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Raúl Villarreal in Union City on December 4!

Rafael Martel — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:03:45 +0000

Rafael Román Martel

One of the most talented artists of my generation will be exhibiting his work in Union City, New Jersey from December 4, 2009 to January 22, 2010.

The internationally-recognized Raul Villarreal is an exceptional painter, a poet breaking the rhythm of the written word to create his visual universe, which explodes in color and passion.

Thanks to the initiative of Union City’s Mayor Brian Stack and the commendable work of Commissioner Lucio Fernandez, Union City residents will have the opportunity to appreciate the work of renowned painters like Raul Villarreal.

Stack has not only garnered the title of New Jersey’s Mayor for his outstanding improvements in Union City, he is also a patron of the arts, bringing it to this diverse community in a way never seen before.

Raul Villarreal creates his metaphors with a brush and a river of talent. A keen student of the classics and neoclassics, in his creation of color he has also been able to add a touch of neo-surrealism to his creations.

He has found and perfected the most difficult skill of a poet: to find his own voice– in his case his own image– and feeling in its full expression.

In 1990 Raul, the great photographer José Hernández, and myself founded STET Magazine.

The literary and artistic magazine traveled throughout the world as far a Japan, from where we once were happily surprised to received a postcard from a Cuban artist who was living in Tokyo at the time, praising our effort.

We came up with the idea in one of those magic nights when a new literary and artistic movement was brewing out of the “Musa Traviesa” tertulias, which were founded by Dr. Onilda Jimenez, who taught a group of would-be intellectuals, back in the mid 80s and later became a local force in avant garde literature coming out of what was then Jersey City State College (New Jersey City University).

Little did our readers know that STET magazine was conceptualized in a small apartment on 13th Street in North Bergen during hard economic times. Part of the project was financed by local art patrons and part out of own pocket. Nevertheless, STET grew to 75 pages and was as innovative as it was popular in intellectual circles for about two years, when we decided to let it go.

As I edited STET’s text and Raúl and José edited the illustrations and the graphics, my respect for their talent grew. I haven’t met true artists as committed to their work as they are.

It was a time when the internet did not exist, nor did cell phones. To do research for an article, you had to spend long hours at NJCU or New York City Library to find the accurate data to back the essays.

It was the time of the typewriters. Computers were a privilege of the rich and empty.

We also belonged to a kind of lost generation, between the Cubans who arrived in the United States in the 60s and the Mariel Generation of 1980, who had made their names under the umbrella of the Cuban Revolution and on their rebelious attitude in 1980 built their status as the early “dissidents.”

We were also resentful of the 70s generation and the retractor Heberto Padilla, with the exception of poets like Lezama Lima and Virgilio Piñeira, who suffered their internal exile, persecution and death under the dictatorship of Fidel Castro.

We were in the midst of the bitter and unstructured son of the revolution Cabrera Infante, and Reinaldo Arena’s generation of intellectuals, imitators, and hangers-on.

We were the forgotten ones, but we decided not to be brushed off by the repentant servants of a dictator, the retractors of his poetry or the new wave of intellectuals who shielded themselves under the immense talent and human dignity of Arenas.

We refused to be part of a “clique.” We were Jacobins without the guillotine who were resolute in making our voices heard.

And we did.

We were the exiles “catapulted into history.” Our struggle for identity and a place in Cuban literature suffered from a conscious or unconscious effort to dismiss, from a corrosive Miamian tradition that gravitated its essence not only to the Northeastern United States but to generational cliques inseperable from Cuban tradition. It was marked by classism which continues to this day, when an oligarch-bourgeois family rules the destiny of the enslaved island.

Meanwhile, there was a growing movement in New York City with poets like Maya Islas, Ana Galiano, Noel Jardines, Felix Rizzo, et al. For the most part, they became incorporated into or took into account our poetry and art. Their poetry and art bled their isolation and their need to be recognized. With the longing for their suffering to be recorded in the annals of exile literature as authentic, they were forced to create openings for their voice to transcend the intellectual bureaucracy, with all of its corruption carried from an intellectually empty exile community to the opportunists and materialists the Cuban Revolution had incubated for two decades.

Part of that need was the catalyst for STET.

We were moved by ulterior as well as interior motives, but art was always at the forefront.

Even though we never discussed the details, we were fighting for our own identity, for our own voice which we found in STET.

Almost twenty years after its creation, STET Magazine is today in the archives of many universities like Princeton and Harvard. It is a testament to the poignant necessity of free expression. It is a reaffirmation of the universality of art in its most authentic form.

After STET, we grew apart. I was the poet, José was the photographer and Raul was the painter.

Today Raul is a college professor, I am a high school teacher, and José a well-known photographer and graphic artist. But our essence and our love for the art of writing, painting and photography hasn’t dwindled. Even though I haven’t seen them in years, I know we share the same passion: Art.

After almost two decades, I am looking forward to seeing my friends again on December 4, 2009 in Raúl’s exhibit with the satisfaction that we prevailed the snow and the hunger of Exile.

I encourage all art lovers to join me at the QbaVa Gallery on 508 42nd Street in Union City on December 4th to celebrate Raul Villarreal’s considerable talent.

Castro's sister says she collaborated with CIA

The RSVP Network — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:20:20 +0000

FILE – In a Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006 file photo, Juanita Castro, the sister of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, talks to reporters about her brother in Miami. Castro, 76, Fidel Castro’s younger sister, told Univision’s WLTV-23 station in Miami late Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 that she collaborated with the CIA in 1964 following the Cuban revolution. She said she initially supported her brother’s 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly became disillusioned by the revolution’s vast number of executions and rampant expropriation of private property. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

via The Associated Press: Castro’s sister says she collaborated with CIA.

