Oh those arrogant thick headed liberals
A church group from Portland is denied entry by Cuban authorities, detained, and sent back to Mexico and whom do they blame? Not the Stalinist regime responsible, but the unfortunate American held in a Cuban prison accused of trying to “destabilize” said regime. How rude! After all, this church group loves Cuba; they’ve never had a problem in the past.
Pssst! Guess what useful idiot Americans; you’ve been used by the dictator. How does it feel?
The brief detention in Havana, Cuba, last week of a Portland, Oregon, church group comes on the heels of the detention of an American contractor and could indicate an increasingly chilly reception for some American visitors, according to the church travelers.
The December 26 trip for 14 members of the First Unitarian Church of Portland is a reminder of the entrenched tensions between Cuba and the United States despite the Obama administration's loosening of previous restrictions.
The church group was traveling on a U.S.-issued license and planned to do humanitarian work. The group was denied entry to Cuba. Part of the group spent the night detained inside the Havana airport before being put on a plane to Mexico, the church's social justice minister, the Rev. Kate Lore, told CNN.
"I don't blame the Cuban government, or our government, but I truly believe something has to be done to normalize relations," Jones said.
The nine others who had already passed through customs faced additional questioning and were detained inside the airport overnight, Carol Slegers, who was part of that group, told CNN.
Later, it was learned that Cuban authorities considered imprisoning them, she said. Instead, they were left to find a place to sleep on the floor of the airport.
The group ended up sleeping underneath a staircase, using fabric they brought for the clothes-making project as sheets, Slegers said. The next morning, they were put on a plane to Mexico.
The Cuban officials "were rude and cold and indifferent," Slegers said. "It was very psychologically disarming."
Read the whole convoluted thing here.
Corre la bola | 
"social justice minister"
Sheesh.
I don't feel one bit sorry for what happened to them. They should have been dumped in jail so they can see what the real Cuba is like for regular Cubans.
The Loonitarians are not a real church. They're a place where liberals go for make-believe worship.
castrodeathwatch,
Exactly right. They deserved what they got. These people are not America lovers. What is it going to take to make them understand that this was a tyranny and that is how tyrannies work? This was not the fault of America, but of Cuban tyrants. What is it going to take to make those who want engagement to understand that these humanitarian gestures are not going to make matters better for anyone in Cuba?
A group of college kids went on a fourteen day trip in Europe in 1980. In order for them to get permission to continue in Germany they had to pass an East German checkpoint. The communists held the whole bus hostage for some made up bureaucratic reason and everyone on that bus felt a terror for that hour that they were never going to get out of there. That is one hour in the hands of communists. Did any of them remember that experience or learn from it? I don't think so.
What is it going to take?
WTF does normalized relations have to do with their detention? What makes these geniuses think that they would not have been detained if we were all getting along? Normalized relations would not make Cuba any less communist, totalitarian or paranoid.
Honey (It feels weird to start off calling you that without knowing you, but that's your screen name!), one of the problems with the Left is that they don't see an objective reality but rather they will twist their perception of reality to reconcile their political beliefs. That's how these Loonitarians who love the Castro dictatorship can go to Cuba, get held up by the Castro dictatorship, and instead of placing the blame where it belongs--with the Castro dictatorship--they blame America. None are so blind as those who will not see. In "Gulag Archipelago," Solzhenitsyn writes about Stalin-loving commies locked up in a gulag who cry upon hearing the news that Stalin has died. You have to be one willfully deluded individual to cry over the death of someone who torments you. But when you put politics above everything else--including your own life and the lives of others--that's what happens.
""I don't blame the Cuban government, or our government, but I truly believe something has to be done to normalize relations," Jones said."
The concept of normalizing relations with Cuba has been repeated so many times over the years that these boneheads just use it again, when the situation arises. We've all heard ad nauseam thanks to the MSM that this is the only problem that stands between Cuba and the USA. So, if you are woefully uninformed and clearly don't understand what the problem is, why not go with what's accepted by everyone? After all, it's only us, the looney fringe from the Banana Republic of Miami, that feel that tripping over the same rock for the trillionth time [i.e. engagement] is not the right way to go with Cuba. And what do we know? We just happen to come from that unfortunate country? Clearly not reason enough to believe us!
It's like asking someone to tell you about Cuba and the first thing that they will tell you [I bet you!] is that castro has done good things for Cuba's education and medicine, or that Cuba was a floating bordello in the 1950's.
It proves how successful the Cuban propaganda machine has been.
Thought some of you might be interested in this statement from the church's website regarding the incident:
Source: http://www.firstunitarianportland.org/community/social-justice
Eddy, with all due respect, the statement is the usual kool-aid fueled bullshit. Non-governmental organization in Cuba? Please.
Rayarena -
Love the illustration, tripping over a rock for the millionth time - and the church group probably wouldn't believe anyone who told 'em tripping over rocks eventually does something to one's toes, either.
Isn't denial the commies' best friend? No matter how horrible the violation, no matter how demonic the outrage, they're always trivialized as 'good intentions that didn't quite live up to potential' usually due to the falsely alleged fault of some American policy or official.
Yeah. Right. Actually, this could be blamed on Americans' actions - in the inverse.
Commies are like the devil, when they sense weakness the forge ahead. When they meet resistance they flee until a convenient time.
During the spring, didn't the congressional communist caucus visit Cuba and cozy up to fidel?
Didn't this president make huggy-wug and kissy-wiss with ooogoooo chavez and fidel at some summit conference?
Most of us realize that petting rattlesnakes not only doesn't make them nice, but it gets you bit besides.
Why don't the ones who speak of 'meaningful diplomacy' and 'dialog' and 'engagement' and all those other meaningless obnoxious commie-inspired 60s phrases understand that?
Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasoviet Key, Florida
02 January, 2010
"The usual Kool-Aid fueled bullshit." Fucking brilliant, Z!
Eddy, you are barking up the wrong tree by posting a statement by the Unitarians. If the words "social justice" appear anywhere, I think we can count on it being ideas from the left.
"Commies are like the devil, when they sense weakness the forge ahead. When they meet resistance they flee until a convenient time."
Extremely well said Mr. Zecchino, you just summarized Communism’s essence.
I can sense that you understand the Communist system extremely well and what is made off.
Ah shucks, thank you George. Actually it is the cleaned up version of what I wanted to say, but I don't want to give intransigent hardline anti-castro, right wing extremists a bad rep.