEZ TORREGROSA.
Absolutely Un-'Freakin Real...

The Washington Post publica anuncio demandando libertad de espias cubanos presos en EEUU

Dos espias cubanos son ahora artistas para The Guardian

Por Quien Merece Amor (For Those Who Deserve Love) by Antonio Guerrero.

Cuban art: banged up abroad >>

In Cuba, hitchhikers bemoan a host of economic problems

Carretera Central, La Gomera-Santa Clara/ By ricalo

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/ By KEVIN G. HALL - McClatchy Newspapers/

ON THE CARRETERA CENTRAL, Cuba -- "Subanse," climb aboard, I said repeatedly, pulling the right wheels of my eight-seat van off the dangerous two-lane highway that snakes hundreds of miles across an island considered off limits to most Americans.
Ostensibly, I was in Cuba to cover Pope Benedict XVI's visit. But over the week and across the length of the Ohio-sized country, I gave more than five dozen Cubans a "botella" - in Cuban slang, a ride.
My riders gave an unvarnished view of the country. They were farmers, housewives and doctors. They were school kids, half a baseball team, an economist and even a judge, who proclaimed herself to be a huge fan of Jack Bauer in the American TV thriller series "24."

The van was a lark. Waiting for my small rental car at the Havana airport for two hours - described to me as five Cuban minutes - the overworked rental agent finally offered me the huge diesel-powered vehicle if I'd get on my way.
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I spent most of the following week offering ordinary Cubans a ride in my gray Hyundai van - which often carried more passengers than it was designed to.
I don't speak with a gringo accent. Some riders thought I was Argentine, most were baffled and many were wide-eyed to discover their driver was American and a reporter to boot.
"I have an aunt in Florida," said Angela, who got in before Camaguey, a central Cuban city. Many others said the same, citing family members in Miami, Orlando and Houston.
A few passengers were nervous - perhaps because of my driving - and sat silently. Most were expressive but guarded, quieter when others were in the car. As the number of riders thinned, the conversation generally opened up.

To break the ice, I played Latin music on my iPod through the van's speaker system. In an early, surreal moment, four Cuban women belted out "Amame," a love song by Colombian rocker Juanes. It put to rest any notion that Cubans in the interior lacked knowledge of the outside world.
I left Havana at 5 a.m. sharp on a Sunday, a good day to travel because people are trying to hitch rides home after weekend visits. I was led out of Havana by a cab driver I paid to get me to the Carretera Nacional, the national highway that is the first stretch of the Carretera Central, or Central Highway.
At the start, the drive looked promising enough, four lanes of completely empty highway. About 20 minutes in, however, the four lanes became two with no advance warning. The only indication of roadwork was the metal barriers - not visible in darkness - that I nearly hit skidding at 70 mph.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/04/12/2770215/in-cuba-hitchhikers-bemoan-a-host.html#storylink=cpy 

WPJ - What a difference a Pope makes

By Jennifer Rubin

On the 30th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Poland, Catholic scholar and papal biographer George Weigel wrote:

America’s premier Cold War historian, John Lewis Gaddis of Yale, is not ambiguous in his judgment of what happened next: “When John Paul II kissed the ground at the Warsaw airport on June 2, 1979, he began the process by which communism in Poland — and ultimately everywhere — would come to an end.” Professor Gaddis is right: the Nine Days of John Paul II, June 2-10, 1979, were an epic moment on which the history of the 20th century pivoted, and in a more humane direction.

What did John Paul talk about during the Nine Days? He didn’t talk about politics; indeed, beyond the ritual exchanges of formalities with government officials at the arrival ceremony in Warsaw on June 2 and the departure ceremony from Cracow on June 10, the Pope acted as if the Polish communist regime did not exist. Rather, he spoke over, around, and beyond the regime directly to the people of Poland, not about what the world usually understands as power, but about people power — the power of culture and spiritual identity. “You are not who ‘they’ say you are,” the Pope proposed, in a number of variations on the same theme; “let me remind you who you really are.”