Castro’s sister says she collaborated with CIA

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ (AP)

MIAMI — One of Fidel Castro’s sisters says in a memoir released Monday that she collaborated with the CIA against her brother, starting shortly after the United States’ failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

Juanita Castro, 76, initially supported her brother’s 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned. In a Spanish-language memoir published by Santillana USA and co-written by journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961.

By then, her house had already become a sanctuary for anti-communists, and Fidel Castro had warned her about getting involved with the “gusanos,” or worms, as those who opposed the revolution were called.

Castro said in the book, “My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story,” that she traveled to Mexico City under the pretense of visiting her younger sister Enma. There she also secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as “Enrique” at the elegant Camino Real hotel.

A spokesman for the CIA in Langley, Va., declined to comment on Castro’s account.

Castro said that during the hotel meeting, she expressed her concerns that those who supported Batista’s overthrow but were not communists were being pushed out of the new government. Castro writes she agreed to help the CIA gather information but refused to accept money for her efforts and said she wanted no part in any violence.

“I want to be very clear that agreeing to collaborate with you does not signify that I will participate in any violent activity against my brother, nor any official in the regime,” she told the agent. “This is my most important condition. And moreover, I would say it is the only condition.”

“Enrique,” whom Castro says she later learned was a CIA officer in Cuba named Tony Sforza, then asked her to smuggle messages, documents and money back into the country hidden in canned goods.

He told Castro she would receive information through shortwave radio communications. Castro chose a waltz and a song from the opera Madame Butterfly as the signals her handlers would use to let her know if they had information for her.

Castro said she remained on the island while her mother was alive, believing she was protected from the full wrath of Fidel. Her mother died in 1963 and she fled Cuba the following year, eventually settling into a quiet life in Miami, where she ran a pharmacy until 2007 and is generally well regarded by other Cuban exiles.

Fidel, she wrote, was not initially a hard-line communist like their brother Raul and fellow revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, but that Fidel turned to communism to maintain power. Juanita Castro said she tried to help many people who initially supported the revolution only to be ousted in the new regime’s initial purges.

“My brothers could ignore what I did — or appear to ignore it — so as not to hurt my mom, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have problems … everything was becoming more dangerously complicated” after her mother’s death, Castro writes.

Juanita Castro had to get help from Raul — to whom she was much closer than Fidel — in getting a visa to leave Cuba. They have not seen each other since June 18, 1964, the day before she left the country.

When she first arrived in the U.S., many exiles considered Castro a communist spy. She later helped found a CIA-backed nonprofit organization that worked against Cuba’s government.

Under President Richard Nixon, CIA officers told her they were no longer going to support the underground fight against Castro because it negatively affected U.S.-Soviet relations. Castro said the CIA wanted her to start making statements that communism in Latin America was no longer a threat.

At that point she broke off with the agency.

Castro’s sister says she collaborated with CIA
The Associated Press – 8 hours ago
Fidel Castro’s sister testifies in plot to assassinate him
CDInsight – 7 hours ago
I WORKED FOR CIA
Javno.hr – 12 hours ago
More coverage (62) »

Grupo humanitario del exilio cubano presenta plan de ayuda a pueblo hondureño

Rafael Martel — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:27:56 +0000

EFE~Una organización humanitaria del exilio cubano en Miami anunció hoy que elaboró un plan de asistencia humanitaria a la población hondureña para paliar sus necesidades alimentarias.

El grupo Miami Medical Team, con el respaldo de la Asamblea de la Resistencia, que agrupa a más de 50 organizaciones del exilio y la oposición interna cubana, espera poder trasladar pronto al país centroamericano alimentos que sirvan para paliar sus “limitaciones”.

El objetivo es “recolectar alimentos como aceite y granos y enviarlos a Honduras”, dijo a Efe Ángel Desfana, director del grupo Plantados, quien señaló que los hondureños sufren los efectos de las “sanciones” que les ha impuesto la comunidad internacional.

“Creemos que debemos ayudar al pueblo hondureño” en estos momentos tan difíciles, subrayó Desfana, al tiempo que manifestó que la Asamblea de la Resistencia apoya al Gobierno interino hondureño, que “es un Gobierno constitucional y está respetando la ley y evitando que ese país caiga en una dictadura”.

Con la iniciativa “Salvemos Honduras” queremos también mostrar “nuestra solidaridad en apoyo al pueblo hondureño, a su democracia y a las elecciones en libertad del próximo 29 de noviembre”, indicó Sylvia Iriondo, presidenta de M.A.R. por Cuba.

El plan llevará a Honduras, además de todo tipo de granos y aceite, equipo médico, artículos de primera necesidad y medicinas, agregó Iriondo.

El día destinado para la recogida de alimentos será el próximo 24 de octubre y se realizará en varios puntos ubicados en la ciudad de Miami.

Cuban Prisoner of Conscience Enters Fourth Week on Hunger Strike!

Rafael Martel — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:57:30 +0000

Las Tunas, Cuba. August 19, 2009. Cuban Democratic Directorate. A hunger strike launched by two Cuban prisoners of conscience has entered its fourth week, sources on the island reported. Additionally, the sister of one of the prisoners has begun her own hunger strike in solidarity.

José Daniel Ferrer García and Alfredo Domínguez Batista, who were imprisoned by the Communist regime during the Black Spring crackdown of 2003, launched the hunger strike to protest against arbitrary measures and mistreatment against them by prison authorities. Domínguez Batista was moved to a rural prison called El Potosí on August 14th, where his wife Melba Santana Ariz was able to see him and confirm he had ended his strike. Ferrer García, however, remains in an isolation cell in El Típico Provincial Prison in Las Tunas province as of this writing.

Ana Belkis Ferrer García, José Daniel’s sister, declared her own strike on August 13th, after going before provincial authorities to demand respect for her brother’s rights. Currently, Ana Belkis is carrying out her hunger strike in the city of Santiago, but is out of contact. Her telephone service has been cut off, as well as that of Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva from the Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs of Cuba. Gonzalez Leiva and the Council have been following José Daniel’s case closely.

Read full story here

Lea más sobre este tema aquí.

The Real Che Guevara

welcometothedarkside — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:49:39 +0000

The Reat Che Guevara

Let me start by saying that I utterly despise Che Guevara and everyone who worhsips him.

Lets talk about the ‘real’ Che Guevara. Guevara remains a hated figure among many in the Cuban exile community, who view him with animosity as “the butcher of La Cabana. In January 1959, rebels led by Che Guevara captured La Cabaña and used it as a headquarters for several months while leading the Cuban revolution. During his five-month tenure in that post (January 2 through June 12, 1959), Guevara oversaw the revolutionary tribunals and executions of suspected war criminals, traitors, chivatos (informants), and former members of Batista’s secret police.

This was basically a purge of anyone who opposed the Cuban Revolution. This is were it gets personal as my family had to flee the oncoming purges of Batista military officers and we lost friends and family in the revolution.

He was a spokesman for a failed ideology and was a ruthless executioner. It has been theorized that in much of Latin America, Che-inspired revolutions had the practical result of reinforcing brutal militarism and internecine conflict for many years.

I despise all of you who think its cool to wear Che Guevara clothing or hang posters…etc. Its not trendy…its not hip…it makes me want to punch you in the face. There is really only two choices here…

(1) You have no idea what Che Guevara really did and stands for and you do it to be cool. You’re an ignorant ass clown. Way to venerate a man who slaughtered people for opposing his revolution. I’m not sure you even count as human beings.

(2) You actually know what Che did and still venerate him. These people are the worst. I reserve my must vile, vitriolic words for these communist bastards. I would say round you all up and execute you, but that would make me a hypocrite. So I just mock you every time you show up.

I take it as a personal affront every time I see one of you assclowns with your che gear. If you’re too ignorant or stupid to know better, please take it off and stop being a raging idiot. If you’re a sympathizer please move to China or Cuba and let me know how that works out for you.

The only thing that cures me of this raging hatred for your kind is this picture of your heroes corpse. I think I am going to make shirts and posters out of it.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB232/che-corpse.jpg

Cuban Culture in Manhattan: Orishas is back in New York!

Rafael Martel — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:24:17 +0000

The Latin-Grammy winning group ORISHAS is back in NY for an intimate, exclusive concert at the Home of Universal Music, SOBs. On Thursday, June 25th, Orishas, the Cuban hip-hop band with an international following, returns to SOBs for their only NY show of 2009.

Orishas emigrated from Cuba early in their career, but Havana’s influence is clearly evident in their music. They gained notoriety in Cuba for addressing the social and racial problems of Havana with their music. To many in their native Cuba the group was seen as much needed social commentators. They left Cuba for Spain where they recorded their first album A Lo Cubano, in 1999, which was met with widespread critical acclaim. The album allowed them to tour for over 2 years around the world.

In 2001, they released their second album, Emigrante. Emigrante featured the best Cuban musicians as well as several collaborations with French DJs and artists. Mario Rodriquez who has worked with Notorious Big, Public Enemy and many others guided the mixing.

¡Grandioso Desfile Cubano 2009 en Hudson County!

Rafael Martel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:11:52 +0000

Photos: Rafael Martel, Idania Martel, and Enrique Acosta

Acabamos de asistir a la parada cubana de mayor asistencia que jamás hallamos visto en la historia de la comunidad cubana en Hudson County. Aqui en esta primera foto vemos al Senador Estatal de New Jersey y alcalde de Union City, Brian Stack; al Senador Bob Menendez (D-NJ) y a la Asambleista Estatal, Caridad Rodríguez, quienes desfilaron ante multitudes que abarrotaban las aceras de North Bergen, Union City y West New York para celebrar la herencia y las contribuciones de nuestra comunidad a Los Estados Unidos. El espíritu y la presencia del cubano se hicieron hoy presentes como nunca se había visto en los casi 40 años que hemos residido en este condado, que nos acogió, nos dio la bienvenida y al que hemos dado nuestro esfuerzo y nuestro duro trabajo en 50 años de exilio.

El Médico del Año de la Parada Cubana de Hudson County y líder de West New York, Dr. Félix Roque saluda al pueblo que le manifiesta su afecto y su esperanza en ser el próximo alcalde de esta ciudad con una importante comunidad hispana. A la izquierda de Roque, el Capitán de la Policía de West New York, Donald Gribben, Dr. Count Weily. Dr. Roque, su futura esposa Liusda Pérez y la líder comuntaria y futura comisionada de West New York, Clara Herrera.

La bandera cubana ondea su orgullo y sus colores en la Avenida Bergenline y la calle 78 el 30 de mayo del 2009, en la Parada Cubana del condado de Hudson. Rafaelmartel.com continuará un reportaje exclusivo y especial por los próximos días sobre este gran evento para la comunidad cubana esperando llegar a través del mundo a nuestros hermanos por medio de nuestro site.

Bello primer plano de Synphoni López mientras lleva la bandera cubana. Los cubanos mantienen una fuerte tradición de mantener su orgullo y sus raíces, asi sus hijos sienten el orgullo de su herencia cubana aunque, nacidos en este gran país, crecen y se superan con una fuerte identidad estadounidense.

Joe y Caridad Rodríguez, dos cubanazos. Caridad Rodríguez es Asambleista Estatal de New Jersey, su esposo Joe Rodríguez en un amigo personal y un hombre trabajador, honesto, buen padre, buen amigo. Los dos representan lo mejor de la comunidad, no sólo cubana sino hispana de Los Estados Unidos. A su lado está el primer Freeholder dominicano en el condado de Hudson; Tilo Rivas y su esposa. Tilo Rivas es comisionado de la ciudad de Union City, en el plano personal es también un amigo, un hombre dedicado a la comunidad, sincero, discreto, eficaz, leal y dispuesto siempre a defender los derechos de los residentes a los que tan bien representa. Los dos compartimos las batallas políticas de Brian Stack, el mejor alcalde que jamás haya tenido Union City. Más que una foto este es un cuadro de honor, honran nuestra página.