During the Nine Days of June 1979, John Paul II gave back to his people their history, their culture, and their identity. In doing so, he gave Poles spiritual tools of resistance that communism could not match. And he did all that by reminding his people that “Poland” began with its 10th century baptism — with its incorporation into the Christian world. That reminder created a moral revolution that eventually brought down the communist god that failed.

In his famous homily in Warsaw Square in June 1979, Pope John Paul II declared, “Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude of geography. The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man.” Shorter: Communism is bunk.
Needless to say, that was the beginning of the end for Communism in Poland and, in turn, throughout Europe. The Berlin Wall fell a decade later.
Compare that historical sequence of events to the visit last week of Pope Benedict to Cuba. As Elliott Abrams observed, “The Castro regime took the occasion of the Pope’s visit to sweep up dissidents in a wave of arrests. None of that was surprising, but the Pope’s failure to advance the cause of freedom is sad indeed. The photos of him with Fidel and Raul Castro can only have demoralized those struggling and suffering for freedom in Cuba, for the Pope refused to meet with any dissidents at all. Moreover, his remarks were so carefully phrased that, according to press reports, most Cubans did not view them as a call for freedom — whatever the Pope’s intent.” Pope Benedict did, however, clearly enunciate his opposition to the U.S. trade embargo. No public mention was made about imprisoned American Alan Gross.
It was left to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to call (unsuccessfully) for the Pope to visit with dissidents. Rubio did praise the Pope for “some pretty powerful things when he talks about freedom, when he talks about liberty, when he specifically singles out Marxism.” So maybe the trip was not a total loss.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to argue that the Castro regime didn’t come out ahead on this one. Unlike the Polish Communists who witnessed John Paul II attack the essence of their regime and sound a clarion call for Poles to return to their historical and religious roots, Castro could sleep easy. He’d gotten his PR moment without fretting that Pope Benedict may have helped kindle the flame of freedom. And the criticism of the U.S. trade embargo (already relaxed in a fruitless effort at appeasement) was an added bonus for the aging dictator.
Tragically, while the Poles, Russians and other Eastern European dissidents enjoyed the unwavering support of Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s, today’s democracy advocates in Cuba and elsewhere have Pope Benedict and President Obama, neither of whom seem keen on rocking the boat or rattling the cages of tyrannical regimes.

El régimen cubano retira la acreditación al corresponsal de EL PAÍS en La Habana

El Gobierno cubano ha retirado la credencial de prensa al corresponsal de EL PAÍS y la cadena SER en La Habana Mauricio Vicent, quien en los últimos 20 años ha cubierto para este diario los principales acontecimientos informativos que han tenido lugar en la isla. Mauricio Vicent fue convocado recientemente por el Centro Internacional de Prensa (CPI), dependiente del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba, donde se le informó de que no sería renovada su credencial de trabajo, imprescindible para ejercer la labor de corresponsal, en virtud del artículo 46 de la Resolución 182, del año 2006, que regula el ejercicio de la prensa extranjera.

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Corresponsal de la #BBC cuestiona integridad del Movimiento de #DDHH en #Cuba

Cubadebate reproduce integramente un articulo  AQUI del Sr. Fernando Ravsberg, veterano corresponsal de la BBC en La Habana. En el mismo senala que "Tras la liberación de todos los disidentes pacíficos y parte de los violentos, el grueso de los prisioneros políticos que quedan en Cuba son los que retiene Estados Unidos en su base militar de Guantánamo, al oriente de la isla"; concluyendo que "Hacer una campaña a favor de la libertad de seres humanos detenidos por casi una década sin causa y sin juicio [se refiere a los detenidos en Guantanamo por los Estados Unidos], debería ser indiscutible para un activista pro Derechos Humanos. Significaría un doble beneficio para el movimiento de DD.HH., les permitirá seguir activos después que Raúl Castro libere al último preso político y ganarán credibilidad desmintiendo a quienes los acusan de ser mercenarios del imperio".