Chris and Diane LoPinto have been leading the efforts against over development in West New York for the last 4 years. They are leaders in their own right, now they have joined the leadership of Dr. Roque’s organization Together We Can. They support the recall efforts of Dr. Felix Roque against the current administration in West New York. Today they marched at the Parada Cubana de Hudson. Thank you guys! Today you are also Cubans!

Cien por ciento cubana Isabel Díaz posa con el Dr. Félix Roque y el Dr. Count Weily, líderes de la organización Together We Can frente al restaurante más popular de Union City: Pan Con Todo. Fue un día donde los cubanos, unidos a todas las comunidades, dejaron sentir su orgullo y su dignidad patria, aún lejos y muchos años alejados de su tierra esclava por la plaga comunista.

La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, Patrona de Cuba, hace sentir su presencia en La Parada Cubana de Hudson County en este inolvidable 31 de mayo del 2009 ante miles de cubanos que abarrotaron las calles de las ciudades de North Bergen, West New York y Union City celebrando la herencia y las contribuciones de la comunidad cubana a Los Estados Unidos.

El doctor Félix Roque, líder de West New York, responde al cariño de su pueblo en la Parada Cubana de Hudson County. Cientos de hispanos de todas las nacionalidades y edades vitorearon a la esperanza de West New York: Félix Roque.

Mi amigo Eugene Vazquez, fundador del desfile, posa junto a Hansen y Raúl, invitados especiales del Desfile Cubano de New jersey en el día más cubano en el noroeste de Estados Unidos.

Uno de los líderes de Juntos Podemos, organización fundada por el Dr. Felix Roque, Héctor Vega, saluda al público en La Parada Cubana de Hudson County el 31 de mayo del 2009 en West New York.

Los líderes de la organización Together We Can de West New York Evelio Maradiaga y la futura comisionada, Clara Herrera, posan antes la cámara de Rafaelmartel.com en el día de La parada Cubana de Hudson County junto a Roxana Maradiaga, cubanísima hija de Evelio y Sandra Maradiaga.

Dr. Felix Roque, Dr. Count Weily and Hector Vega march on The Hudson County Cuban Parade on May 31, 2009.

Union City Police Department Lt. Nichelle Luster, a great police officer, with the Cuban community on this special day. Union City First!

Cardenense hasta la médula. mi amigo Rudy posa ante nuestras cámaras, siempre orgulloso de ser cubano. Rudy es otro de los líderes de la gran organización del alcalde Brian Stack, Union City First

As he enters a Free and Truly Democratic Union City, Dr. Felix Roque, the next mayor of West New York is greeted by one of Union City’s Finest. Dr. Roque is well known for his support of Police Departments. He has pledge full support for the WNY Police Department once he’s mayor and he has offered bullet proof vests to both the Union City and The West New York Police Departments and he has also offered Mayor Stack to place cameras on 45 St. in full cooperation with the UCPD.

Roxana Maradiaga displays her Cuban Pride, carrying the Cuban flag from 79 St. to 43 St. on Cuban Day Parade. She is the daughter of one of the leaders of Dr. Roque’s TOGETHER WE CAN, the Captain Evelio Maradiaga. TOGETHER WE CAN seeks the liberation of West New York by way of democratic elections.

Fundadores del Desfile Cubano de New Jersey: Eugene Vazquez y Emilio del Valle. Hicieron posible este exitoso desfile que no ha tenido precedentes en cuanto al número de asistentes y la organización en el estado de New Jersey. Eugene se gradruó conmigo de Sara M. Gilmore High School y posteriormente del legendario Emerson High School. Hoy es un conocido hombre de negocios y unificador de los cubanos en New Jersey. Como parte de mi generación me siento orgulloso de él aunque soy mucho más joven y mejor parecido. Emilo es un asistente personal del alcalde Brian P. Stack y político en Hudson County. Los felicito a los dos por este desfile y por los logros alcanzados.

Union City Assistant Superintendent of Schools Silvia Abbato, US Senator Bob Menendez, UC School Principal Adriana Birne, and our very own Assemblywoman Caridad Rodriguez, show their Cuban Pride at The Parada Cubana de Hudson.

Nj Senator and Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack and US Senator Bob Menendez with a group of officials who supported the Cuban community with their presence on Sunday, May 31 2009. Among other leaders we recognize Hudson County Freeholder Muñoz, Assemblywoman Caridad Rodriguez, and two of the most recognizable and loved commissioners of Brian Stack’s Union City First. Tilo Rivas and Margery Martinelli.

Olguita Gil y el matrimonio Penate en el Desfile Cubano de New Jersey.

Y no se pierda el primer número de la revista que romperá barreras en New Jersey: Professional Latino, con un artículo sobre el Dr. Félix Roque y las meas recientes noticias de la comunidad hispana en New Jersey, donde estamos haciendo un impacto con nuestro empuje, educación y el derecho que nos da este gran país a superarnos y a hacer sentir nuestra voz y nuestra influencia. Rafaelmartel.com les pide a nuestros lectores que no dejen de leer y apoyar a esta gran revista que romperá barreras y apoya a nuestros líderes en New jersey.

Much more about the Cuban Parade the following days on this site.

The Hypocrisy When It Comes to Cuba

Roly Masferrer — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:16:27 +0000

Nothing like throwing around the Cuba issue to get a new blog some traffic right? After reading countless articles on the Orbitz hypocrisy, I came across an interesting article in the Miami Herald that gave me an idea. The article details the EU’s upcoming review of the sanctions imposed on Cuba 2003, which came about after Cuba’s sweeping arrest of dissidents.

I think part of the problem is the Cuba debate strikes a great deal of emotion (on both sides) and it leads to emotional arguments, specifically with lifting the travel ban for Americans and the Embargo. I am fully aware the EU’s sanctions are basically a slap on the wrist, but it is obvious the Cuban Government feels strongly enough about them that they will lobby for its removal. The interesting part is the EU is asking Cuba to do three simple things:

The EU has been reviewing the relationship and set tough conditions for Havana to have better relations. These include the release of all political prisoners, unhindered access for Cubans to the Internet, and the right of EU delegations arriving in Cuba to be able to meet with opposition figures.

I can’t imagine anyone who believes and lives free can argue any of these points. Which leads me to the title of this post. Does Orbitz not realize that the very same people (Cubans on the island) they are campaigning to “help” by opening up the American travel market are denied access by the Cuban Government to the internet? In addition for argument sake, lets say a Cuban somehow gets access to the internet (as they can), they can’t just buy a ticket on Orbitz because Cubans themselves can’t travel freely. I’m sorry but that is appalling. What is more appalling is the fact that so many Americans are itching to vacation in Cuba. By going to Cuba you are basically saying you deserve your rights and freedom more than Cubans. Cubans are second class human beings that don’t deserve the same rights we do.

America protects known Terrorists all the time!

aliveandbitchin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:07:28 +0000

Terrorist protected by the U.S.

Terrorism funded by America. Ex CIA operative.

Who is Luis Posada Carriles? Why haven’t you heard his name, he was one of the men who planned and/or committed what was the largest terrorist attack in the Western hemisphere at the time. He was born on February the 15th 1928, he’s a Cuban born anti-Castro militant, and an ex-CIA operative, and he is proof of the fact that America’s Establishment doesn’t condemn terrorist activity but openly supports it. He is currently in America, whose Justice Department described as an “admitted terrorist” and is wanted for this “admitted” crime in Venezuela for plotting and planning the blowing up of Cubanna flight 455 on the sixth of October, 1976 which killed all 73 people on board.

Posada was part of Operation 40, an undercover operation set up in March 1960 by President Eisenhower, and his vice president Nixon. The main body of people involved were a group of KNOWN terrorists including Frank Sturgis, a Watergate burglar, Orlando Bosch the founder of C.O.R.U.a group described by the FBI as “an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella group” . Posada allegedly also worked with Bosch on the Cubana flight 455 bombing.In addition to which CORU organised the car bombing assassination of former Chilean minister and activist Orlando Letelier in Washington, it was set up by Augusto Pinochet’s secret police for whom Michael Townley worked and coordinated the bombing with Posada and Bosch. The U.S made no bones about hiring this crook and the list of other sto do it’s work. Barry Seal, a drug smuggler, who was eventually assassinated and informant also worked on Operation 40; the list of crooks goes on and on.

Barry Seal after his murder by shotgun.

So why does America employ villains with the aim of eradicating villains? Because its aim is not eradicating them, it’s controlling them and letting them carry on in their work as long as it profits American interests. Its obvious, a group of militants or a government is doing something to benefit itself and not America, and America hires another group of militants/terrorists to kill them, thus replacing them with “friendly,useful” terrorists.

Venezuela has persistently called for his extradition and he is currently fighting it in court, the Supreme court. Posada was arrested in released in 2005 for illegal presence in the United States. However in 2007 an American judge released him, he is now fighting extradition and trying to claim asylum in the US, who say he may be tortured if sent to Venezuela. Strange how Extraordinary Rendition (State sanctioned kidnapping) flights are flying people quietly all over the world to be tortured in Egypt, Pakistan and various other places, and yet when a terrorist whose terror attacks and civilian bombings agree with America’s foreign policy is sought to be put on trial for the very things America has launched a war on, namely terrorism, they get on their high horse about his protection from torture! Doesn’t America torture it’s terror “suspects”, set aside those who it finds guilty? And on much flimsier evidence? Was Abu Ghraib torture prison for the tried and convicted? No it wasn’t, the people in that prison were never charged, but they were raped and beaten, they were sexually abused and made to sexually abuse each other, in other words : tortured. Who is America to act squeamish in the face of “possible” torture? We hung Saddam publicly and with no dignity what so ever, America isn’t against torture and it’s a matter of public record. Posada is the proof that shows America’s illegal ambitions will be protected even in the face of international condemnation and even simple morality. To say that a man who has killed by his own admisssion should be spared ill treatment is contradictory to America’s own policy of “interrogation techniques”.

A strike for freedom at Pittsburgh's PNC Park

emsworth — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:45:05 +0000

For some reason, the major league pitching debut of Yoslan Herrera last Saturday evening (July 12),

Was it an Embarrassing Decision?

ticosland — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:30:47 +0000

The European Union eliminated sanctions against the Raul Castro regime, but with strong conditions with regards to human rights.

However, the exiled Cuban opposition groups consider the European Union’s decision to eliminate diplomatic sanctions imposed on the Castro regime in 2003 does not correspond to the repressive reality that Cubans live and is actually in response to the Spanish government’s diplomatic work in favor of the oldest totalitarian dictatorship in the American Continent.

The opposition groups consider it embarrassing for the Rodriguez Zapatero government to lend services of this nature to the dictatorial regime of the Castro brothers, while thousand of people are assaulted, arrested and incarcerated in subhuman conditions daily and arbitrarily for expressing their ideas and demanding universally recognized rights. A government that utilizes torture and intimidation as a systematic means of maintaining its power can not be legitimized by the world’s democratic governments.

What would the Spanish Socialists, who are in power today, have thought of a democratic government in the 70’s, just before Franco’s death, when repression in Spain was intensifying, is said government had dedicated its diplomacy to diminishing diplomatic and political pressure against the Franco dictatorship?

NO CHANGE

The exiled opposition agree with the internal opposition forces that affirm that Cuba under the Raul Castro regime has made no real changes which could lead to urgent transformation political, economic and social realms which the Cuban nation needs and awaits.

The exiled opposition is thankful for the solidarity expressed by the Swedish and Czech Republic governments and others that defended the right of the Cuban people to live freely and democratically. The were able to include a series of conditions directed at the Castro regime which call for the unconditional release of political prisoners and respect to human rights on the island, as well as calling for the regime to abide by two international conventions recently signed regarding civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

COSTA RICA

Notwithstanding, Costa Rica seems to be on its way to establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. There is no official information, only versions supplied by functionaries who are tied to foreign affairs. At TicosLand we ask ourselves, does it go against our democratic and pacifist principles to establish diplomatic relations with a totalitarian dictatorship? Well, Costa Rica broke off relations with Taiwan in order to establish relations with China. It would not be the first time our government has acted contrary to what it preaches.

Jaime Bayly rails against Obama in Miami

Zegri — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:59:43 +0000

Miami based Peruvian talk show host Jaime Bayly has begun an attack campaign against American presid

The Guantanamo 6 Found Guilty on all Charges

noorslist — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:40:13 +0000

The Guantanamo Six; George Bush Dick Cheney Donald Rumsfeld Paul Wolfowitz Alberto Gonzales Rudy Gui

The War Against Castro Is NOT Over

New Frontier — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:47:29 +0000

AMERICAN TERRORISTS: “THIS IS HEZBOLLAH IN FLORIDA”

Think the U.S.’s secret war against Fidel Castro ended 40 years ago? Think again.

On this week’s Ring of Fire radio show, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. interviewed Joe Conason of the Nation Institute about an explosive investigative report which recently appeared in Salon on the terrorist training camp in South Florida known as Alpha 66.

Conason (also a longtime friend of Bobby’s) explained how Alpha 66 has been allowed to operate and engage in Operation Mongoose-type mischief against Cuba since 1961, even though the U.S. government supposedly abandoned such activities during the Kennedy administration. The truth of the matter, as this article details, is quite another story.

Here is an excerpt from Salon.com:

(At the entrance to the Alpha 66 training camp outside Miami. Image by Dando Valle.)

The “Terrorists” of South Florida

Anti-Castro Cuban exiles who have been linked to bombings and assassinations are living free in Miami. Does the U.S. government have a double standard when it comes to terror?

Editor’s note: Research support was provided by the Puffin Foundation Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute.

By Tristram Korten and Kirk Nielsen

Jan. 14, 2008 | OUTSIDE MIAMI, Fla. — On a hot subtropical Sunday, deep in the humid brush bordering the Everglades west of Miami, Osiel Gonzalez squints down the worn barrel of an AK-47 rifle and squeezes the trigger. With a crack and kick the bullet whizzes over a field of neatly trimmed grass and hits a human silhouette on a paper target 40 yards away.

Gonzalez wipes the sweat off his brow and smiles. Perspiration stains the neck and armpits of his camouflage jacket. All around him are men in fatigues, some flat-bellied on the grass shooting rounds, others cleaning their weapons or picking through ammunition boxes. The air is thick with cigar smoke. At age 71, Gonzalez is still one of the best marksmen at this training camp for Alpha 66, the paramilitary Cuban exile group formed in 1961 “with the intention of making commando type attacks on Cuba,” as the organization’s Web site baldly puts it. Gonzalez hopes to put his skills to use when the second revolution comes, the one that will tear his homeland free from the grip of communist dictator Fidel Castro. At that point Gonzalez hopes to have a Cuban soldier in his sights, not a paper silhouette.

Plans to attack Cuba are constantly being hatched in South Florida. Over the years militant exiles have been linked to everything from downing airliners to hit-and-run commando raids on the Cuban coast to hotel bombings in Havana. They’ve killed Cuban diplomats and made numerous attempts on Castro’s life.

But, other than an occasional federal gun charge, nothing much seems to happen to most of these would-be revolutionaries. They are allowed to train nearly unimpeded despite making explicit plans to violate the 70-year-old U.S. Neutrality Act and overthrow a sovereign country’s government. Though separate anti-terror laws passed in 1994 and 1996 would seem to apply directly to their activities, no one has ever been charged for anti-Cuban terrorism under those laws. And 9/11 seems to have changed nothing. In the past few years in South Florida, a newly created local terrorism task force has investigated Jose Padilla and the hapless Seas of David cult, and juries have delivered mixed reviews, but no terrorism charges have been brought against anti-Castro militants. The federal government has even failed to extradite to other countries militants who are credibly accused of acts of murder. Among the most notorious is Luis Posada Carriles, wanted for bombing a Cuban jet in 1976 and Havana hotels in 1997. It is, perhaps, a testament to the power of South Florida’s crucial Cuban-American voting bloc — and the political allegiances of the current president.

In Greater Miami, home to the majority of the nation’s 1.5 million Cuban-Americans, the presence of what could credibly be described as a terrorist training camp has become an accepted norm during the half-century of the anti-Castro Cuban diaspora. Alpha 66 and numerous other paramilitary groups — Comandos F4, Brigade 2506, Accion Cubana — are so common they’ve taken on the benign patina of Rotary Clubs with weapons.

But Alpha 66 members are eager to remind you that even if they are graying and prosperous they are not toothless old tigers. Their Web site boasts that “in recent years” they’ve sabotaged Cuba’s tourist economy by attacking hotels in the beach resort of Caya Coco. At the group’s headquarters in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, the walls are hung with the portraits of dozens of men who have died on Alpha 66 missions.

To reach Alpha 66’s South Florida camp you have to drive to the farmlands west of Miami’s sprawl, then wait for a guide. You follow the guide down a winding, pitted dirt road for a few miles until you get to a gate and a yellow watchtower hung with an old-fashioned school bell. Behind a wall of trees and shrubs is a compound that looks like a hunting lodge. A low-slung wood-plank bunker with a deck and awning provides refuge from the sun.

Before hitting the range, the men — there are no women here today — had done maneuvers, marching in double file around the field, while a short, barrel-chested former Cuban army officer named Ivan Ayala barked directions: “Columna izquierda!” Many of the aging, uniformed men laboring to make it around the field are veterans of the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and alumni of Castro’s jails. Some, like Osiel Gonzalez, even fought alongside Castro against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, before Castro’s turn toward communism. Most, if you believe them, have a “commando” mission or two with Alpha under their belts — landing on a remote beach and burning sugar cane fields, or strafing a shoreline with machine-gun fire. In other words, they’ve walked the walk of counterrevolutionary violence, even if it’s now reduced to a shuffle.

They deny they have anything in common with the militants hiding in the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan. “No, we are not terrorists,” says Gonzalez, the second-in-command and a co-founder of the group who, when he is not donning fatigues and shouldering a rifle, is a financial consultant. “We don’t want to kill civilians.”

“Our goal is to free our country for our children and grandchildren,” drawls Al Bacallao, who has already retreated to the porch’s shade behind Gonzalez and the shooting range. The 61-year-old Bacallao was raised in Georgia after arriving from Cuba at age 8, and is the rare Cuban exile with a Southern twang. “The United States fought for its liberty, why can’t we?”

But Alpha members may have a fluid definition of what a civilian is. Raking the coast with .50-caliber machine-gun fire certainly does not exclude civilian casualties, nor does attacking tourist spots. By his own admission, Bacallao, who joined Alpha 66 23 years ago, has gone on several missions to Cuba. In 1993 U.S. authorities arrested him and a boatload of other men setting out for the island.

…”Let me tell you, we were treated like animals,” he says. “And all we were trying to do was liberate our country.”

But if he was treated like an animal, he is not in a cage. Federal prosecutors charged him and his companions with illegal weapons possession but a judge dismissed the case against most of the men, and a jury found the rest not guilty. Like other anti-Castro exiles before him, despite violent acts he is free to continue reporting to the training camp, and free to continue preparing for counter-revolution.

…Judy Orihuela, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Miami office, insists the agency will investigate any group that intends to violate U.S. law and poses a violent threat. At the Department of Justice in Washington, Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the national security division, rejects the notion that federal law enforcement shows leniency toward exile militants. Boyd maintains the DOJ would never attempt to influence a local case for political reasons and is blind to community or political pressure. “We pursue charges based on the evidence, not on other considerations,” he says.

“That’s sheer bullshit,” counters Wayne Smith, who was chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1979 to 1982, making him the de facto U.S. ambassador to Havana. Smith, who now runs the Cuba Program at the D.C.-based Center for International Policy, invokes the names of two of the most notorious Cuban exiles to argue that the U.S. does, in fact, play favorites. “We are certainly not applying these laws objectively in the case of Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch and a whole lot of others who have been involved in terrorist activities. We say that countries must take action against terrorists, but we’re clearly not. And I think it’s because we’re sympathetic to their actions.”

At the beginning of Castro’s reign, the U.S. was more than sympathetic to the militant exiles. In the 1960s, the U.S. government actively encouraged and supported anti-Castro violence, including the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. “Throughout most of the 1960s, rolling back the Cuban revolution through violent exile surrogates remained a top U.S. priority,” says Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive and a specialist on U.S. policy toward Cuba. With exile involvement, the U.S. government made numerous attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro between 1961 and 1975, though the number cited in the title of the British documentary “638 Ways to Kill Castro” may be an exaggeration. Many anti-Castro Cubans went to work for U.S. intelligence and compiled long résumés of covert activity. In the 1980s, some assisted with the Reagan administration’s covert effort to arm the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Cuban-American entanglement with the CIA eventually bled into U.S. politics; two of the five “plumbers” who broke into the Democratic Party’s national headquarters at the Watergate in 1972 were Cuban-American. Tolerance for anti-Castro militancy, meanwhile, also had domestic consequences. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s and into the ’80s, exiles carried out dozens of bombings and assassinations in Miami and other American cities, targeting people they deemed too accommodating to the Castro government.

…Still, however, the militants continued to train within the borders of the U.S., and to amass weaponry. Retired Army Col. Larry Wilkerson remembers attending briefings during Caribbean war game exercises from 1992 to 1997 where he learned of the exiles’ capabilities. “We would always be fed this intelligence and I was astounded at how many suspected caches of arms they had access to not just in Florida, but in California, New Jersey and other places; light machine guns, grenades, C4, dynamite, all manner of side arms and long arms,” recalls Wilkerson, who was former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005. “It was a veritable terrorist haven. This is Hezbollah in Florida, if you’re looking at it through Havana’s eyes.”

Story continues here. Read it and forward the link to your friends.

Socialism and Free Speech

magzalez — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:39:24 +0000

I’m back a little earlier than expected because I read something today in The Miami Herald that sparked my interest, “Pro-Chávez lawmaker slaps journalist.” For those of you who don’t know, Hugo Chávez is the president of Venezuela.

Now for a little exposition: Last year, I was told to write a critique of a Flash package for my Advanced Online Media Production class taught by none other than Mindy McAdams. Let me say, this is in no way a criticism toward McAdams, only an observation I have seen in college from more than one professor. McAdams has been the most helpful and genuine professor I have had in all my studies at the University of Florida. I think this is why she had no reservations giving me her opinions and true thoughts on the subject. But it is also the reason why I have thought so long and hard about what she told me.

I decided to do my critique on a very interesting piece by The Miami Herald called “On the trail of Che.” That is of course a reference to Ernesto “Che” Guevara, long-gone, long-heralded revolutionary. It was told through the eyes of former diplomats and CIA agents who vocally oppose the ideas of Che Guevara. Take a look at the story for yourself to gather your own opinions.

McAdams liked the package and the critique. She thought it was a great piece of Flash production, but she called into question the journalism. This is what she wrote on her del.icio.us account about it:

Long video, well produced; excellent gallery of 34 photos; text story, not overlong. Beautiful package design. This is the main feature of interest here, although the story provides fascinating propaganda for the exiles of Cuba…

Now to tie the piece about Che and the story about the lady that attacked the journalist together. I do indeed see a bias here. The Cuban-exile community, and now the Venezuelan-exile community, makes up a significant number of the Miami (city or county) population. These are the people that the newspaper is writing for. It’s not to say that the newspaper should cater to the people, because sometimes the people need to hear things they don’t want to. But it all goes back to writing with confidence and assertion.

The journalists at The Miami Herald aren’t throwing out propaganda to their readers when they criticize the Venezuelan and Cuban governments. They are writing with assertion and confidence, retelling through an analysis of a new event the experiences they have had in countries that no longer value freedom of speech or freedom of the press.

I noticed that The Miami Herald was the only newspaper that I could easily find that at least posted this AP story from Caracas, Venezuela online. I’m sure that the TV stations in Miami were among the few that aired the video. Were other more “liberal” newspapers turning a blind eye, or do they just not care? Honestly, the news probably wouldn’t have caught the eye of many other newspapers’ markets.

I often wonder what professors are thinking when they talk about “conservative views” in The Miami Herald—which true Cuban-exiles like my uncle, my grandfather, etc. actually consider The Miami Herald “basura esquierdista” or leftist trash. Perception is relative.

So yes, I understand that a pro-Castro, pro-socialism, pro-Chávez individual might discard such news stories as biased garbage, but it all goes back to one major criticism that I have of the Castro government, and now more and more the Chávez government; how can any journalist not be at least slightly biased against a place where there is no freedom of speech? How can you support a government that spits in the eye of the truest of the core values of your profession? Doesn’t the term “liberal” mean valuing the rights of the individual?

Thoughts? Comments? Is anyone from The Miami Herald willing to defend their paper?

I once wrote to the editor in charge of the Che story and asked him what he thought about this very subject. He never got back to me. I guess he didn’t care what people think, but I certainly do. That’s why I’m asking these questions.

Here is a video of the Venezuelan lawmaker’s attack. I had to get a video in Spanish because the only one I could find in English was made by Fox News, and I don’t want you to get the wrong impression.

Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire

bookgoddess — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:04:26 +0000

When I was in the fourth grade in Catholic school in Miami Beach, we were joined by a number of students, mostly girls, who had recently arrived from Cuba with their families. We knew there had been a coup in Cuba, and pretty soon we were to be frightened by Soviet missiles that were way too close for comfort. We even knew that these new arrivals had left a beautiful homeland, and that many of them had been forced to abandon family, wealth, and property.

But it was impossible for us to fully understand the trauma of being an exile. And one of the reasons we read is to try to understand our fellow human beings a little better. Carlos Eire offers us a look into the heart and mind of one exile in Waiting for Snow in Havana.

As the son of a judge, Carlos led a privileged life in pre-Castro Cuba. His father was a creative, eccentric character who believed he was the reincarnation of Louis XVI. While the sons of the family enjoy a carefree, rough and tumble boyhood, Eire makes us aware that other members of Cuban society were not so fortunate.

After Castro took power, thousands of children were sent to foster families in the United States in a program called “Operation Pedro Pan.” Carlos and his brother Tony were two of those children. One day, they would be reunited with their mother, but never their father. Carlos would go on to become a university professor. But the legacy of his childhood remains.

The book is a remarkable portrait of a vanished world, of how we deal with loss, of love between parents and children. Eire’s worldview is spiritual and metaphoric, while his descriptions are earthy and vivid.

This beautifully written narrative gives us a glimpse of a human soul. I highly recommend it to you!

Tina Maura Albee

The Book Goddess

P.S. We’ll be discussing this book(which won the National Book Award) at the Second Saturday Book Club on Saturday, August 11 at the West Palm Beach Public Library at 10:30 a.m. Please join us!

On Jorge Reyes

Jorge Reyes — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:55:58 +0000

Jorge Reyes has always been on the sidelines of literature. In a relatively, yet not unsuccessful writing career, Reyes set a mark for himself early in life when he demonstrated an uncommon ability to write across a wide range of genres, subject-themes, and topics. He’s never been afraid to try his hands at something unexpected– whether this is a poem, a kid’s book on the human anatomy, a memoir about his childhood living in Cuba, or even topics of which most writers with Reyes’s experience would only dream writing about. And while he recreates a world of filled with the imagination of a boy with a terminal disease, or a simple poem about a love-thorn experience, or enter the mind of a serial killer– Reyes seems to find his double by entering anyone’s mind, regardless of whether or not the double is likeable, memorable, sympathetic, or its very opposite.

Surprisingly, though there’s a wide collection of writings, both published and unpublished, done by Reyes in more than a decade of writing, very little is known about him. And those who know him can’t even begin to understand what his writing interests might be since Reyes talks almost nothing about his books to those closest to him.

Born in the eastern part of Santiago de Cuba in 1971, Reyes was raised to the age of eight in the small town of Boniato, on the outskirts of Santiago. Most of what we know about this period in Reyes’s life was written by Reyes himself in his most enduring book thus far, “Rediscovering Cuba: A Personal Memoir”, which he wrote as a result of a trip he took in order to be able to see the remaining last days of his beloved grandmother, who was dying of a rare form of lymphatic cancer.

Rediscovering Cuba set out the mark that has made Reyes an independent thinker, something for which his writings are known. Often, he has demonstrated this independence in highly embattled personal essays, such as when he seeks to find a middle-way in often controversial topics. Of most memorable are a few essays published in the Miami Herald in which he questions both the wisdom and the narrow-mindedness of his own Cuban-American community in trying to isolate Cuba for the duration of almost four decades only to fall prey into the hands of the man Cuban-Americans hate the most– Fidel Castro.